Birdwatching is taking off in a big way among young people. Reports say that around 750,000 people aged 16–29 in the UK and millions in the U.S. now regularly go birdwatching — turning what was once seen as a “quiet” hobby into a fast-growing trend.
Part of the appeal is how simple it is to start. You don’t need expensive gear or special training — just curiosity and a bit of time outdoors. It’s a low-pressure way to take a break from screens, notice what’s around you, and actually tune into sounds and spaces most people scroll past.
Ironically, social media is helping drive the trend. Birdwatching accounts, short videos, and identification apps are making it easier than ever to learn bird calls, spot species, and share discoveries with others. Instead of pulling people away from nature, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are often pushing people back into it.
Conservationists are especially excited because this kind of interest helps more people connect with wildlife and care about protecting it. Birdwatching is becoming less about binoculars and notebooks — and more about curiosity, community, and noticing the world a little differently.
Beekeeper Nick was confused when his bees kept dying off. He kept his hives being stocked with food, so why did he still lose around 75% of the colony? The answer was in what was (or wasn’t) in his bees’ food.
In the wild, bees take what they need from flowers to make honey, and then feed off this honey in the winter. When we take this honey for ourselves, beekeepers replace it with supplementary food in the form of sugar and water, and scientists now say that bees can’t subsist off of just sugar and water, as the simple combination was missing key nutrients. Your parents probably said the same thing about why you can’t just have cake for dinner!
After years of testing different foods for bees, scientists have finally discovered how to make the core ingredient, called “sterole.” Oxford scientists have been developing the best foods for bees, and have found that the bees who consumed the food with sterole were healthier, and had up to 15 times more baby bees! This breakthrough is incredibly important — it means bees can still thrive without floral pollen, which would also help our food security, since bees are so important for pollinating crops.
Did you know we’re still finding new dinosaurs?! You’d think the 66 million years they’ve been extinct would have been enough time for research, but the Natural History Museum is getting ready to welcome yet another new addition — a small dinosaur that they had previously mistaken for a Nanosaurus. It’s a two-legged, herbivorous dinosaur with big feet and a long tail, about the height of a labrador. Scientists have renamed it “Enigmacursor,” which means “puzzling runner,” and would also be a very cool name for the next Nike sneaker.
To determine if a dinosaur (or any creature) is new, researchers try to find unique features, like parts, proportions, and shapes. The Enigmacursor will be displayed at the Natural History Museum and will be an important tool for learning how its bigger relatives evolved, since dinosaurs started their evolution as small animals and became much, much bigger over a long, long time.
In The Amazing Teamwork of Emperor Penguin Parents, host Andy Day journeys to Antarctica where emperor penguin fathers sit patiently with their egg on their feet for two months while the mothers fish for food. When the penguin parents are reunited, the egg has hatched and the mother takes over babysitting while the father goes to feed. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Adélie Penguin Chicks at the Bottom of the World, host Andy Day highlights the Adélie penguins living in Antarctica. Starting out their lives on land, the penguin chicks practice walking and learn endurance by racing to get their portion of food from the parent who only has one portion for the two chicks. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Splash! Polar Bear Cubs Take to the Water, host Andy Day follows two polar bear cubs have been walking on ice all winter. Now the ice is melting and it’s time for their first swim! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Ducklings’ Day Out, host Andy Day follows day-old ducklings who already have to take a leap, literally. As their mother duck encourages them, the ducklings fling themselves from the tree where they were born and waddle to the pond, where they will swim for the first time. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Bar-Headed Goslings in the Nest, host Andy Day describes how bar-headed geese fly over the Himalayas to land in Tibet and have their babies. Mother geese make cozy nests to house their goslings. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
Bug inspectors! Bingo and Lila are keeping an eye on the bugs on their water slide. They need to make sure Dad doesn’t squish them with his bum! Can you find five leaf bugs, shiny bugs, grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, rainbowy bugs, and ladybugs?
Inspired by Season 3, Episode 46 "Slide": Bingo and Lila are excited to play on their new waterslide, but first they have to make sure they don’t squish any bugs.
Aw, look at these little critters. Just snip, roll and stick to make a butterfly, dragonfly, or a ladybug. Too easy! You'll need your own popsicles sticks. Here's what you'll do:
- Cut out the bits on the page. Glue the wings to the sticks first! Then roll and stick on the bodies. Make sure to leave a gap at the top of each stick for the head.
- Roll the heads into smaller loops and tape shut. Then curl the antennae (feelers!) around a pencil and glue them on top of the heads.
- Tape the heads at the top of the sticks. Ding ching! Say hello to your bug friends!
All right, squids. Follow the path to find out all about the life cycle of a butterfly. You can play on your own or with a mate. Travel along to find out how a butterfly grows and do the actions as you go:
- Caterpillar: Pretend to munch on a yummy leaf and nom-nom-nom to the next space
- Chrysalis: Keep quiet and stay verrryyy still in your cozy chrysalis. Shhh!
- Emerge: Say, "Look at me! I'm a butterfly!" Check out your awesome wings
- Butterfly: Uncurl your long butterfly tongue and wiggle it about
Join Bluey and Bingo in the great outdoors. Match close-ups to the right bug (walking leaf, dragonfly, and ladybug), put leeches in size order from smallest and biggest, and fill out a fun spotting chart on your next nature walk. Can you find a plant, creature, bird, and stick or pinecone? Draw them!
