Bird-watching - A popular pass time activity

Bird watching is the activity connected with the visual observations of the birds in their natural habitat. To be a birder you need to step out of the house with the interest of watching them in your locality, and then if you’re much interested you need to travel for some distance from home to observe the wild birds and identify them.

Birding which was a hobby for some people earlier is now a popular pass time. This got developed mostly in the 20^th century in developed countries in the west and got spread all over the world by the end of the century. The growth of bird watching as a scientific sport was possible due to the increasing availability of the binoculars. The publication of the high quality field guides and bird clubs made it much easier for a common man to watch the birds and start wondering these beautiful creatures of the planet. The final impetus came with the advent of the internet and easy availability of digital cameras in the 21^st Century. 

Birding usually attracts people from the all age classes. Now days all want to know and study about the birds may it be a student or a business man who wants to capture them in their big lenses in different angles. A study of Socio-psychology in humans concluded that initial motivations for birding were largely similar in males and females, but males who participate actively in birding are more motivated by “sharing knowledge” with others, and active female birders are more motivated by their “intellectual” interest in studying birds, and by the challenge of identifying new and rare birds and improving their skills. A study suggests that males leaned towards competitive birding while females preferred recreational birding. (Source: Sali, M., Kuehn, D., & Zhang, L.(2008). “Motivation for male and female Birdwatchers in New York state”. Human dimensions of wildlife).