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The popularity of birdwatching by country (1 Viewer)

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01101001

All-knowing Idiot
Opus Editor
Poland
Which countries have the largest proportion of birdwatchers*?

From what I've managed to find: There's the US (around 20% of people aged 16 or more: How Popular Is Birdwatching | Birda), the UK (around 9% of the entire population: How Popular Is Birdwatching | Birda), and this source: The European market potential for birdwatching tourism | CBI, says the Netherlands and Germany come after the UK in Europe. How Popular Is Bird Watching? - Binocular Base says that birdwatching is more popular than fishing in the UK and more popular than gardening in Canada; it also claims that Sweden, Italy and Spain are, respectively, the 4th, 5th and 6th European countries where birdwatching is the most popular (but what about Belgium and France?).

Any other information?

*in a broad sense (without defining who is and who isn't a birder)
 
Mark Lew1s said:
I think the proportions in that article are very high. The idea that one in ten people in the UK are actively engaged in birding seems way off to me. I’d think even one in 100 feels a little ambitious…
Click to expand...
I suspect it includes people who feed (and thus have a reason to pay some attention to) the birds in their garden but who don't actively go out 'birding' as well as those who feed the ducks in the park etc. The definition of 'birding' or even 'bird-watching' can include almost anyone (to someone who isn't a birder), whereas a birder's definition of who is/isn't a birder (or even what constitutes birding) will be somewhat different.
 
Agreed. Birding is much more popular now than when I started in 2016, in my region anyway. But no way 1/5 people are out birding on a consistent basis.
 
Seems almost non-existent in Spain. I was at El Hondo about three years ago, an incredible reserve. If it was in the UK it would be teeming with birders. I think I saw about four people in as many hours.
 
Ah... this reminds me of discussion regarding 'bird-watcher vs birder vs twitcher'. I know several 'bird-watchers' that seldom go out of their yard, even more rarely travel for birds, and who don't Merlin, eBird, or belong to clubs etc. Oh and they don't discuss optics, own alpha-glass, or hang out on bird forums ;-) But I'm sure they would respond to any such question as 'interested in bird watching'.
 
Strontium Dog said:
Seems almost non-existent in Spain. I was at El Hondo about three years ago, an incredible reserve. If it was in the UK it would be teeming with birders. I think I saw about four people in as many hours.
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The situation may be different but reaching such a conclusion may not be safe. If you went to Siikalahti in Finland (think Minsmere but all to yourself) you might reach the same conclusion, but the thing is that much of Finland contains the same kind of habitats in profusion, so people don't really need to visit the reserve to see the same birds.

John
 
Strontium Dog said:
Seems almost non-existent in Spain. I was at El Hondo about three years ago, an incredible reserve. If it was in the UK it would be teeming with birders. I think I saw about four people in as many hours.
Click to expand...
Birding has grown a lot in Spain over the last few decades, and I've met Spanish birders in various parts of the world - I'm half Spanish myself, so I tend to notice them and stop for a chat. On the other hand, I once met a Spanish woman on a river ferry in Senegal who couldn't get her head round the idea that I went out looking for birds but didn't shoot them.

In the UK, a busy reserve doesn't necessarily mean a lot of birders. In a place like Minsmere the majority of visitors will be birders, but in somewhere like Fen Drayton RSPB, which has a central car park and no entry fee, it can be packed with dog walkers and strolling families with hardly any birders to be seen.
 
There are quite large numbers of people in many countries (maybe most countries?) who take an interest in, sometimes notice and have some concern for birds. You could potentially call those people birders (and maybe in some cases they call themselves that) but I would say it's more helpful to say that birders are people who regularly go out with a specific focus on birds. Birders are people who say 'I'm going birding' in other words, and not people who might 'go for a walk' and notice birds as they do so. The differences aren't absolute and there will be plenty of grey areas, but we are probably all aware of these differences. The presence of binoculars (and wearing of them) and other specialist equipment is something we tend to take as an indicator of 'birders'. Bird photographers are perhaps a bit of a grey area, as might sound recordists (though they are less numerous).
 
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Porth Hellick is probably Scilly's most famous reserve, and most fine Spring days is teeming with visitors, to the point where I'm put off visiting myself. The hides are often crammed with people, and the boardwalks are dotted with humanity. It is more often than not the case that none of them are actual birders unless something is about.

Cattana Wetlands just north of Cairns was a pretty good birding spot when I lived there and unusual for the area. On most visits I would have to myself. Taken as a snapshot, one would be forgiven for thinking that there were few, if any, birders in the Cairns region - and yet I knew absolutely loads. Sometimes a birding hotspot in the region would be utterly devoid of the local birders, but that doesn't mean they didn't exist.

With anything of this nature, the research that goes into generating data can often be determined by the nature of the questions asked, and how respondees interpret it. If you asked my immediate family, 'Do you go out watching birds?' I would answer yes, but no other member of my family would. But if we were asked, 'Do you have an interest in birds?' then they would probably all answer 'yes', as would have my now deceased parents. How questions are framed can make quite the difference between useful data and junk data.
 
Andrew Whitehouse said:
There are quite large numbers of people in many countries (maybe most countries?) who take an interest in, sometimes notice and have some concern for birds. You could potentially call those people birders (and maybe in some cases they call themselves that) but I would say it's more helpful to say that birders are people who regularly go out with a specific focus on birds. Birders are people who say 'I'm going birding' in other words, and not people who might 'go for a walk' and notice birds as they do so. The differences aren't absolute and there will be plenty of grey areas, but we are probably all aware of these differences. The presence of binoculars (and wearing of them) and other specialist equipment is something we tend to take as an indicator of 'birders'. Bird photographers are perhaps a bit of a grey area, as might sound recordists (though they are less numerous).
Click to expand...
I don't think bird photographers are a grey area. Photographers who sometimes do birds, yes, in fact not so much a grey area as a nightmare: but a proper bird photographer will usually have bins. Sound recordists count as birders: they are keen and focused.

I'd never call anyone who goes out without bins a birder and those who take an interest in, sometimes notice and have some concern for birds may be birdwatchers (though they sound like robin-strokers to me) but birders they ain't.

John
 
I've been trying to find the actually survey data for some of these results. In Q1 2023 YouGov asked 1218 "nationally representative" people, whether they liked "bird watching". The results are linked, but I do wonder on the 7% who hadn't heard of it.
yougov.co.uk

Bird watching popularity & fame | YouGov

Bird watching is the 29th most popular cerebral activity and the 77th most popular activity. Explore the latest YouGov polling, survey results and articles about Bird watching.
yougov.co.uk yougov.co.uk
 
I think that you can classify people accurately with the right questions about what they know and their activities. I have been to El Hondo when it has been very busy but maybe one in thirty were birders. But the more people, the more people with an interest in the outdoors and wildlife who may become birders in the future.

Most popular quiz shows illustrate that less than 5 per cent of the population in Britain maximum know what a Manx Shearwater (or a Purple Emperor) is let alone what they look like or have ever attempted to actually look for birds (or other wildlife).

Efforts are made to educate and I think more efforts now than ever. I helped at a moth 'show and tell' at a local rewilding site this week and both children and parents enjoyed the event - Elephant Hawkmoths, Peppered Moths, etc - and I managed to explain to them that butterflies do not exist and they are just really a type of moth. 😀

All the best

Paul
 

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