Early bird watchers get the worm? Why more young people are taking up the hobby

Calgary university student Fisher Stephenson said his mornings are often dedicated to class — and the afternoons to birding. 

"Going to lakes, or driving back roads or whatever, looking for birds. Sometimes if I'm at school and someone reports a particularly rare bird in Calgary, I'll leave to find that," Stephenson said. 

The 21-year-old recently took up bird watching, a hobby commonly thought of as a pastime for retirees. Stephenson said the outdoor hobby caught his interest when he was taking classes online during the pandemic. 

He said younger birders are often at the forefront of using group chats, social media and digital photography as a way to share and stay connected with others who are into the hobby. 

"Any of my best photos I share on Instagram … and I follow a ton of other birders and bird photographers on there," Stephenson said. 

"Some people are out there with huge cameras, huge lenses, trying to get the best shot, and other people just share the cool photos they get of birds."

Gavin McKinnon, 20, who runs tours through his company, Meadowlark Birding Tours, also fits birding in around his classes. The Lethbridge College student has been passionate about birds since he was a kid, he said, after his dad passed his passion on to him. 

McKinnon says he typically hears about rare birds through WhatsApp and Discord. 

"Which really, really connect people together and help people stay informed about what birds are being seen in the city," he said. 

The hashtag #birdwatching has generated 1.9 billion views on TikTok — and the developers of apps that aid in bird watching have seen a user boom. 

One such app is Merlin. Over the past four years, the app has seen an explosion in users, from about two million in 2020 to more than eight million in 2023. 

In Canada, app use has increased in that same time frame from 160,000 users to 710,000.

Alli Smith, Merlin project co-ordinator at the Cornell Lab, said the increase in use is in part due to the app introducing sound recognition. 

But there's also another reason — "it's becoming more of a cool thing to do," Smith said.