Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis

[Kevin Purcell]

On July 15 2009 by the USFWS released Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis

A copy of the PDF can be downloaded here:

http://library.fws.gov/Pubs/birding_natsurvey06.pdf

For 2006 data they estimate expenditure on Wildlife-watching equipment to be $6,869,054,000.

They define Wildlife-watching equipment as: "Equipment expenditures consist of binoculars, cameras, bird food, nest boxes, day packs, and other wildlife-watching equipment."

They say there are 47,693,000 birdwatchers in the USA defined pretty much as anyone who pays attention to birds. For people who travel away from home to see birds they say there are 19,860,000 people. Make of that what you will. ;)

So average equipment expenditure per birdwatcher is 6869 million / 47.693 million or about $144 per year.

Interesting ballpark figure for estimating how much people spend on bins (or spotting scopes and backpacks and cameras and bird food) per year.

[KCFoggin]

Well, I can unhappily say I was a part of that expenditure and the grand I just kicked out today probably isn't in that count.

[Tero]

?
OK, what did you get, new scope?

[Lisa W]

I was definitely part of that expenditure - much to my partner's dismay.
Yeah, KC, what did you get?

[joannec]

Interesting that 54% of American birders as defined in this study are female.

[Pileatus]

Interesting that 54% of American birders as defined in this study are female.
In the US, women increasingly outnumber men past the age of 35.

[ThoLa]

In the US, women increasingly outnumber men past the age of 35.

Germans are said to go extinct. Could you send me a collection of photos of US women (preferably less than 35 :gh:): we might offer speeded immigration.

[FrankD]

Well stick me at the far end of that bell-shaped curve.

;)

[jurek]

Interesting - birders in Europe are usualy male and 15-30 years old.

There was even a joke about female birder and guinea pig. ;)

[rivergazer]

Interesting - birders in Europe are usualy male and 15-30 years old.

?????!!!!!! what??!! do you not have playstations and cell phone texting over there? shocking

[jurek]

We have birding rings texting messages about rarieties to each other. ;)

[rivergazer]

thumbs up for the kids!! :)

[Enji]

Huh... I find most birders in Sweden to be male and 40+. I usually feel very odd as a woman of 27...

Don't want to think about how much money I've spent on equipment though, but on the other hand... a good scope can last for 20+ years. :)

[HoosierGuy]

I've spent some money this year on bird watching: feeder - $39, binos - $320, another bino - $370, books - 80, iTouch bird apps - $70, plus bird food. Oh, a safari vest ans safari shirt to look cool with my binos - $85 total.

[Tero]

books - 80
Obviously you do not have enough books yet. Do you have the one on the gulls yet?

[I do not have it either. Yet.]

I have a fishing shirt. Same as safari shirt I guess. And green pants. Must have green pants. No camo.

[clschmalz]

And don't forget the Tilley hat !

[statestat]

Very interesting information. Surprised that they did not include numbers for Washington D.C., where many people claim to have seen the federal-eagle money bird who was rumored to poop on Fridays. Maybe now it has become more of a bird of prey.

[HoosierGuy]

I have a fishing shirt. Same as safari shirt I guess. And green pants. Must have green pants. No camo.



As long as you look cool. That's all that matters! ;)

[spyglass]

....$144.00....per YEAR?!....that survey couldn't have included all the US posters on this website. Now if you move the decimal pt over a place......2 binos in the last 12mo, along with a Maxpledition over-the-shoulder tote, and I still need a new NG Birds of NA (am waiting, tho, as taxonomy is supposedly changing, and that will make old and current versions...obselescent at least)....and will also now need to get green trou and a Tilley hat (like in Jennifer Tilley? Does she deliver the hat...and maybe go along on a bird outing to the deep woods to make sure the hat is satisfactory?).

But seriously folks, 6B+ is one helluva lotta scopes/spyglasses and birdfood/feeders......

T%

[Bosque]

It probably didn't include all the US posters here, but even all of us aren't spending that much on birding (I'm easily under their $144 per year line). I know plenty of the anomaly under 30 pawn shop binocular nomadic bird work crowd that might have a $20 pair of binoculars and a couple of field guides.

[elkcub]

On July 15 2009 by the USFWS released Birding in the United States: A Demographic and Economic Analysis

A copy of the PDF can be downloaded here:

http://library.fws.gov/Pubs/birding_natsurvey06.pdf

....

Good find, Kevin. :t:

[pete_gamby]

As I'm researching the US market right now this was a great find (thanks to Wildbird magazine for pointing me to it a couple of weeks ago). I just wonder why its taken three years to put the numbers together :-)

Out of interest I mapped the data on birders per state from that report against the number of threads per state posted in on Birdforum and the numbers correlate remarkably well. Arizona generates a relatively higher number of threads on here as does Florida - birders "migrate" as much as birds (as detailed in the report on page 9) :-)

[JeffMoh]

So average equipment expenditure per birdwatcher is 6869 million / 47.693 million or about $144 per year.
Interesting ballpark figure for estimating how much people spend on bins (or spotting scopes and backpacks and cameras and bird food) per year.

My wife and I spend very little on equipment: This year only $50-$60 for a Sibley pocket guide, a cap and a bino harness. But I'm sure we spend much more than $144 each a year on travel (mainly gasoline) for birding trips, plus entrance fees to sites; plus insect repellent! Then there's bird food ...

Jeff

[falcondude]

As I'm researching the US market right now this was a great find (thanks to Wildbird magazine for pointing me to it a couple of weeks ago). I just wonder why its taken three years to put the numbers together :-)

Out of interest I mapped the data on birders per state from that report against the number of threads per state posted in on Birdforum and the numbers correlate remarkably well. Arizona generates a relatively higher number of threads on here as does Florida - birders "migrate" as much as birds (as detailed in the report on page 9) :-)

that's an interesting find.

