00:00Social media has a new obsession.
00:03Okay, just wait two seconds.
00:04I just want to tell you something about birds.
00:06I like big boys, itty bitty boys, Mississippi boys, inner city boys.
00:10I'm on a mission to find every bird in the world, and we're out here in England.
00:14Bolivia.
00:14Honolulu, Hawaii.
00:16Vietnam.
00:17Giant hummingbirds and toucans are pulling millions of views online.
00:20And offline, next-gen birdwatchers are gamifying the spotting of feathered celebrities, turning
00:25it into a massive industry.
00:27The new big thing is birdwatching.
00:29And this is the story of how it's actually saving bird populations worldwide.
00:33Let's dive in.
00:35It's dawn in this nature reserve on the outskirts of the German capital Berlin.
00:39Selina Weng was up with the early birds today.
00:42I got up at 5.20.
00:45For birders, what the community calls themselves, early mornings are prime time.
00:49It's when birds are loudest and most active.
00:53The easiest to see, because the birds are a little bit far, are the three big white dots.
00:58They are great egrets.
01:00And then all the way on the other side, the shorebirds, they love walking around there and
01:06finding food in this very shallow water.
01:09This area, she says, is the hotspot to see birds in Berlin.
01:12Selina is here alone, but it's not always that way.
01:15Birdwatching is booming in countries all over the world.
01:18In the U.S., three out of ten people are birdwatchers, where it's currently a $100 billion
01:23industry.
01:24Tropical places like Colombia and Costa Rica are seeing a boom in birder tourists.
01:28And it's no longer a hobby for the geared-up elderly folk you might have in your head.
01:33In the U.K., birdwatching among Gen Z has increased tenfold since 2018.
01:38It's now their second fastest-growing hobby, after Juro Remaking.
01:42It's popular with Millennials and Gen X, too.
01:44Social media knows it.
01:58Many credit the pandemic, where solo outdoor activities were considered a safe hobby.
02:03But years later, numbers are still climbing.
02:07These are active users of eBird, the world's largest bird identification app, up by about
02:1220% each year.
02:16It's like a never-ending game or challenge.
02:20Something you can do, like, your whole life and you just keep improving, but every single
02:24bird you see is like a little victory, so you're just winning all the time.
02:30Sighting a rare species requires angelic patience.
02:33In summer, Selina and other birders waited one and a half hours for this heron.
02:38It was visible for three seconds.
02:41Everyone was kind of ecstatic, and cheering, and being super happy, and we were double-checking
02:47everything just to make sure, but of course, and it's super satisfying.
02:52Her goals are ambitious.
02:53She wants to see 200 different bird species in Berlin this year.
02:57She's currently on bird number 168.
03:18It's a really cold morning, but I am actually very warm and happy because I just saw my first
03:28spotted red shank of the year.
03:30Selina gave up her desk job for birdwatching.
03:32The 33-year-old used to be in software engineering, earning six figures at the time.
03:37But she was missing nature.
03:39I just realized I was inside all the time, I was always sitting in front of my laptop.
03:45So she quit.
03:47Now she's living from her savings.
03:49Some day, she hopes to monetize her social media content.
03:54She shares her adventures with 13k followers on Instagram.
03:58Other accounts are getting millions of views, like this Australian creator who spots birds
04:03Pokemon style.
04:05The way I look at it, it is treating the world as a big video game.
04:09I've just always loved collecting.
04:13I mean, I never got into Pokemon cards, but I was playing Pokemon, trying to catch them
04:18all.
04:18You're collecting those moments, collecting those snapshots of each bird, and I love it.
04:25It's something that just scratches that itch.
04:27On social media, Cobb is redefining what birdwatching means.
04:31I booked a flight to England, hired a car to drive down to some lake, or to see a goose.
04:36If that is not exercising your free will, then I don't know what is.
04:39And it is an addiction.
04:42It's dangerous.
04:43I'll be driving, and I can't help my eyes flicking up, and it was a wedged-out eagle.
04:47I can't help it.
04:49We had the same problem interviewing Selena.
04:52Sorry.
04:52Yeah.
04:52Okay.
04:53Sounds good.
04:54Instagram, along with other online tools that you can use for identification and finding
05:02birds and so on, has made it way more accessible.
05:05When you know what you're looking at, that makes it a hundred times more interesting.
05:10Also, the type of content I share, I am open about not being an expert.
05:15I'm open about not being sure what I'm looking at or where I'm going.
05:20It's getting people of all ages involved.
05:23Especially when I meet people traveling, and they're like, oh, what do you do?
05:26I'm a birdwatcher.
05:27And then I get my Instagram, and they're like, what, five of my friends follow you?
05:31Like, what are they doing watching bird content?
05:35I've had a few people message me saying that their seven-year-old is asking for a camera,
05:41because they like my content, and they want to do the same thing, and I think that's really
05:46cool.
05:46It's beneficial, too.
05:48Studies have shown spending as little as two hours a week in nature is therapeutic.
05:52It can decrease levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower blood pressure, and it generally
05:58boosts health and well-being.
06:00But isn't it ironic, going birdwatching to escape screens, but then spending hours editing
06:05bird videos?
06:06I like to see it as, you know, that can be a bit of a gateway from the phone into
06:13nature.
