u/Brantacanadensiscool

gen z birder here, i’m so glad to see that nowadays birding is popular with people under 30, especially compared to before 2020, where it was mostly retirees lol. it seems most birders my age got into birding recently, as the pandemic made a lot more people go into hobbies in nature. but i was wondering if any more people got into birding when they were very young, like before 16 years old.

i always loved animals as a kid, but i remember the enlightenment for me getting into birds was in 4th grade. my classroom was making DIY bird feeders, my teacher everyone to bring in old milk cartons and bird seed. we even decorated the feeders with old illustrations of birds we sourced from the library. it was a very fun project, a highlight for me was seeing a white breasted nuthatch come to our feeders!

i then became OBSESSED with birds and even started teaching my parents the bird species around here, since my parents have no clue about most wild birds. which was quite the opposite of most of my friends, since they only knew birds because their parents were birders.