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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Kevin Purcell" data-source="post: 1544766" data-attributes="member: 68323">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 HighwayI 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 <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />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.</blockquote>

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