Interest in bird feeding surged in over 100 countries worldwide during the COVID-19 lockdowns
Countries with higher bird diversity tended to show more interest in bird-related Google searches
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE: A GREEN CATBIRD FROM NORTHERN AUSTRALIA EATING FOOD SET OUT ON A POST BIRD FEEDER. view more
CREDIT: MARK BROADHURST, PEXELS, CC0 (HTTPS://CREATIVECOMMONS.ORG/PUBLICDOMAIN/ZERO/1.0/)
Interest in local bird feeding appears to have ramped up in countries all over the world during the pandemic lockdowns, even in countries not historically noted for bird feeding practices, according to a study published August 2, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jacqueline Doremus from California Polytechnic State University and Liqing Li from Texas A&M University College Station, US, and Darryl Jones from Griffith University, Australia.
Feeding wild birds is a popular nature-based pastime because of its simplicity, low cost, and accessibility in even urban environments. Previous research has shown that there was a surge of interest in bird identification and bird feeding in the US and some European countries during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here, the authors 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.
The authors assessed the weekly frequency of search terms like “bird feeder", "bird food", and "bird bath” on Google for all countries with sufficient search volumes from January 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020 to see if an increase in bird searches occurred during each country’s specific lockdown period (generally around February-April 2020). They also accessed nation-level bird species data from BirdLife International to measure species richness.
There was a significant surge in bird feeding interest as measured by frequency of bird-related searches across 115 of the countries surveyed during the general lockdown period, in both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres.
Countries that lacked bird-related search interest had an average of 294 bird species (standard deviation 288.6 species), whereas countries that demonstrated a bird search interest had an average of 511 bird species (standard deviation 400.5 species), a significant increase in bird diversity over countries measured as less interested.
Because the proxy measurement for bird feeding interest is a Google search, countries with lower income or less internet access may not have been adequately captured despite their bird feeding practices. However, the authors note that their method was still able to capture a surge of interest in bird feeding not limited to traditional locations like the UK and US—e.g., Pakistan and Kenya.
The COVID-19 lockdowns likely encouraged people all over the world to seek connection and interaction with their local bird communities; the authors hope future studies can further analyze the global extent of bird feeding and specifically capture more data in previously understudied countries.
The authors add: “Up until now, most evidence on bird feeding has been limited to the US, Europe, Australia and India, however we suspected bird feeding might be more widespread. This is important to know because bird feeding affects bird health and migration patterns. Our study uses COVID restrictions to reveal interest in bird feeding worldwide, and we find that people on six continents, in both hemispheres, are interested in feeding birds.”
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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0287116
Citation: Doremus J, Li L, Jones D (2023) Covid-related surge in global wild bird feeding: Implications for biodiversity and human-nature interaction. PLoS ONE 18(8): e0287116. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0287116
Author Countries: USA, Australia
Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this work.
JOURNAL
PLoS ONE
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Covid-related surge in global wild bird feeding: Implications for biodiversity and human-nature interaction
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
2-Aug-2023
Lockdowns create global appetite for feeding feathered friends
A team of researchers have highlighted the role that the COVID-19 pandemic played in connecting people around the world more with our feathered friends while in lockdowns, finding a surge in interest for bird feeding information and providing more insight into global human-birds interactions.
Professor Emeritus Darryl Jones, from Griffith’s Centre for Planetary Health and Food Security, and the research team used Google search index (a valid proxy parameter from Google Trends data) and found a surge of interest in bird feeding in 115 countries after Covid-19 led to lockdowns where people stayed home.
Professor Jones, alongside lead author Associate Professor Jackie Doremus from California Polytechnic State University and Dr Liqing Li from Texas A&M University, investigated two interdependent questions:
- Was there evidence of increased interest in bird feeding and related topics at a global scale after Covid-19 lockdowns, relative to before?
- And is species richness correlated with the level of interest in bird feeding?
“We know from other work that interests in common bird species and bird feeding increased in response to Covid in the U.S. and some European countries during the Covid-19 pandemic,” Professor Jones said.
“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.”
The authors analysed whether there was increased interest in bird feeding and wild birds at a global, individual-country scale during and after COVID-19 lockdowns compared with before. They also examined whether the level of interest in bird feeding in a country is linked to species richness.
The authors assessed the weekly frequency of search terms like “bird feeder", "bird food", and "bird bath” on Google for all countries with sufficient search volumes from January 1, 2019 to May 31, 2020 to see if an increase in bird searches occurred during each country’s specific lockdown period (generally around February-April 2020).
They also accessed nation-level bird species data from BirdLife International to measure species richness.
For a period of 52 weeks prior to lockdowns, the team found that the search intensity was, on average, similar to what it was in the week preceding lockdowns.
After about two weeks of lockdowns, a dramatic increase in bird feeding search intensity was evident. The result mirrored the interest in these topics found in the US, where bird feeding interest is well-documented.
The extensive practice of supplementary bird feeding around the world as documented in this study has broad implications for avian communities and their migratory patterns.
Professor Jones said that while providing supplementary food for wild birds could be beneficial for them in terms of survival during periods of resource scarcity and improved health, there was also evidence to suggest that bird feeding may alter ecological communities and potentially have negative effects on biodiversity.
“If bird feeding is common in other parts of the world, this could impact migration and disease patterns,” he said.
“It is imperative that we understand the global extent of bird feeding in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of its potential impacts on both avian and human well-being at a continental and global scale.”
Regarding possible reasons for the increased behaviour towards bird feeding during Covid lockdowns, the team suggested it likely related to changes in the relative cost of alternative forms of leisure activities, as well as increases in the benefits from connecting with nature during a stressful time.
“Given the relationship between the practice of bird feeding, human mental health, and a variety of pro-environmental attributes, the implications are of great significance for human well-being and biodiversity conservation,” Professor Jones said.
“If access to other nature-based activities was also reduced, this would make bird feeding seem relatively more attractive.
“Moreover, forced time at home during lockdowns may have increased opportunities for people to notice birds in their gardens and may have piqued their interest in bird feeding.”
The team suggested future work should further explore bird feeding patterns in parts of the world with limited formal data collection and increase the cultural and biophysical diversity of settings where local bird feeding is studied.
The findings ‘Covid-related surge in global wild bird feeding: Implications for biodiversity and human-nature interaction’ have been published in PLOS ONE.
JOURNAL
PLoS ONE
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Data/statistical analysis
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Covid-related surge in global wild bird feeding: Implications for biodiversity and human-nature interaction
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
2-Aug-2023
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