The History of Birding

The early interest in observing birds for their aesthetic rather than utilitarian (mainly food) value is traced to the late-1700s in the works of Gilbert White, Thomas Bewick, George Montagu and John Clare. Although the study of birds and natural history became fashionable in Britain during the Victorian era, it was mainly collection-oriented with eggs and later skins being the artefacts of interest. Wealthy collectors made use of their contacts in the colonies to obtain specimens from around the world. It was only in the late 1800s that the call for bird protection began, leading to the rising popularity of observations on living birds. The Audubon Society was started to protect birds from the growing trade in feathers in the United States, while the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds began in Britain. The term birdwatching appeared for the first time as the title of a book Bird Watching by Edmund Selous in 1901. In North America the identification of birds, once thought possible only by shooting, was made possible by the emergence of optics and field identification guides. The earliest field guide in the US was Birds through an Opera Glass (1889) by Florence Bailey.Birding in North America was focused in the early and mid-20th century in the eastern seaboard region, and was influenced by the works of Ludlow Griscom and later Roger Tory Peterson.