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212 NATURE THERAPY
growing body of literature supports a positive correlation between
birding and happiness in the general population (Zarankin 2021). The
bird-watching hobby predates these findings, and the pursuit of happiness does not fully describe its appeal. Researchers from a wide range
of disciplines including city planners, environmental scientists, sociologists, and tourism managers are invested in better categorizing what
motivates the growing population of birders.
One joint study (Eubanks et al. 2004) between the tourism consultancy Fermata Inc., the Department of Public and Environmental Affairs at the University of Wisconsin, and the Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries Science at Texas A&M University surveyed participants of
eight separate birding activities between 1998 and 2001. The 2,100 questionnaires returned identified a range of reported motivations and levels of commitment to the activity. Social factors such as “being with
friends” and “family recreation” were equally important motivators
across all levels of participation. Factors related to enjoying nature such
as “being outdoors” and “enjoying the sights, smells, and sounds of nature” were also rated as highly important by most respondents. Birders
participating in the activities who reported a higher level of birding
skill or commitment were more likely to report achievement-related
motivations such as “to see bird species that I had not seen before” and
“to see as many bird species as possible” (Eubanks et al. 2004). Other
studies from 2002 to 2022 identified more than a dozen motivating factors that are subdivided into four major categories, as described in Table
10–1 (Maake et al. 2022).
Participating in bird-watching as a motivator to participate in birdwatching presents a tautology without closer inspection of its components.
I Want to Be the Very Best
Bird-watching is a leisure activity with a low bar to entry and a high
skill ceiling. Recreation specialization is a conceptual framework that
describes leisure activity as a demographic trait. A population grouped
by a shared activity is called its respective social world. The social
world’s members represent a continuum of engagement from the peripherally affiliated generalists to the most involved specialists (Eubanks et al. 2004). The social world of birding has three subdimensions
of specialization. Birding knowledge is the cognitive subdimension,
equipment and travel costs describe the behavior subdimension, and
centrality to lifestyle is the affective subdimension. At the most generalist level, a birder might walk to a local park to see the ducks once a
month. This birder may have no dedicated equipment other than eyes
and ears and no knowledge of the species observed beyond ducks in a
Table 10– 1. Birding motivations
Photography and
Participate in bird-watching Relaxation and escape
Achievement Exploration Enjoying nature and solitude Affiliation
Seeing as many bird species as possible Escape Conservation Sharing knowledge
Appreciation of birds Spirituality Photography Companionship
Spiritual refreshment Family recreation
nature appreciation
Social interaction
The Wondrous Outdoors 213
214 NATURE THERAPY
pond. On the opposite extreme, a highly specialized birder might spend
thousands of dollars each year on cameras, scopes, binoculars, and international travel to see wild birds. This birder might use extensive
knowledge of species field marks, song, seasonality, and habitat to
make identifications. The two illustrative examples bookend a full spectrum of birders’ knowledge level, commitment, and investment.
A specialized birder is also more likely to achieve an optimal experience while birding, where time seems to speed up, worries are forgotten, and the sense of self is consumed by the task at hand. This
experiential state, known as flow, increases leisure satisfaction and happiness. A flow experience is defined by eight conditions, the first of
which is an alignment between an activity’s challenge and the participants’ skill. Birding as a flow experience is described in Table 10–2
(Dieser et al. 2015).
Acquiring flow experiences is a primary driver of participation in
leisure activities. Insiders at the involved end of the social world of
birding demonstrate psychological commitment, based on a continuity
of participation and a low likelihood of losing interest. The depth of the
psychological commitment determines the extent of that activity’s incorporation into a person’s self-image and value. Examples of psychological commitment include time invested in acquiring skills and
knowledge related to birding and increased frequency of birding outings. In this way, anyone entering the birding social world as a novice
can be drawn into specialization depending on their psychological
commitment. A 2015 study from the National Chiayi University in
Taiwan found a direct and positive relationship between recreation
specialization and flow experience. The study also found that psychological commitment positively mediated the specialization-flow relationship (Cheng et al. 2016).
Commitment to bird-watching unlocks psychological benefits beyond access to flow. Birds live outside, and most species are found in
naturalistic environs. Bird-watchers follow their quarries into forests,
urban green spaces, and other settings described in previous chapters.
The psychological restoration theories described in previous chapters
also apply to bird-watching as a nature activity.
