>>1169250the hobby consists of traveling around, and observing, listening to, and recording birds. Many who participate in this hobby also have a collection aspect to their pursuit, where they will have lists of birds, and check off or otherwise memorialize the ones they have encountered. Many also invest enormous sums into fabulously high-end camera equipment with which to record the birds, in addition to the costs of flying to exotic locations where rare birds may be present.
I really enjoy nature a lot, but at the same time, I have little to no desire to specialize my enjoyment of nature in birds.
In fact, watching birds seems significantly less interesting to me than watching mammals, which on average appear smarter and to have more interesting behaviors. At zoos, I find the birds much less enjoyable to observe than the mammals, and I believe this view is widely shared, as the most crowded exhibits tend to be things like lions, or pandas, and only rarely birds.
However, even then, there is no mainstream hobby of watching mammals. Nobody decides that as a hobby they want to travel around the world collecting mammals they have observed. Although I really like seeing mammals, I, too, have little desire to specialize my enjoyment of nature into watching mammals.
What exactly is the appeal of the bird-watching hobby?
