I began birding in 2005 after pulling a used area information off a bookstore shelf. I had by no means been birding, didn’t know any birders, and solely knew one birding truth: It was not cool.
However the place did I get that concept? With out figuring out any birders personally, I made a decision that my aversion will need to have come from the media—from cultural opinions I had picked up by osmosis. I puzzled: Was it true that the media portrayed birding as dorky? Was it all the time that manner?
To research, I’ve searched again so far as I can for examples of birders in motion pictures and on TV, charting the ways in which birding has been represented over time. It’s modified so much, I’ve discovered, throughout a number of distinct eras, as illustrated by some key moments beneath. Let’s dive in.
1900—1945: The Hero Years
In accordance with bird researcher Robert Francis, birds had been a well-liked topic in the course of the silent movie period. They had been accessible, straightforward to movie, and on the middle of a wave of conservation to cease poaching (coinciding with the founding of the National Association of Audubon Societies). The end result was dozens of movies that includes birds and hero conservationists. Some had been nearer to nature documentaries, whereas others had been dramas produced in partnership with early film studios. In The Spirit of Audubon, for instance, the literal ghost of John James Audubon shames a boy for robbing eggs from birds’ nests and takes him and his sister on a whirlwind tour of American birdlife. No footage stays, sadly.
Conservation themes continued all through of the silent period and into the talkies. Within the 1944 British comedy The Tawny Pipit, an injured fighter pilot is launched from the hospital and, utilizing a gifted area information, discovers a pair of uncommon Tawny Pipits nesting in a area in England. The pilot and his girlfriend (who was his nurse) enlist the native townspeople to guard the nest from a stream of threats, together with military trainees, a plow, egg thieves, and…
Birders. Although that is an early illustration of them, all of the clichés are there: They’re previous, bumbling, and overdressed in tweed and khaki. The townspeople are at first cautious of their presence (they’re mistaken for extra “egg-stealers”), however the birders are conscious of how particular the pipits are and work for his or her safety, establishing a blind and taking turns viewing (skip to 33:44 within the video above). It’s, total, a reasonably respectful illustration in a film wholly impressed by conservation. The stage was set for our subsequent period.
1946—1966: The Golden Years
The Fifties had been a superb time for birdwatchers in america, in actual life and on the large display screen. Individuals within the Fifties loved relative peace and prosperity and had extra free time to pursue hobbies. Miles of recent highways aided exploration, high-quality optics developed throughout WWII flooded the market, and new and higher area guides grew to become broadly out there. This all mixed to spur contemporary curiosity in birding, and its newfound recognition was mirrored on display screen.
Along with there being much more birders within the ’50s, there have been additionally much more folks watching TV. To fulfill the demand, studios launched a slew of recent applications—cartoons and sitcoms and different reveals that competed for the general public’s consideration—and wanted to continuously provide you with concepts for episodes.
Birding steadily confirmed up in cartoons, together with Woody Woodpecker’s “Watch the Birdie” from 1958 (Woody is an actual jerk for no motive!) and Rocky and Bullwinkle’s “The Treasure of Monte Zoom” (1962). Even Popeye picked up binoculars on the behest of Oliv Oyl, saying “Okay, boid, I’m watchin’ ya” in 1960’s “Bird Watcher Popeye.”
Birding appeared in sitcoms, as nicely. Within the 1960 episode of Dennis the Menace referred to as “Dennis’ Tree House,” Dennis’ neighbor Mr. Wilson discovers a uncommon (and completely faux) Canadian Crested Warbler in his yard. He then invitations native birdwatching bigwigs to verify the sighting and hopefully embrace him on their native birding Honor Scroll. It’s a six-decade-old episode of TV that—if you happen to swapped “Honor Scroll” with “American Birding Affiliation Podcast’s Rare Bird Focus” —would look virtually an identical in the present day.
What made the Golden Years period so particular was that birding was not the butt of the joke.
What made the Golden Years period so particular was that birding was not the butt of the joke. It wasn’t inherently odd or nerdy to be a birdwatcher throughout this time, even in comedy applications. However issues took a tough flip within the Sixties, with one character singlehandedly souring the status of birding for many years to return.
It wasn’t Burt Lancaster in 1962’s Birdman of Alcatraz, who performed a assassin in jail who finds salvation in turning into an ornithologist. And it wasn’t The Birds, the basic Alfred Hitchcock thriller from 1963 the place a city of individuals is actually murdered by gulls, crows, and different birds.
No, the character that ruined birding, that locked in a status of birders as khaki-clad dorks that took many years to unwind, was… Miss Jane Hathaway.
1966: The Hathaway Line
The debut of Miss Jane Hathaway’s birding obsession in a 1966 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies titled “The Hen-Watchers” was a turning level for birders—an occasion I name The Hathaway Line.
In his ebook Of a Feather, in a chapter referred to as “Demise to Miss Hathaway,” Scott Weidensaul units the stage: “Miss Jane Hathaway – the tall spinster performed by Nancy Culp, who’d pop up in with a pith helmet and a pair of binoculars, so starchy, so prim, so nerdy… None of which mattered, besides that she was a bird-watcher.” Weidensaul writes about encountering Miss Hathaway for the primary time as a child, seeing her and her “dweeby little pals, prancing round of their tweeds and wise footwear, with binoculars round their skinny necks and spectacles perched on their ridiculous faces.” They had been ridiculous characters, he realized, and so possibly birdwatching was ridiculous, too.