A 2022 joint study from the University of Tübingen Biology Department in Germany, the Centrum Medyczne Psychomedica Allenort in
Poland, and the Poznań University of Life Sciences Zoology Department investigated psychological restoration in bird-watching (Randler
et al. 2022). They surveyed 400 self-identified bird-watchers on indexes
of bird-watching specialization and psychological restoration. Specialization was subdivided into three domains:
The Wondrous Outdoors 215
Table 10– 2. Flow in birding
Flow characteristic Example in birding
1. Alignment in skill and
challenge
2. Clear goals with
immediate feedback
3. Merging action and
awareness
4. Intense concentration Switching between the naked eye while
5. Loss of selfconsciousness
6. Sense of control Choosing birding time and location, knowing
7. Time moves faster Taking 3 hours or more to complete a 1-mile
8. Intrinsically rewarding Birding is a recreational activity without external
Greater birding skill increases awareness of bird
species present and ability to identify them.
Goals: See as many different bird species as
possible.
Feedback: Seeing a bird, and confidence in
identifying it.
Senses expand outward to find signs of birds:
watching for movement, listening for singing,
chirping, or wingbeats.
searching to lifting binoculars for a closer look.
Correlating birding knowledge with identifying
features of the bird, often partially obstructed
by foliage, to determine the species.
likelihood of species to be seen based on habitat
and seasonality.
hiking path.
pressure or incentive to participate.
1. Behavior
2. Knowledge and skill (number of species able to identify by sight or
sound)
3. Psychological commitment
Behavior was determined by total years of birding, number of days
per year, and trips taken per year. Knowledge and skill were scored by
the number of species a respondent could identify by sight or sound.
Psychological commitment depended on how personally important
birding was to respondents’ lifestyle. An exploratory factor analysis
found a significant relationship between psychological commitment
and restoration in bird-watchers. The results suggested that recreation
specialization in a nature activity enhances the psychological benefits
described by restoration theories. The behavior and knowledge and
skill domains had no significant relationship to restoration (Randler et
al. 2022).
216 NATURE THERAPY
Bird-watching presents an opportunity for anybody, regardless of
experience or resources, to readily access a flow activity and enhance
the attention-restoring and stress-reducing properties of nature immersion. Birding trips or days spent birding require available time to spend
on leisure or resources to travel. Knowledge and experience are limited
by the time and effort they take to accrue. Psychological commitment is
a state of mind that anyone with a passing interest can potentially lean
into. In the birding social world, psychological commitment is metaphorized as a flame. The dry tinder of latent interest lies within every
nonbirder, waiting to be ignited into a conflagration of enthusiasm for
avifauna. Birders enjoy sharing their personal “spark bird” stories, the
bird encounters that ignited their own passion for birding (Miller 2021).
The Birding List
To see as many bird species as possible is a motivation commonly reported in studies investigating why people go bird-watching (Maake et
al. 2022). Birders motivated by this numbers game keep a running tally,
or list, of species seen during their outings. An entire vocabulary has
been developed for the listing approach to bird-watching, described in
Table 10–3 (Saha 2015).
Although lists are an individual’s personal journal of sightings, they
contain useful data on the location and abundance of species. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology developed the eBird application to aggregate
individual lists into one of the world’s largest citizen science projects.
Birders log their observations on the application as a list of distinct species found during their bird-watching effort. Additional data such as
the number of individuals of each species and the location of the birding activity are also usually included. The lists are aggregated to an
open access global dataset (McKee 2022).
The birding list is a collection of observations. Collecting as its own
mode of recreation specialization can provide members of its social
world with a sense of purpose and meaning in life. Birders whose engagement with the hobby revolves around the augmentation and embellishment of their life lists may be called listers. Pursuing acquisitions
adds a layer of excitement that may otherwise be lacking in everyday
life (Belk 2009).
A 2019 study from Radboud University, the Netherlands, conducted
a thematic analysis of significant nature experiences reported by a cohort of Dutch volunteer biodiversity recorders (Ganzevoort and van
den Born 2019). Of the 1,450 experiences analyzed, the most common
theme described as significant was encountering a species new to the
The Wondrous Outdoors 217
Table 10– 3. Vocabulary for listing approach to bird-watching
Term Definition
Big Year (n) Competitive challenge to see the most birds in a given area
within a year
Dip (v) To arrive where a desirable species was reported after it left
Life list (n) Living record of all species seen by an individual since begin-
ning birding
Lifer (n) A bird species never seen before by an individual birder
Nemesis-bird
(n)
Rarity (n) A species reported in a location where it is not usually seen
Patch (n) A personally frequented birding spot such as a backyard or lo-
Tw it ch (v) To go to extreme lengths to sight rare birds
A species that a birder desires to list but has so far been elusive
cal park
observer or rediscovering one last seen in the distant past. The emotional response most associated with significant experiences was a
sense of surprise. The results of the thematic analysis suggested that a
thrill of discovery characterized the nature experiences that biodiversity citizen scientists remember as significant (Ganzevoort and van den
Born 2019).
