Once synonymous with retirees in cargo shorts, this hobby has a new crowd

After the Penrith Panthers’ round-one win against the Brisbane Broncos, Mitch Kenny, the team’s hooker, was gifted a photo of a bird by a young fan and his dad at an autograph signing.

“It was a regent bowerbird,” says 28-year-old Kenny, who is a keen birdwatcher – or birder, for short.

“There are a lot of mindfulness benefits [to birding]. It gets me off my phone – like a lot of young people, I’m probably a bit addicted. It gets me out of the house.”

Though his hobby has been the subject of some locker room banter, Kenny says birding helps him unwind, especially considering his demanding job. He is also convinced that some of the other Panthers boys are pretty interested in getting their bird on.

Kenny spends a lot of time bushwalking and in nature, and says taking up birdwatching last winter was a natural progression of these interests, helped along by his older brother, Brad Kenny.

Their story could run alongside the one told in popular 2025 documentary Listers about two brothers in the United States who set off to identify as many birds as possible in a year, interviewing birders along the way, like 19-year-old Ezekiel Dobson, who broke two birding records in 2024.

It appears that a hobby once distinguished by “boring” older men wearing binoculars and cargo shorts has caught wind among “cool” young people.

Kirsty Costa can corroborate the rise in popularity. Costa started her podcast Weekend Birder about three years ago. In the last 18 months, her social reach skyrocketed from 500 people to over 50,000.

“Birdwatching used to be seen as something niche, but what we’re seeing now is a much broader audience discovering it,” says Costa.

The juxtaposition isn’t lost on Kenny. By day, he is an outdoorsman; by night, he sustains tackles.

“I’m not here to preach but if the message I spread is that you don’t have to fit in a box, I’m happy with that,” says Kenny.

Thirteen-year-old Coen Pearson says he is the outlier in his Yarra Valley birding group, which has about 30 members with an average age of 60 to 70.

Pearson was first introduced to the hobby two years ago after seeing a birdwatching interpretive sign on a holiday.

From there, his interest grew after listening to Costa’s podcast, using apps like Merlin ID and eBird, but mostly by sharing a common interest with his grandfather.

“I love going birdwatching with my grandfather because it really set me off with my birdwatching … I’d take a paper notebook and go out and write down all the birds as I was walking through the forest,” says Pearson.

Although it’s difficult to choose, his favourite bird is the rufous fantail, which has an interesting personality and song, according to Pearson.

In between school and birdwatching every day, Pearson and his friend Eve, also 13, produce a nature podcast and newsletter, Next Gen Hills Naturalists.

“Birdwatching does so much for me. I love going out and getting a glimpse into these amazing birds’ lives and the wonder that comes with it. It’s so grounding and calming,” says Pearson. “If I’m stressed, I go, ‘I’m just going to go for a bird walk’ and I come back, and I’m so much calmer.”

The young birder is onto something. A 2024 study found that 30 minutes of birding a week could improve psychological wellbeing.

Neuropsychologist Luke Smith says that birdwatching lends itself to a form of informal mindfulness.

According to Smith, the term “mindfulness” has become a catch-all for meditation and a certain woo-woo notion, but Smith says, “you don’t need to be wearing Lululemon to practise”.

It’s best defined as paying attention on purpose.

“If you think about birdwatching, you are paying full immersive attention to what you’re seeing and hearing. You might be paying attention to your body and how you are walking or trying to be quiet.

“You can be unmindful watching birds too … If you follow the tenets of what people would call good birdwatching, it lends itself to mindfulness,” says Smith.

At its most basic, the hobby requires very little skill and equipment, besides paying attention.

Pearson says that curiosity goes a long way in birding and that he frequently turns finding birds into a mystery.

“My advice would be, if you’re interested, you’ve got that spark, and you want to expand on that, I think connecting with someone else is a really good next step,” says Pearson who is really hoping to check off a mistletoe bird from his lifer list.

As for Kenny, his call to action is much more straightforward: “Just do it – birds are out there.”

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