🌅 Birdwatching Is Surprisingly Popular and Benefits the Brain

SOURCE

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

WHAT TO KNOW

• A new study by researchers at York University in Canada compared the brains of expert and novice birdwatchers, finding the expert birders had denser, more structurally complex brain regions involved with tasks like object identification, visual processing, attention, and working memory. The findings suggest birdwatching can reshape the brain and potentially protect against age-related cognitive decline.

WHY IT MATTERS

• When you learn or practice a new skill, the brain strengthens and streamlines relevant neural pathways through a process known as neuroplasticity, which underpins the development of expertise. The researchers of the present study analyzed the brains of birdwatchers because the activity combines various tasks that challenge the mind, like rapid identification, detailed comparisons, and sustained focus, all while holding and drawing on a store of knowledge about different bird species. However, the team believes the brain benefits aren’t unique to birding, suggesting any activity that recruits the same types of processes should produce comparable changes, including those known to protect cognitive function while aging.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• It might come as a surprise, but birdwatching is a major industry in the U.S. A 2022 report by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found some 96 million Americans, or 37% of the U.S. population aged 16 or older, engage in birdwatching each year. Birders are also significant drivers of tourism, retail, and conservation funding, spending $107.6 billion on their activities in 2022 alone. Birdwatching in 2022 also contributed $38 billion to county, state, and federal tax revenue, and helped support 1.4 million jobs that generated $90.2 billion in labor income. All told, the total economic output of birdwatching reached a staggering $279 billion in 2022.