[Sancho]

It´s a source of constant intrigue to me that so many birders in the US are female. Exactly the opposite here...I can´t count on the fingers of one hand the female birders I know, but could rattle off the names of about 150 male birders (there are said to be about 400 "serious" birders in Ireland South).
Typically, male birders here don´t admit to the activity after puberty kicks in, because the image of the Irish/British birder is a geeky anorak with horn-rimmed glasses and no social skills, in the same league as a Train-Spotter (I, of course, shatter this stereotype....;)). So the average female here would run a mile from a birding male, were he to admit to the pursuit. In the U.S., I imagine, "Birding" is out there with all the Frontier/Pioneer/Backwoods pursuits, and a Real Man is not afraid to admit to it, as it puts him in the same league as Grizzly Adams, Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett. Or maybe U.S. women reckon a birding man is good child-rearing material as he´s closer to nature and the "Wild", and possibly all sensitive and understanding to boot. Here, womenfolk might feed birds in their gardens and look at blackbirds feeding young, but they would rarely describe themselves as "birders". At the risk of being attacked with a spotting scope on my next outing, I would dare to suggest that most (of the very few) female birders here are women of...shall we say....advanced wisdom and experience.......(is there a fox-hole around here I can bunker down in?) I mean, when I was young, I knew a few other guys who birdwatched, but I was well over forty before I met any female birder.

[michaelboustead]

The material seems to indicate that many US birders start late-approx age 50. That was pretty much my case. Is this the case other places?

Mike

[Kevin Purcell]

I think there is an increasing population later on especially with the last couple of "generations" (actually three decades of cohorts) though I'm not sure that will continue e.g. the Baby Boomers were big into hiking but that seems to be rolling off as they start to age.

A lot of hardcore male birders (usually) start young in their teens and continue on from there if it's a primary pastime into their twenties (the more hardcore the longer it goes). e.g. Mark COcker does a great job in his book Birders: Tales of the Tribe of documenting my era of 1970s birding in the UK. Ken Kauffman shows what it was like in the early 1970s in the US in Kingbird Highway

I suspect like a lot of hobbies it gets put on hold whilst life goes on though some put the extra effort in through their thrties and forties (as researchers, field workers, rangers, naturalists and guides) though of course they're a tiny fraction of the birdwatchers out there.

I'm a retunee to birding later on too (though I was never a hardcore birder as a teen).

I also suspect TV coverage has increased the number of people willing to get out there any try birding (or at least pay attention to the natural history around them.

I know a few Baby Boom retireees that would consider themselves birders but after one of them was sure the Red-tailed Hawk on the front of Sibley was a Northern Harrier I'm not so sure ;)

I'd like to see them use a more fine division in the data . They seem to have one in this report which differentiates "robin strokers" from "birders" though there is clearly quite a range of the latter.

[Bosque]

It´s a source of constant intrigue to me that so many birders in the US are female. Exactly the opposite here...I can´t count on the fingers of one hand the female birders I know, but could rattle off the names of about 150 male birders (there are said to be about 400 "serious" birders in Ireland South).
Typically, male birders here don´t admit to the activity after puberty kicks in, because the image of the Irish/British birder is a geeky anorak with horn-rimmed glasses and no social skills, in the same league as a Train-Spotter (I, of course, shatter this stereotype....;)). So the average female here would run a mile from a birding male, were he to admit to the pursuit. In the U.S., I imagine, "Birding" is out there with all the Frontier/Pioneer/Backwoods pursuits, and a Real Man is not afraid to admit to it, as it puts him in the same league as Grizzly Adams, Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett. Or maybe U.S. women reckon a birding man is good child-rearing material as he´s closer to nature and the "Wild", and possibly all sensitive and understanding to boot. Here, womenfolk might feed birds in their gardens and look at blackbirds feeding young, but they would rarely describe themselves as "birders". At the risk of being attacked with a spotting scope on my next outing, I would dare to suggest that most (of the very few) female birders here are women of...shall we say....advanced wisdom and experience.......(is there a fox-hole around here I can bunker down in?) I mean, when I was young, I knew a few other guys who birdwatched, but I was well over forty before I met any female birder.

Nah, birders are still considered sissies here. If you're not going out in the woods with an internal combustion engine or a gun, you're not a real man. I run heavy equipment for habitat restoration and I'm a commercial fisherman, I've gotten some funny reactions from people I've worked with about birding and environmental activism.

[Sancho]

The material seems to indicate that many US birders start late-approx age 50. That was pretty much my case. Is this the case other places?
Mike
This is only anecdotal, but a typical male birder pattern here (Ireland South) is one who was interested in nature and/or art as a kid, got into birds/drawing birds, drifted out of the hobby at puberty (pursuing more pressing concerns;)), and took it up again later in life, possibly after marriage etc. At least I know a few blokes who fall into that category.


Nah, birders are still considered sissies here. If you're not going out in the woods with an internal combustion engine or a gun, you're not a real man. I run heavy equipment for habitat restoration and I'm a commercial fisherman, I've gotten some funny reactions from people I've worked with about birding and environmental activism.
LOL! Well that shatters one of my illusions. I had hoped that there was one last country left where I could wander aimlessly with binoculars and an anorak, and still be considered a Real Man.

[Fireform]

I had hoped that there was one last country left where I could wander aimlessly with binoculars and an anorak, and still be considered a Real Man.

Well, wearing an anorak might get you propositioned by some Real Men over here. Does that help?

[Sancho]

Well, wearing an anorak might get you propositioned by some Real Men over here. Does that help?
LOL! As some English conductor said, "I´ll try anything once. Except s....y and Morris Dancing".