Who are Backyard Birders?

Donna learned about birds from her mom and step-father, and enjoys bird watching with her 3 year old son.

Backyard birding or watching birds around the home is the most common form of bird-watching.  Eighty-eight percent (42 million) of birders are backyard birders.  The more active form of birding, taking trips away from home is less common with 42 percent (20 million) of birders partaking.

The average birder is 50 years old and more than likely has a better than average income and education.  She is slightly more likely to be female and highly likely to be white.  There is also a good chance that this birder lives in the south in an urban area.  Does this paint an accurate picture of a birder?  Like all generalizations the description of an “average” birder does not reflect the variety of people who bird, with millions falling outside this box.

Angie and Rob enjoy birding together, and use feeders and native berry producing plants to attract birds to their Toronto backyard. They also travel to see other bird species.

The higher the income and education level the more likely a person is to be a birder.  Twenty-nine percent of the people who live in households that earn $75,000 or more were bird-watchers-8 percent above the national average of 21 percent.  Education, which is often highly correlated with income, shows the same trend.  People with less than high school education participated at 12 percent-far below the national average-while people with at least a college degree had the highest participation rate at 28 percent.

Unlike hunting and fishing where men were overwhelmingly in the majority, a larger percent of birders were women-54 percent in 2006.

Excepting people that categorize their race as “Other”, birders are not a racially or ethnically diverse group.  Eighty-eight percent of birders identified themselves as white.

Marti uses different feeding stations to feed birds, squirrels and chipmunks, and features nest boxes (pair of bluebirds this spring) and bird baths in her north Georgia backyard.

The scarcity of minority birders in not just  a reflection of their relatively low numbers in the population at large’ it’s also a function of low participation rates.  The participation rates of Hispanics, African-Americans, and Asians were all 8 percent or lower while the rate for whites, 24 percent, was slightly above the 21 percent national average.  Those that chose “Other” however, had a participation rate (21 percent) the same as the national average.

The sparser populated an area, the more likely its residents were to watch birds.  The participation rate for people living in small cities and rural areas was 27 percent-6 percent above the national average.  Whereas large metropolitan areas (1 million residents or more) had the greatest number of birders, their residents had a low participation rate of 17 percent.

Participation rates are varied across the United States. However, the highest participation rates are prevalent in the northern half of the country where the top 5 states include Montana, Maine, Vermont, Minnesota and Iowa.

Living in the foothills of the Olympic Mountains in WA state, Jeni documents over 25 species of birds that visit and nest there.

There were more participants in the South region (33%) compared to the rest of the United States.  The Midwest had the second highest participation at 27 percent.  The West and Northeast had lower participation of 21 percent and 19 percent, respectively.

All data presented here are from the wildlife-watching section of the 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation (FHWAR).  It is the most comprehensive survey of wildlife recreation in the United States.  Overall, 11,300 detailed wildlife-watching interviews were completed with a response rate of 78 percent.  The Survey focused on 2006 participation and expenditures by U.S. residents 16 years of age or older.

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