Urban Birdwatching: How Cities Are Shaping Avian Evolution

Learn how birding improves mental health, fosters patience, and how to help avian populations.

At the height of the pandemic, there was a 50% sales increase of bird seed and bird-watching accessories. Becoming a “bird nerd” seemed to become trendy overnight!

The benefits of birding are vast, offering something for everyone. It’s an activity that welcomes people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds. It can be done while social distancing or if you don’t feel like leaving the couch. There’s no fancy equipment needed. Birding allows us to become part of a community that is now more critical than ever.

Observing or listening to birds improves mental health for up to eight hours. It’s like real-life Pokémon Go; what bird will you identify next? Because you “gotta catch them all!”. Birding also encourages us to practice stillness and patience and exercise our power of observation.

Beyond the positive impacts that birding can bring to us personally, birds provide ecosystem services like pollination and pest control. We can also measure an ecosystem’s health by the bird population’s health.

Want to get birding? Here are a few ways to get started.

1. Observe the birds in your backyard. Walk around or sit for some time practicing patience and stillness.
2. Search social media for fellow “bird nerds.” Here in Philadelphia, a few groups to look into are the Feminist Bird Club, In Color Birding, Bird Philly, and Philly Queer Birders.
3. Download helpful identification apps like Merlin ID, which can even identify bird calls and songs.

How are bird populations affected by where you live?

Urbanization, or the increase of regions surrounding a city, has drastically affected and influenced natural areas since the 18th century.  As we created new “human-centered ” habitats, it drastically altered habitats, leading to declines and local extinction of indigenous species.

Though we see a concerning decrease in specialist species in urban settings, simultaneously, we see an increase in generalist species like pigeons, crows, house sparrows, and gulls. Researchers have discovered that birds’ traits have changed throughout the years to live in urban environments.

For example, look at the “urban-adapter” bird, the dark-eyed junco. The urban juncos who built artificial, off-ground nests were more successful than juncos who built their nests using natural materials outside of urban areas.

Researchers have found that in under thirty years, cliff swallows have evolved to have shorter wings, allowing them to be more maneuverable and significantly reducing avian/car collisions. Birds are even “capable of changing their song frequency use depending on the noise conditions of their habitat”.

How can I help the birds in my backyard?

We can help mitigate the negative effects of urbanization on our avian populations.

1. Vote in local elections for politicians who advocate for the environment and push for your city’s infrastructure modifications. Examples include installing green roofs (which can help maintain biodiversity), building nesting boxes, increasing green spaces, and reducing habitat fragmentation.

2. Talk to your neighbors, friends, and families about the importance of birds in urban spaces.

3. Observe birds in your area and enter your observations into community scientist programs like iNaturalist.

4. Support land management techniques that encourage year-round availability of food and nesting resources for birds (Paton, 2019).

5. Turn off outdoor lights, especially during migration season to reduce light pollution.

6. Create a wildlife habitat-friendly yard that includes keeping cats indoors!

Story photos by Lauren Belcher. Cover photo by Anish Lakkapragada on Unsplash.