Had no one to bird with who wasn't 20 years older than me': Meet the Gen Zers who transformed grandma's hobby into an analog craze

A new generation is turning birding into an analog craze, fueled by community and tools. Ian Bell started watching birds in Central Park at 15 in 2021, feeling isolated because few peers shared the hobby; now he co-runs a Discord server with 4,400 members that coordinates sightings. The article points to wider growth: federal surveys show birding participation among 25-to-34-year-olds has quadrupled since 2016, and Cornell’s Merlin app rose from about 279,000 U.S. users in July 2019 to more than 4.8 million in July 2026. While Merlin doesn’t track age, Audubon campus chapters have grown from zero to 117 in six years, alongside a surge of supporters in their 20s and 30s on social media.