When a lister encounters a rare bird to add to their life list, they experience an analogous thrill of discovery. The collection serves as an external projection of their sense of self. Each addition to the collection
incrementally strengthens the ego as a concrete signifier of the collector’s mastery and expertise. A sense of the past that further supports
the ego is built by reviewing entries in the collection, which cue favorable memories of the significant experience. Collectors gain a sense of
accomplishment with each acquisition and an appreciation for their collection. Collectors aggregate around their common interest to share
knowledge, compare collections, and socialize with like-minded peers
(Belk 2009).
Bird-watchers bolster their self-esteem by practicing a socially condoned activity that encourages the development of specialized knowledge with the goal of amassing a large life list. Adding the birder
identity to the self also improves self-esteem by providing multiple avenues for accomplishment that can buffer against ego injury. For example, a student who receives a poor grade on a test may be consoled by
their confidence in their birding ability (McIntosh and Schmeichel 2004).
218 NATURE THERAPY
Hidden Truths
The unconscious motivations that lead people to bird-watch are highly
individualized. The details of the unconscious vary from person to person, but a psychoanalytic approach can suggest some superficial commonalities. Psychoanalytic theory posits that nearly all conscious
choices made in adulthood are steered by unconscious forces that developed in infancy. Emotional development begins with attachment to
the parental figure and the instinctual defenses against distress. The
emotional tools that the child learns during the progressive stages of development will carry forward to adulthood. Childhood motivations are
transformed into socially acceptable adult behaviors. A Freudian model
of the transmutation of developmental stages into aspects of birding is
described in Table 10–4 (Clemens 2012).
The act of integrating unacceptable feelings or impulses into a socially condoned activity is called sublimation. Adults who use birding to
manage internal conflicts and can do so without damaging their important relationships are said to sublimate successfully. An example
would be a pathologist who became a prolific bird photographer after
retirement. Both photography and pathology involve high-powered
optics and reviewing minute details to identify what is in the image. He
could manage his grief of leaving a beloved career by choosing a hobby
in which he could practice similar skills (Clemens 2012).
Terror management theory proposes that a generalizable unconscious motivator to participate in socially sanctioned activities is to
distract from awareness of mortality. The birder’s collection of observations is a permanent extension of the self that will exist past a birder’s
life span. Imbuing the collection with a sense of legacy is a sublimation
of the death anxiety (McIntosh and Schmeichel 2004).
Understanding what bird-watchers gain from identifying with the
birding world resolves around the tautology of bird-watching for the
sake of bird-watching. Seeing birds may draw a birder into a flow state,
evoke a thrill of discovery, contribute to stress recovery and attention
restoration, resolve an unconscious conflict, or stave off fear of death.
BIRDS IN NATURE
Wild birds are accessible to anyone regardless of affiliation with the
bird-watching social world. Wherever people go, they are sure to meet
the local birds. These highly adaptable descendants of dinosaurs are
found on every continent, in every ocean, and at every extreme of the
environment imaginable. They range in size from minuscule to gigantic
The Wondrous Outdoors 219
Table 10– 4. Freudian origins of birding behavior
Freudian
phase
Oral Trusting the
Anal Bodily mastery Counting and organizing observations
Phallic-
oedipal
Developmental
pursuit Analogous birding behavior
Love of nature embodied by Mother
caregiver
Curiosity in hidden
parts
Competition for love
Earth
Voyeurism of watching birds
Comparing life lists or size of optic
equipment
and sport a dazzling array of colors and shapes. Their acoustic repertoire is equally impressive, boasting melodious songs, inconspicuous
chirps, guttural roars, and percussive feathers (BirdLife International
2013).
Birds invite interaction. Garden birds will nest outside people’s win-
dows and share their private lives, hatching a family in full view. Large
geese tolerate proximity to people, subjecting themselves to being
chased by bold toddlers or chasing them back. Turkeys imposingly
stalk and terrorize neighborhoods in Massachusetts, demanding residents to confront the human intrusion into wild territory (Sullivan
2022). By inspiring pathos, curiosity, or terror, birds are charismatic re-
minders that nature still affects the human condition.
Nature Connectivity
Urban birds are the cultural ambassadors of the natural world. City
dwellers’ encounters with birds may account for most people’s relationship to wildlife (Cox and Gaston 2015). More than 50% of the global
population lives in urban areas, and this is predicted to increase to 70%
by 2050. Urban environments are heavily modified biomes that displace
animals and plants that are unable to adapt to those rapid ecosystem
changes. Most people live and work in species-poor settings. Urbanization increases the physical and emotional distance between people and
nature (Luck et al. 2011).
