The global extent of supplementary bird feeding is unknown but has consequences for bird conservation and human well-being. Using a measure of search intensity for words related to bird feeding from Google, scientists from California Polytechnic State University, Texas A&M University and Griffith University documented a surge of interest in bird feeding that occurred around the world after COVID-19 led to lockdowns where people stayed home: 115 countries saw an increase in bird feeding search interest.
Interest in local bird feeding appears to have ramped up in countries all over the world during the pandemic lockdowns, even in countries not historically noted for bird feeding practices. Image credit: Victor Pogson.
Feeding wild birds is a popular nature-based pastime because of its simplicity, low cost, and accessibility in even urban environments.
“We know from other work that interests in common bird species and bird feeding increased in response to COVID-19 in the U.S. and some European countries during the pandemic,” said Griffith University’s Professor Emeritus Darryl Jones.
“This study first tests whether this pattern — increased interest in bird feeding in response to COVID-19 lockdowns — holds true for all countries, including those in the southern hemisphere.”
“If so, COVID-19 lockdowns offered a way to reveal the global extent of bird feeding interest, something that is poorly understood.”
“Our results asserted that bird feeding was occurring at a global scale; large increases in Google search intensity after lockdowns occurred in 115 countries that had sufficient search volumes.”
“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper to measure people’s interest in bird feeding at a global scale.”
In the study, the researchers analyzed whether there was increased interest in bird feeding and wild birds at a global, individual-country scale during and after COVID-19 lockdowns compared to before.
They also examined whether the level of interest in bird feeding in a country is linked to species richness.
They assessed the weekly frequency of search terms like ‘bird feeder,’ ‘bird food,’ and ‘bird bath’ on Google for all countries with sufficient search volumes from January 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020 to see if an increase in bird searches occurred during each country’s specific lockdown period.
They also accessed nation-level bird species data from BirdLife International to measure species richness.
There was a significant surge in bird feeding interest as measured by frequency of bird-related searches across 115 of the countries surveyed during the general lockdown period, in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Countries that lacked bird-related search interest had an average of 294 bird species (standard deviation 288.6 species), whereas countries that demonstrated a bird search interest had an average of 511 bird species (standard deviation 400.5 species), a significant increase in bird diversity over countries measured as less interested.
Because the proxy measurement for bird feeding interest is a Google search, countries with lower income or less Internet access may not have been adequately captured despite their bird feeding practices.
However, the team’s method was still able to capture a surge of interest in bird feeding not limited to traditional locations like the UK and U.S. — e.g., Pakistan and Kenya.
The COVID-19 lockdowns likely encouraged people all over the world to seek connection and interaction with their local bird communities.
“Given the relationship between the practice of bird feeding, human mental health, and a variety of pro-environmental attributes, the implications are of great significance for human well-being and biodiversity conservation,” Professor Jones said.
“If access to other nature-based activities was also reduced, this would make bird feeding seem relatively more attractive.”
“Moreover, forced time at home during lockdowns may have increased opportunities for people to notice birds in their gardens and may have piqued their interest in bird feeding.”
The findings were published in the journal PLoS ONE.
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J. Doremus et al. 2023. Covid-related surge in global wild bird feeding: Implications for biodiversity and human-nature interaction. PLoS ONE 18 (8): e0287116; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0287116