06:14So like, you know, you sit and scroll on Instagram, and then you see some birdwatching videos,
06:19and maybe that might inspire you to go out in nature.
06:23And actually, I hear from a lot of people that that's also what has happened to them.
06:28Every bird Selina spots gets logged in an app, where she records time, date, and location,
06:33even the bird's sex and call.
06:35Today, the list is long.
06:37Sniper, swan, duck, and osprey.
06:44All this real-time data is extremely valuable.
06:47We're traveling 700 kilometers south to picture-perfect Bavaria to meet Margarete Siering, who heads
06:53the local Ornithological Institute.
06:56She and her team regularly monitor birds by walking along the same route, recording
07:01every species.
07:02But they can only cover so much ground.
07:06Our bird monitoring is based on sampling.
07:11We can't survey the entire region all at once.
07:13So the data from birders is very important to add to our own.
07:17It gives us insights into what's happening in areas outside those that we've surveyed.
07:23She's looking for a bird that's currently in hiding, the eagle owl.
07:28It lives nestled inside these rock caves, perfectly camouflaging with its surroundings.
07:33Today, no luck.
07:34A frustrating, but pretty normal birding experience.
07:37But this is what it looks like in summer.
07:40The eagle owl has immaculate eyes and ears, so every movement, every sound disturbs it.
07:46If tourists come too close at the time when the newborns hatch, the female will likely
07:50take wings and leave them exposed.
07:53So it's essential to protect their breeding habitats.
07:57If we know exactly where the eagle owl is nesting, we can manage visitor access accordingly.
08:05So we make sure that mountain bike trails don't run through these sensitive areas and that
08:10climbing isn't permitted on rock faces where they're nesting.
08:14All the sightings from hobby birders helped Margarete and her colleagues build this map.
08:19It shows where the eagle owl has been logged in 2025.
08:23Knowledge that now informs their conservation strategy.
08:26And the data from bird watching apps is literally shaping infrastructure.
08:30In Germany, planners for developments are required to run checks if their construction projects
08:35interfere with any wildlife, including bird habitats.
08:37They rely on official records provided by Margarete and her team.
08:42At the same time, there are gaps in our data.
08:45We can't provide all the information ourselves that's available through platforms like eBird or
08:50Ornito.de.
08:52It's not compulsory, but some planners use the birders' data on top to refine where, when
08:57and how they build.
09:00Back in Berlin, Salina has met some bird watching friends.
09:04It wasn't hard to convince them to come along.
09:06They are stopping for birds at every corner.
09:17The weather is making things uncomfortable.
09:20It's windy and starting to rain.
09:22But that's not stopping these three.
09:25They got really into goals lately.
09:27They would have never met were it not for their love of birds.
09:31If you see for the first time a ruff or something, I love to share that moment.
09:37Yeah, absolutely.
09:38I find it really nice when you find people with the same madness that you have for these
09:44birds and to share this special moment with people like you guys and other bird watchers.
09:50It's really something else.
09:52A recent study even found that Gen Z is swapping dating apps for this to spark some low pressure
09:57real world romance.
09:59Selina matched Veta and Nubi over eBird, the world's largest bird identification app.
10:05On the app, they can fill out different checklists.
10:10You can count all the birds you ever saw while driving or while from a train or while you're
10:14in your own garden or people have all kinds of lists.
10:19A life list, for example.
10:21It shows you how many species you've seen all over the world in your life.
10:26Their results vary, but Nubi is on top.
10:30The numbers and gamification spark some competition.
10:33When I see Selina getting a new bird in Berlin, I want to go out there and get one myself
10:39to just catch up a little bit to her because this year especially, I think a few of us are
10:45now in this
10:46big year competitive mode.
10:49When someone spots a rare bird, they get an email notification.
10:52That's how Nubi got wind of the spotted redjang Selina found earlier.
10:56A minute later, I dropped absolutely everything I was doing.
10:59I didn't finish making my lunch and dinner because I usually prep.
11:03He got on the tram right away.
11:05There's a word for that activity.
11:07Twitching.
11:08Basically competitive treasure hunting.
11:10I must have missed it by like 20 minutes or so.
11:13Dipped on it.
11:14That's birder slang for he didn't see it.
11:18Sometimes these gatherings can develop into full-blown bird-watching parties.
11:22There is such a thing as over-tourism from birding, the ornithologist said earlier.
11:27Everyone will flock to one lake, for example.
11:30Cars are parked everywhere and people forge their own paths to get as close as possible
11:35to the birds.
11:36That can definitely cause problems.
11:40But all in all, she sees the boomer as good news.
11:42The birders agree.
11:44I think birding makes you more empathetic towards nature in general.
11:48I noticed that ever since I started birding, I'm just more aware of what animals are around
11:55and what animals need so I don't stomp through the nature anymore like I used to at some point.
12:01Personally, I'm just more calm.
12:04I'm just more relaxed and taking things chill.
12:08Bird watching is changing its image.
12:10For many, it starts with a rare sighting or a challenge on social media.
12:15But every observation, every snapshot is adding to a growing pool of data that can eventually
12:21protect wildlife.
12:23What about you?
12:24Are you a bird nerd yet?
