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Meet the hip urban birdwatchers

Catherine de Lange, contributor


(Image: ULTRA.F/Getty)

If there's one rule that's hard to break it's that you if you put the word "urban" in front of something, that something invariably becomes cool. Could this even hold true for one of, if not the, ultimate stereotype of nerdy activities - birdwatching? Unlikely as it seems, yes is the answer.

I know this because I recently found myself lounging on a double bed on the rooftop of one of London's most hip members bars - Shoreditch House. In one hand, a glass of wine, in the other, a pair of binoculars. And I wasn't alone. Whilst other members of the club posed by the rooftop pool, sipping cocktails in their glad rags, a breakaway group gathered in what's known as the "secret garden" to join David Lindo, aka the Urban Birder for a spot of communal birdwatching, or birding.

Urban birdwatching is not new - ecologists have, of course, been studying the way our sprawling cities have affected bird populations for decades. But today, the concept seems to be taking on a new meaning. People who live in cities are starting to take note of the birdlife around them.

Lindo wants to "get urbanites to realise that there is a whole world of wildlife under their noses in the world's cities". And it seems to be working - the Shoreditch crowd were enraptured, interrupting Lindo only to shout out when they saw a bird flying over the concrete cityscape behind him. Someone even made a birdwatching-related joke about fashion week. And over the hour or so we spent looking out over this bowl of concrete, we manage to tick a surprising number of species off our lists - greenfinches, herring gulls and a grey wagtail to name but a few. Sadly we didn't see the impressive peregrine falcon, the fastest bird in the world, which according to Lindo now inhabits urban areas like Coventry, Derby, LA and New York.

I'm disappointed as I'd heard the peregrine can chop a pigeon's head off in one fell swoop. "It's certainly something that surprises people when they realise that the worlds fastest bird is nesting on buildings above their heads," says Graham Madge, from the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.

Madge says he has seen a growing interest in birding. Membership to the society has increased in recent years - particularly among the under-30 set. "That's true across gender too," he adds. "The figures are high for women, which doesn't bear out the stereotype that it's a male pursuit."

Urban birding can be a great way to relax and reconnect with the nature around you even in a bustling city, but it can also contribute to serious conservation projects. The breeding bird survey (BBS), for example, relies on volunteer birdwatchers to contribute data, as well as the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Garden BirdWatch Project and the London Bird Project.

"BBS data have, for example, been used to examine the composition of the breeding bird community within the city of Bristol," says BTO's Michael Thoms. "This work has underlined that the 'urban bird community' is not a homogeneous entity but rather a series of distinct sub-communities, each associated with particular components of the urbanised landscape." The Tower 42 bird study group is using London's second highest skyscraper as a viewing station to monitor migrating birds as they visit the city.

"Wildlife does not regard cities as an impenetrable barrier in the way we might think", says Madge. Indeed, birds aren't the only species getting more attention in the urban environment these days. Research projects into the way animals evolve as a result of city life are abundant, and urban beekeeping has become a fashionable hobby which also serves to boost dwindling bee populations.

To become skilled at spotting interesting species in our cities, (and not just the same old fat pigeons) does take a bit of practice. A good birder will never switch off, says Lindo, and will "always carry a pair of bins [binoculars]." That said, you don't have to go somewhere special or green to spot them, "you just need to look up."

Lindo recalls how he recently gave a talk about bird watching to inmates at London's Wormwood Scrubs prison. That was especially intimidating seeing as the inmates didn't have that much access to wildlife, to say the least. Nonetheless, says Lindo, they "loved it", and stayed to listen to him speak for an hour and a half. One audience member even went on to write an article about the experience, explaining how from now on, he would listen to the sound of birdsong from his cell, and equate it to freedom. If you needed any more evidence that bird watching is not just for softies, that has to be it.

The bird watching evening was organised by the science promotion group Super-Collider.
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