New Favorite Millennial / Gen Z Activity: More Wholesome Than You Think

“Birding” might not be an activity which you’d associate with younger people; but, apparently, you should.  #ThanksPandemic

A series of events have brought this wholesome hobby to the forefront; though it’s often thought of as “boring.”

A lighthearted movie, from 2011, called The Big Year, showcased the efforts of three competitive birders, in their effort to find the most (of certain kinds of) birds, in a single year.

Later on, in the mid-2010s, birding took off, in “America’s hippest ‘neighborhoods,'” like Austin, Brooklyn, and Portland.

Now, over the past year and a half, younger Millennials and members of Gen Z have taken an interest in bird-watching, AKA birding.

There are over 340 million views for the TikTok page “birding tiktok.”

Mark Parnell, the author of The Birding Pro’s Field Guides, says he has a few theories, as to why it’s become so popular:  “It’s in line with a rise in outdoor activities like hiking, cycling, and backpacking.  The pandemic accelerated this trend, as restrictions on gatherings forced individuals outside and into more self-driven hobbies.  The very nature of birds is that they are everywhere […].  So people started experiencing exciting interactions with birdlife at a level that wasn’t present in the recent past.”

Look for more, here:  (InsideHook)

• Pandemic lockdown pushed people outdoors, and with that came a natural draw to birding—a bird expert says he thinks this is since birds are naturally everywhere
• Birding has even been taken up by young Millennials and members of Gen Z, and there are over 340 million views on the TikTok page “birding tiktok”