Abstract
Birdwatching is an increasing nature-related activity, with an important influence on data collection of citizen science programs. Initial involvement into a leisure activity is an important life event, but also of interest for nature conservation and citizen science projects. Here, we assessed the initiation into birding by an open-ended question. Based on an online survey, mainly in Austria, Germany and Switzerland we recruited 2668 participants, with 2464 people reporting a specific reason for their initial involvement. Data were analyzed by a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Initiation age was 22.90 years (±15.27). The reasons for initial involvement were in descending order: social influence, nature experience, bird-centered triggers, education (formal/informal), cognitive-emotional aspects (interest, curiosity), other emotions, involvement via other hobbies/jobs, life-course events, ecological aspects, bird clubs/groups and opportunity. Men were more influenced by males and women more by females. Men experienced birding initiation more by club/group and the venue of other activities (job/hobby). Women were more influenced by nature experience, bird experience, emotions, and life-course events. Social initiation became less important during decades, while ecological aspect, education, other activities, and life-course events became more important. The study has implications on program developers and nature conservation organizations.
Highlights
Initial involvement or the initiation into a recreation or leisure activity, such as birdwatching, is an important life event, for the person himself or herself, and from a nature conservation viewpoint
Further aspects are more in the emotional domain, with cognitive-emotional constructs, such as curiosity and interest placed on the fifth rank
Initial involvement took place via other hobbies or jobs, e.g., when participants worked in civil services and started more serious birding
Summary
Initial involvement or the initiation into a recreation or leisure activity, such as birdwatching, is an important life event, for the person himself or herself, and from a nature conservation viewpoint. Concerning the viewpoint form nature conservation, citizen science projects have gained much attention during the last decades, especially when it comes to birding or birdwatching (Sullivan et al, 2014). It is important to analyze in which ways people are recruited into a nature-related leisure activity such as birding and how the socialization occurs. These data can help to identify factors or reasons responsible for the initiation process because they, in turn, may give hints how to improve recruitment for citizen science data collection platforms, such as eBird (Sullivan et al, 2014). Birding can be an example for both, the initiation into a citizen science related leisure activity and the general picture of initiation into a nature-based activity
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