Nature connectedness is a personality trait that describes a person’s
affective identification with the natural world. People with greater nature connectedness tend to affiliate with environmental activism and
have concern for the environmental consequences of human activity.
Greater nature connectedness correlates with more time spent outside
and personalities that are more open, conscientious, extroverted, and
agreeable (Capaldi et al. 2014).
220 NATURE THERAPY
A meta-analysis from 2014 by the psychology department of Carleton
University, Ottawa, Ontario, found a significant association between
nature connectedness and happiness (Capaldi et al. 2014). A fixed effect
size meta-analysis examined 30 papers that reported on a relationship
between nature connectedness and happiness. The included studies
represented a total sample of 8,523 subjects. Happiness was measured
along three hedonistic dimensions.
1. Vitality: the state of feeling alive, alert, and energetic
2. Positive affect: a state of pleasant emotional experience lacking neg-
ative detractors
3. Life satisfaction: a favorable appraisal of the totality of personal ex-
perience up to and including the present
A statistically significant effect size (r =0.19) was found in the relationship between nature connectedness and the cumulative measures
of happiness. This effect size is comparable to those found in studies associating happiness with other social factors such as personal income,
education, religiosity, marital status, volunteering, and physical attractiveness. Because living in cities is associated with lower outdoor engagement and nature connectedness, interventions targeting these traits
may increase happiness in urban populations (Capaldi et al. 2014).
Feeding wild birds is a popular activity that brings people closer to
nature. About half of urban households in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States provide some kind of nourishment to their
feathered neighbors (Cox and Gaston 2016). Bird feeding is a homebased activity where people lay out food for the express intent of attracting wild birds. U.S. households spend more than $100 million
annually on bird food and feeding apparatus. A surge in interest during
the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic is estimated to have increased expenditure on bird feeding by more than 30%. Government lockdown protocols led to a 15% increase in time spent at home (Brock et al. 2021).
Outdoor-based recreation and use of public parks increased in popularity during lockdowns as mental health refuges to escape pandemicrelated anxiety (Grima et al. 2020). A 2020 analysis of internet data
trends found that online interest in search terms related to bird feeding
also increased during lockdown periods. Feeding birds offered people
who were confined indoors a direct avenue to interact with wildlife for
nature’s restorative effects (Brock et al. 2021).
A 2016 study from the University of Exeter, United Kingdom, surveyed 330 English town dwellers on their bird-feeding attitudes and
behaviors. Respondents rated, on a five-point scale, the extent to which
The Wondrous Outdoors 221
they agreed with nine statements describing motivations for and approach to bird feeding. The results showed that subjects who fed birds
regularly were largely motivated by psychological benefit. They related
watching birds at their feeders to feelings of rest and relaxation in accordance with nature restoration theories. They also described feeling
more connected to nature through observing the birds visiting their
feeders (Cox and Gaston 2016).
Backyard bird-watching may ameliorate somatic and psychological
distress. A 2021 study conducted by a research team from Michigan
State and Duke Universities investigated how the COVID-19 pandemic
influenced nature experiences among patients with breast cancer (Pearson et al. 2021). Fifty-six women with stage 2 or 3 breast cancer participated in a cross-sectional survey of habits of outdoor use and scales of
distress. Patients reported decreased use of natural amenities and
spaces outside the house since the beginning of the pandemic. Respondents reported a compensatory increase in home-based nature experiences such as watching wildlife through a window or listening to
birdsong. Increased use of an outdoor space adjoining the home such as
a backyard or porch was associated with decreases in overall stress,
symptom-related stress, and symptom severity. Although the findings
were not generalizable because the demographic scope was limited to
women with breast cancer, future studies may continue to investigate
indoor wildlife interactions as nonpharmaceutical adjuvants for pain
management (Pearson et al. 2021).
The stress-reducing effects of nonthreatening wild animal encounters produce a measurable physiological response. A 2020 experiment
from the University of Gloucester, United Kingdom, used a zoological
lemur enclosure to simulate encounters with noncompanion wildlife
(Sumner and Goodenough 2020). Eighty-six college students were
guided along the lemur path and assessed for pre- and postencounter
measures of mood, nature connectedness, and physiological markers of
stress. Salivary cortisol, a steroid hormone associated with the sympathetic stress response, decreased after the lemur encounter. Research scales
measuring emotional disturbance showed improved mood after participants met the lemurs. Nature connectedness was positively correlated
with greater levels of stress reduction (Sumner and Goodenough 2020).
Biodiversity
Species richness, or biodiversity, is the number of different types of organisms living in a defined area. Biodiversity describes the variety but
not the abundance of current species.
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