It’s exhausting to overstate the affect of this seemingly minor character. The Beverly Hillbillies was some of the in style TV reveals of the Sixties, with every episode reaching tens of thousands and thousands of viewers. Jane Hathaway appeared in 246 episodes throughout 9 seasons. She wasn’t all the time birdwatching, however only some instances was sufficient to affiliate her with birding perpetually and sink the pastime’s status. Consequently, the subsequent few many years had been fairly bleak.
1967—2011: The Bleak Years
Right here’s what’s ironic in regards to the Bleak Years: Birding was rising as a subculture and pastime within the Seventies. The American Birdwatcher’s Affiliation (now the American Birding Affiliation) was based in 1969, and hip, younger birders like Kenn Kaufman had been hitchhiking their manner across the nation seeking lifers and journey. Birding was type of cool—it simply wasn’t proven that manner on TV.
The dismissive mainstream angle is summed up fairly clearly within the intro to this 1979 episode of “The MacNeil/Lehrer Report” about an Audubon Christmas Bird Count (emphasis mine): “Within the sharp, early morning sunshine of a Lengthy Island winter, 5 males maintain an annual appointment with nature. Why are they up at daybreak on this frozen panorama? They’re counting birds—and it’s not almost as foolish because it sounds.” C’mon man!
Birding not often appeared in mass media within the many years after Miss Hathaway, and when it did it was not portrayed kindly. It was the peak of un-coolness when Katherine Hepburn was shrieking about loons in On Golden Pond (1981). Birding was related to creepiness in Beetlejuice (1988), mental instability in Serial Mother (1994), and sexual deviance in 2001’s Quick Couch, a film so weird that I feel all English-language variations have been scrubbed from the web (although please be aware Crispin Glover’s insane tweed-jacket-and-red-bow-tie birding outfit).
Throughout the Bleak Years birding was additionally a well-liked narrative device in horror movies. Horror administrators want an excuse to get folks into distant areas to be killed off, in spite of everything, and birders is usually a excellent match. The plot of 1988’s Zombie 5: Killing Birds entails a bunch of youngsters getting murdered within the swamps of Louisiana whereas looking for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. In 1981’s Don’t Go Into the Woods, a lone birder (additionally in a ridiculous tweed jacket and crimson bow tie, regardless of all his mountaineering buddies sporting regular garments) is an early casualty.
Throughout the Bleak Years birding was additionally a well-liked narrative device in horror motion pictures.
Birding additionally often reveals up in police procedurals. Birders are individuals who could also be in distant locations and come upon a criminal offense scene or clue. Or possibly they see a vital occasion by means of their binoculars.
Within the 1985 Homicide, She Wrote episode “A Lady in the Lake,” Jessica Fletcher runs right into a meek, nerdy birdwatcher at a lakeside lodge. (Spoiler alert: the birder is the assassin!) Birders discover physique components in hen nests in a 2003 episode of CSI and a 2008 episode of Bones. Birders {photograph} crimes in episodes of each Law and Order: SVU and NCIS, and Criminal Minds encompasses a plotline the place a prison leaves lifeless Nelson’s Sparrows, of all issues, at his crime scenes. I’m positive there are extra.
2011—current: The Renaissance
Cracks had been starting to indicate in birding’s nerdy status within the early and mid-2000s. The 2001 Canadian movie Rare Birds follows a down-on-his-luck restaurant proprietor who fakes the sighting of a uncommon hen—the utterly made up Tasker’s Sulphureous Duck—to drum up enterprise. The restaurant proprietor calls his faux sighting right into a bird-themed radio present (!) hosted by a birder sporting, after all, a tweed jacket and crimson bow tie. (Why all the time a crimson bow tie!?) A 2005 Will and Grace episode options Luke Perry as a hunky homosexual birder wanting, extremely however not solely unbelievably, at a Golden-cheeked Warbler in a wintry Central Park.
However it was 2011’s The Big Year that marked the turning level in how birding is handled within the wider tradition. It was a pleasant film, however extra importantly it offered the revolutionary concept that birding was one thing that ordinary folks participated in, sporting regular garments (not a single bow tie!) and speaking usually. The flood gates had been open.
When the Hallmark Channel takes discover, you actually know the stigma is gone.
In 2013, A Birder’s Guide to Everything confirmed that cool folks like Sir Ben Kingsley and a bunch of regular youngsters may very well be birders, and The Birder aka the Bird Men (2013) confirmed that the identical factor may occur in Canada. Mark Ruffalo used the Merlin App on HBO’s Task final 12 months, and the primary character in Netflix’s The Residence (2025) was a birdwatching detective fixing a homicide on the White Home. Gen Z is getting in on the act, too, with Listers turning into a sensation on YouTube final 12 months.
When the Hallmark Channel takes discover, you actually know the stigma is gone. The 2020 rom-com Love & Glamping proved that being a birder received’t forestall an uptight metropolis lady from falling in love with you, and 2025’s Adventures in Love & Birding, based on a novel, confirmed that conventionally engaging women and men can discover love whereas birding, particularly in the event that they’re every in a position to appeal to miniature male Different Thrushes to perch and kiss on their hands.
After Hallmark Channel motion pictures and Gen Z, what’s left for birding to beat? I imply, we have even conquered the ultimate frontier: house. Within the 2026 episode of Starfleet Academy “Rubincon,” two characters bond over their love of birdwatching. Are there birds in house? Who is aware of, however birding has come gentle years since its early days on the large display screen.
