Fisher Stephenson Calgary university student said his mornings are frequently devoted to class — and the afternoons to birding.
Going to lakes, or driving back roads, watching for birds. Occasionally if I’m at school and someone inform regarding a particularly rare bird in Calgary, I’ll leave to find it,” Stephenson said.
The 21-year-old recently took up bird watching, a hobby normally thought of as an activity for retirees. Stephenson said the open-air hobby caught his attention when he was taking classes online during the pandemic.
He informed younger birders are regularly at the forefront of utilizing group chats, social media and digital photography as a means to share and stay linked with others who are hooked on the hobby.
Any of my greatest photos I share on Instagram … and follow many other birders and bird photographers, he informed.
There are individuals are out there with sophisticated cameras, huge lenses, trying to get the best shot, and others just share the photos they get of birds.
Gavin McKinnon, who runs excursions through his company, Meadowlark Birding Tours, also accommodate birding in around his classes. The Lethbridge College student has been passionate about birds since he was a child, he said, after his dad transferred his passion on to him.
McKinnon says he usually hears about rare birds through WhatsApp and Discord.
Which really link people together and support bird lovers stay up-to-date about what birds are being seen in the city, he said.
The hashtag #birdwatching has created 1.9 billion hits on TikTok — and the creators of apps that support in bird watching have noticed a user boom.
One commonly used app is Merlin. Over the previous four years, the app has seen a burst in users, from about two million in 2020 to more than eight million in 2023.
In Canada, app use has augmented in that same time frame from 160,000 users to 710,000.
Alli Smith, Merlin project coordinator at the Cornell Lab, said the upsurge in use is in part owing to the app announcing sound recognition.
But there’s also another reason — it’s becoming more of a cool thing to do, Smith said.
Another app frequently used by birders is eBird. Users include their bird observations to an online record, which helps researchers and scientists with vital information.
Drumheller resident Jody Allair, manager of community meeting at Birds Canada, said eBird becomes more widespread each year.
He also said, “Birds Canada conducts the Young Ornithologist Workshop at the Long Point Bird Observatory in Ontario. Registration has tripled, and need to conduct the program twice a year to keep up with demand.”
I think there was always the awareness that birding is a hobby you engage in once you retired.… I feel like that perception has altered a lot where individuals are understanding that birds are just such a great opening to educate more about the natural world, he said.
Allair said there’s been an upsurge in the number of social media influencers and podcasters devoted to birding, and the hobby has also experienced a “sea change” of how it’s alleged as a hobby.
Previously, it was usually thought of as something for individuals looking for a hobby later in life, and that’s still correct to an extent, he said.
Birding is something that’s available and essentially quite fun and attractive for people that are a lot younger, he said.
Now there’s newer societies that are concentrating on the gen Z or millennial age, like the Feminist Bird Club, he said.
He said he’s glad it’s changed from when he first started the hobby, and all the young birders accepted each other.
It’s astonishing how much that has transformed to the point now where birding has really become mainstream. And you get a lot of individuals in all diverse generations who are into birding. And I think that’s just really encouraging.