Birdwatching is taking off in a big way among young people. Reports say that around 750,000 people aged 16–29 in the UK and millions in the U.S. now regularly go birdwatching — turning what was once seen as a “quiet” hobby into a fast-growing trend.
Part of the appeal is how simple it is to start. You don’t need expensive gear or special training — just curiosity and a bit of time outdoors. It’s a low-pressure way to take a break from screens, notice what’s around you, and actually tune into sounds and spaces most people scroll past.
Ironically, social media is helping drive the trend. Birdwatching accounts, short videos, and identification apps are making it easier than ever to learn bird calls, spot species, and share discoveries with others. Instead of pulling people away from nature, platforms like TikTok and Instagram are often pushing people back into it.
Conservationists are especially excited because this kind of interest helps more people connect with wildlife and care about protecting it. Birdwatching is becoming less about binoculars and notebooks — and more about curiosity, community, and noticing the world a little differently.
Beekeeper Nick was confused when his bees kept dying off. He kept his hives being stocked with food, so why did he still lose around 75% of the colony? The answer was in what was (or wasn’t) in his bees’ food.
In the wild, bees take what they need from flowers to make honey, and then feed off this honey in the winter. When we take this honey for ourselves, beekeepers replace it with supplementary food in the form of sugar and water, and scientists now say that bees can’t subsist off of just sugar and water, as the simple combination was missing key nutrients. Your parents probably said the same thing about why you can’t just have cake for dinner!
After years of testing different foods for bees, scientists have finally discovered how to make the core ingredient, called “sterole.” Oxford scientists have been developing the best foods for bees, and have found that the bees who consumed the food with sterole were healthier, and had up to 15 times more baby bees! This breakthrough is incredibly important — it means bees can still thrive without floral pollen, which would also help our food security, since bees are so important for pollinating crops.
Did you know we’re still finding new dinosaurs?! You’d think the 66 million years they’ve been extinct would have been enough time for research, but the Natural History Museum is getting ready to welcome yet another new addition — a small dinosaur that they had previously mistaken for a Nanosaurus. It’s a two-legged, herbivorous dinosaur with big feet and a long tail, about the height of a labrador. Scientists have renamed it “Enigmacursor,” which means “puzzling runner,” and would also be a very cool name for the next Nike sneaker.
To determine if a dinosaur (or any creature) is new, researchers try to find unique features, like parts, proportions, and shapes. The Enigmacursor will be displayed at the Natural History Museum and will be an important tool for learning how its bigger relatives evolved, since dinosaurs started their evolution as small animals and became much, much bigger over a long, long time.
In The Amazing Teamwork of Emperor Penguin Parents, host Andy Day journeys to Antarctica where emperor penguin fathers sit patiently with their egg on their feet for two months while the mothers fish for food. When the penguin parents are reunited, the egg has hatched and the mother takes over babysitting while the father goes to feed. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Adélie Penguin Chicks at the Bottom of the World, host Andy Day highlights the Adélie penguins living in Antarctica. Starting out their lives on land, the penguin chicks practice walking and learn endurance by racing to get their portion of food from the parent who only has one portion for the two chicks. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Splash! Polar Bear Cubs Take to the Water, host Andy Day follows two polar bear cubs have been walking on ice all winter. Now the ice is melting and it’s time for their first swim! This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Ducklings’ Day Out, host Andy Day follows day-old ducklings who already have to take a leap, literally. As their mother duck encourages them, the ducklings fling themselves from the tree where they were born and waddle to the pond, where they will swim for the first time. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
In Bar-Headed Goslings in the Nest, host Andy Day describes how bar-headed geese fly over the Himalayas to land in Tibet and have their babies. Mother geese make cozy nests to house their goslings. This video is excerpted from BBC’s Andy’s Baby Animals, in which Andy Day explores the lives and experiences of baby animals.
Bug inspectors! Bingo and Lila are keeping an eye on the bugs on their water slide. They need to make sure Dad doesn’t squish them with his bum! Can you find five leaf bugs, shiny bugs, grasshoppers, ants, caterpillars, rainbowy bugs, and ladybugs?
Inspired by Season 3, Episode 46 "Slide": Bingo and Lila are excited to play on their new waterslide, but first they have to make sure they don’t squish any bugs.
Aw, look at these little critters. Just snip, roll and stick to make a butterfly, dragonfly, or a ladybug. Too easy! You'll need your own popsicles sticks. Here's what you'll do:
- Cut out the bits on the page. Glue the wings to the sticks first! Then roll and stick on the bodies. Make sure to leave a gap at the top of each stick for the head.
- Roll the heads into smaller loops and tape shut. Then curl the antennae (feelers!) around a pencil and glue them on top of the heads.
- Tape the heads at the top of the sticks. Ding ching! Say hello to your bug friends!
All right, squids. Follow the path to find out all about the life cycle of a butterfly. You can play on your own or with a mate. Travel along to find out how a butterfly grows and do the actions as you go:
- Caterpillar: Pretend to munch on a yummy leaf and nom-nom-nom to the next space
- Chrysalis: Keep quiet and stay verrryyy still in your cozy chrysalis. Shhh!
- Emerge: Say, "Look at me! I'm a butterfly!" Check out your awesome wings
- Butterfly: Uncurl your long butterfly tongue and wiggle it about
Join Bluey and Bingo in the great outdoors. Match close-ups to the right bug (walking leaf, dragonfly, and ladybug), put leeches in size order from smallest and biggest, and fill out a fun spotting chart on your next nature walk. Can you find a plant, creature, bird, and stick or pinecone? Draw them!