A break from scrolling: how Gen Z fell in love with birding
Despite Britain losing 73 million wild birds in 50 years, Gen Z is embracing birdwatching thanks to social media and a bird identification app.
According to the British Trust for Ornithology, Britain has lost about 73 million wild birds over the last 50 years. Habitat loss, pesticides, disease, cats and the climate crisis have pushed bird numbers to an all-time low.
For younger generations, the scale of this loss is hard to grasp due to a psychological phenomenon known as 'shifting baseline syndrome' – each generation inherits a degraded version of the environment, so the gradual decline goes unnoticed. But Gen Z is bucking the trend. With the help of social media and the Merlin Bird ID app, birding has become cool.
To discover what we are missing from the dawn chorus and why young people are taking up birdwatching, journalist Madeleine Finlay speaks to writer Robert Macfarlane and Jess Painter, a member of the RSPB's youth council.
