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.
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,’…
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