Young birders are reshaping Edmonton's birdwatching scene

Fifteen-year-old Rory Le has documented 81 bird species around Edmonton, but she estimates she's seen roughly half the total birds in the area. Her favourites are birds of prey — American kestrels and ferruginous hawks — and she's particular about them. "If somebody asked me, 'Who are you?' The first thing I would say is that I'm a fan of birds and birds of prey," she said.

Le started birding in third grade. Last week, she watched from just two feet away as a falcon came to her front porch to eat a kill it had made earlier. She thinks those kinds of interactions between humans and animals are what make birding special. "Like you see peregrine falcons living Downtown, living on the skyscrapers. I think things like that are really cool."

While she hasn't settled on a specific career path yet, Le's goal is to make birds a central part of her professional life somehow.

She's part of a quiet but growing movement reshaping birding in Edmonton and across North America. Online platforms like Instagram and TikTok are now well-populated with birding content, and Gen Z makes up the bulk of online birding influencers. Some compare the hobby to Pokémon — collecting sightings — while others have dubbed it the ultimate "hot-girl hobby."

Jan Wijmenga, 45, a University of Alberta field technician and board member with the Edmonton Nature Club, chuckles at that phrase but acknowledges the shift is real. Originally from the Netherlands, Wijmenga was surprised when he arrived in North America 10 years ago to find that birding was stereotyped as a hobby for older white men — a stark contrast to his homeland and Western Europe, where birding cuts across all age groups.

"But that is, I think, slowly changing," Wijmenga said. The Edmonton Nature Club works to deepen community engagement with nature through city walks and field trips, and they're noticing younger people picking up the hobby at accelerating rates.

Wijmenga draws a distinction between birdwatching and birding — though neither is inherently "right or wrong." Birdwatching is the more relaxed form, something people do casually. Birding is goal-oriented: enthusiasts keep detailed lists, track sightings, travel to specific locations to tick off target species.

For Le, birding is already becoming a lifestyle. She's active on online birding forums, shares her sightings with the growing community, and plans her weekends around potential sighting opportunities. She represents a generational shift that's quietly reshaping a hobby long associated with retirees and specialists.

The rise of young birders reflects something larger: a generation finding community and identity in pursuits that connect them to the natural world — and to each other through social media. For Edmonton's birding community, the influx of young voices is a welcome sign that the hobby's future is in good hands.