Sophia Haakman says she's been birding "more than half of my life."
That's saying something, considering she's only 15 and became interested in birds around age 7.
"I read a field guide, and I was, like, this is pretty cool," recalled Haakman, a bird naturalist with the Sarasota Audubon chapter and leader of the Manasota chapter of the Florida Young Birders Club.
But it was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when she was 11 and classes went online, that her fondness for birds began to take flight.
"I kind of started walking around my neighborhood," Haakman said. "There was a lake there, and that was really the spark."
There, she began studying the herons and egrets and other wading birds.
"She's a very active kid that craves movement and the outdoors and so I encouraged her to start a research project," said her mom, Irene.
"She spent most of her free time recording birds and taking photos. I really think birds kept her sane and decreased the stress of lockdown."
Now, the 10th-grader counts 225 birds on her life list of species she has seen. Haakman also organizes regular bird walks around Sarasota with other young people. Their ages range from 9 to 17.
In search of a wily owl
On a Saturday afternoon in January, they followed wildlife photographer, David Schwab, 29, in the hopes of finding a barred owl or an eastern screech owl.
His No. 1 tip for finding owls: look up.
"You just kind of scan around, and you're just looking for that football in the tree; it looks just a little bit different. And that's how I find a lot of owls," Schwab told the group as they set off in Red Bug Slough, a 72-acre preserve in Sarasota.
Owls are not likely to be found along the trails and prefer more remote locations in the woods, he said.
"I find a lot of them in oak trees. Also, if there's an oak tree right up against the palm tree, where that palm tree is giving them a little bit of shade, they'll be perched right on that oak tree," said Schwab.
Along the way, they spotted a male downy woodpecker, a cormorant, some herons and a green drake mallard.
High above the water, a bald eagle and osprey sparred over a fish. The sight of their aerial battle transfixed the birdwatchers. They collectively gasped as the eagle bullied the osprey into dropping its fish.
Schwab told them such behavior is common in the avian kingdom.
"An osprey will go and catch a fish; and the eagle, they are very lazy. They don't want to do the fishing. They will scare the osprey to drop the fish, and then they'll take the fish," he said.
After about two hours of hiking deep into the woods, the group glimpsed a barred owl. Captivated, they stopped and stared through binoculars. Eventually, they heard it vocalize, hooting to its mate, and the other owl hooted back in what's known as dueting.
"This is amazing," said Haakman. "I've seen seen barred owls before. I've never seen them interact like that. I usually see them as, like, a single bird."
Not just an older person's hobby
Birding has long been a pastime of the silver-haired set. About 77 million people in the United States aged 45 and older report watching wildlife around their homes, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
But increasingly, bird experts say more young people are banding together to observe their feathered friends in the outdoors.
The number of 16- and 17-year-olds observing wildlife near home increased from 1 million in 2016 to 3.2 million in 2022, according to the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife-Associated Recreation.
And for those who traveled away from home, the numbers for 16- and 17-year-olds engaged in wildlife-watching went from 1.4 million to 5.4 million in that latest survey.
Now, more than half of all teenagers in the United States ages 16-17 report participating in wildlife-watching near home, it said.
"I really think that the pandemic opened many young people's eyes to how beautiful and joyous birding can be," said Mya Thompson, co-director of engagement in science and nature at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
The Merlin Bird ID app, which identifies birds by sound and is made by the Cornell Lab, has also seen an explosion in interest.
In the decade that Merlin has been in existence, 24 million users have installed it. Seven million of those took place last year alone, according to Thompson.
"Between 2023 and 2024, just in the U.S. and Canada, the average age of Merlin user declined from age 57 to 49," Thompson added.
"So that's a huge decline across millions of people. And I don't have evidence that it's really young people driving that, but certainly our demographics are trending younger."
A stress reliever for teens
Birding can be an escape for teenagers, at a time when social media use and screen time spark concerns for their mental health.
"I have seen nationally of expansion with the interest in youth birding and young birders, I would say, in particularly the last three years," said Laura Guerard, director of youth programs with the American Birding Association.
"It helps to relieve the stress and anxiety. And then when we add in those peer relationships with other young birders, it only gets better."
"These young birders often feel that they're the only one in their hometown or in their school that likes birds, and sometimes that can be seen as maybe not the coolest thing."
Helping young birders find their people was the motivation for Jim McGinity, a science teacher in the Tampa area, to start the Florida Young Birders Club in 2021.
He wrote a grant to pay for binoculars they can share, and local chapters across the state now have about 50 members total, he said.
"I've been just floored by these — we're talking 12-, 13-year-olds, who know way more than I do," McGinity said.
Part of the club's goal is to introduce the kids to professional bird guides and scientists as possible career paths. But the primary draw is getting outdoors together.
"Without a local, young birder leading walks, it's harder for these kids to connect. We've tried using Zoom programs. It hasn't worked real well," said McGinity.
For Danielle Calhoun, the mom of one of the young birders, the group has "totally impacted this kid positively. We are homeschoolers, and we've had just a really hard time finding our space," she said.
"They all coexist really well together. There's no social pressure, there's no bullies, no mean kids, none of that cliquiness. Everybody's so hyperfocused on birds, and it's just created this bridge for them," she said.
Blair Clark, 17, is part of a young birders group in St. Augustine. He joined his local Audubon chapter at age 7.
"There was a large age gap between me and some of the other birders. But I found that even if you're the only young birder, these adults that are expert birders or researchers or whatever, they're always willing to share," Clark said.
For Clark, birding is far more than a hobby.
"I found that I just care so deeply about these birds and these wild spaces," said Clark.
"I have this amazing passion for birds, and I want to study them and create change. I want it to be my career. I want to really do what I can to help protect birds in the places that they need."
