Broome Bird Observatory warden Jamie Van Jones said the surge of young people coming through the observatory was "fantastic," as birdwatching booms in Australia and draws more people to Broome in Western Australia's Kimberley.
Who Gets to Move, Who Gets to Wait
Ms Van Jones said, "I'm getting lots of passionate young people through the observatory, lots of young people on tour with a list of birds they want to see." That appetite for birds has turned a once-mocked hobby into something younger Australians are chasing across long distances, with the observatory serving as one of the places where that interest gets organized, guided, and packaged.
She said, "If you talk stereotypes around birdwatchers, it's khaki clothes, binoculars and cameras, a bum bag — a dorky look. That's changed." The line lands because the old caricature was always doing social work, keeping people in their place by making the pastime look harmless, awkward, and safely unserious. Now the same activity is being recast as a route into nature, travel, and attention.
Ms Van Jones has worked as a wildlife guide around the world for a decade and spent the past two years at the Broome Bird Observatory. The charitable organisation focuses on research and education on shorebirds, including godwits and knots, which migrate between Roebuck Bay and the Northern Hemisphere. The institution sits inside the usual nonprofit frame: education, research, and a steady stream of people learning how to look at the world through a managed lens.
What People Are Actually Doing
Ella Kerr, a 29-year-old Melbourne woman, said she caught the birdwatching bug during the long COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. She scrolls through her phone looking at lists of birds she has seen or checking their identity on an app. That’s the modern ritual: a screen in hand, nature in front, and a hobby shaped by the same devices that keep people tethered to everything else.
Ms Kerr said, "There were just all these birds … I was seeing parts of our environment I hadn't noticed until then." She planned her holiday to Darwin and Broome around birdwatching and wanted to tick some birds unique to northern Australia off her list. She said, "I like that it gets me out into nature, just listening to the sounds," and added, "And when you see a new bird, it's even more exciting."
The pandemic lockdowns pushed people to slow down and take up what the article calls "nana technology" hobbies like knitting, crochet or baking bread. That shift didn’t come from some grand cultural awakening. It came from confinement, from people being forced to reorganize their lives around restrictions they didn’t choose.
The Hobby Becomes a Social Scene
Will Vasic, 21, travelled from Melbourne to work at the Broome Bird Observatory. He said, "I never really thought I'd get into it at such a young age." He added, "But it's got me places where I never thought I'd go." The line says a lot about how a simple pastime can become a way out, even if only briefly, from the narrow routes laid down by work and routine.
Birdwatching has been dubbed a "new form of meditation" in Hollywood, as celebrities embrace the pastime and podcast about it. Young birdwatchers are posting their sightings on social media, turning private observation into public performance, and building little networks of recognition around each new bird.
Callum Wells formed the Talbot Bay Birdwatching Club (TBBC) in the remote Kimberley last year with friends. He said, "We're trying to break down that stigma from it being a bit nerdy to getting out there looking for birds is something that everyone should appreciate." TBBC has become a social media sensation because of its larrikin humour, and followers share their own birding finds with Mr Wells, including British actor Sean Bean, who hosts the Get Birding podcast.
Mr Wells said, "When Boromir from Lord of the Rings [Sean Bean] is commenting on your stuff, you're pretty excited!" He also said birdwatching had taken him to "amazing places," but that it also let him spend time with mates and have a laugh. "It's good, clean fun," he said.
Nature, Managed and Monetized by Attention
Ms Van Jones said birdwatchers were enthusiasts of any age who travelled widely to find new birds and experience nature. She said, "People are craving to be outside. It's about being connected to the outdoor world, and when you're birding, you're in the moment." That craving is real enough. So is the fact that the observatory, the app, the club, the podcast, and the social media feed all help channel it into forms that can be tracked, branded, and shared.
She hoped birdwatching would encourage people to be more environmentally aware. "There are so many threats to the natural world and, through connection, they start to care and be the future champions for the environment," she said. The hope is plain enough: attention becomes concern, concern becomes stewardship, and stewardship becomes the approved way to relate to a world already under pressure.
For now, the boom is carrying more young people into Broome Bird Observatory and into a hobby that once wore the label of a dorky look. The birds are still there. So are the people learning to notice them.