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Victoria Sindlinger led a six-member flock from the Quackers Bird Club across the University of Pennsylvania<\/a> campus, peering into hundreds of trees and shrubs along the way.<\/p>\n Binoculars dangling, the crew navigated past Franklin Field, traversed a steel bridge, skirted past tennis courts, and ducked into a pocket park. <\/p>\n For two hours on a recent walk they tracked a northern mockingbird tucked into a willow oak, caught a yellow warbler mid-hunt, pinpointed a monarch butterfly resting on goldenrod, and observed other flora and fauna, including a giant hornet nest.<\/p>\n Sindlinger, a 22-year-old senior environmental science major from West Philadelphia<\/a>, launched the club during her freshman year, pitching it to a small group chat of classmates. The group has grown to 120 members and is an official university organization.<\/p>\n The Quackers are part of an expanding wave of young, city-dwelling birders reshaping the hobby with a distinct urban tilt. While regional sanctuaries like Cape May<\/a> and Berks County\u2019s Hawk Mountain draw international recognition, the popularity of urban birding across Philadelphia and its dense suburbs is soaring, according to some of the region\u2019s most enthusiastic bird-watchers.<\/p>\n \u00bb READ MORE: Where to see cool birds near Philly, according to some of the region\u2019s most enthusiastic bird watchers<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think there\u2019s been more interest in birds and more research and more activity around birds here in the Philly area than any other place in the Western Hemisphere,\u201d said Keith Russell, program manager for urban conservation at Audubon Mid-Atlantic<\/a>.<\/p>\n The convergence of COVID-19 isolation and modern nature applications helped trigger a surge in urban birding. Campus clubs are multiplying, groups of like-minded people are gathering, and loose local networks are banding together through informal meetups.<\/p>\n \u201cThe really nice thing about birding in general \u2014 and running a bird club \u2014 is that it\u2019s actually pretty easy to do,\u201d Sindlinger said. Her club takes excursions by SEPTA<\/a>, via rented car, or even by foot.<\/p>\n \u201cThe birds are out there. Especially on Penn\u2019s campus, which is so beautifully green.\u201d <\/p>\n Indeed, the growth of birding in the region, and particularly Philadelphia, has been extraordinary, according to data from eBird, a citizen-science project by Cornell University\u2019s Lab of Ornithology that allows birders to log the species they see and the locations. <\/p>\n In 2020, Pennsylvania had 9,559 eBird users. In 2025, it had 15,830, a 66% increase. <\/p>\n New Jersey had 6,098 users in 2020. It had 11,082 by the end of last year, an 82% increase. <\/p>\n And Philadelphia went from 1,035 eBird users in 2020 to 2,754 last year \u2014 a 166% increase.<\/p>\n Add to that, the growth of Philly Birding Weekend, which celebrated its fifth year on Oct. 10 and 11. About 140 people registered for 10 trips. Birders spotted 36 species during one of those outings at the Discovery Center in Fairmount<\/a> Park. <\/p>\n A tech-fueled birding boom<\/p>\n For Russell, of Audubon Mid-Atlantic, urban birding should rarely require a personal vehicle, trips to remote coastal reserves, or thousands of dollars in camera gear. <\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a kid here in Philly, I couldn\u2019t drive. I had to walk, so I had to just go in my neighborhood,\u201d Russell said.<\/p>\n He champions unheralded urban pockets, like a stormwater retention pond off 51st Street near Bartram\u2019s Garden, accessible by public transit. That single basin routinely attracts rare shorebirds, including red knots, phalaropes, and Baird\u2019s sandpipers.<\/p>\n \u201cStudies show that people who observe birds become healthier, happier, and more content,\u201d Russell said. \u201cWe live in a very stressful time and a very stressful world.\u201d<\/p>\n The Delaware Valley Ornithological Club<\/a>, founded in 1890, helps link birding groups in the region through its jam-packed calendar of walks and events. <\/p>\n Services like eBird lower the entry bar, opening direct channels to the natural world. eBird, launched in 2002, lets users tap a global database. <\/p>\n Merlin, an app also developed by the Cornell ornithology lab, helps users identify birds. Merlin introduced photo identification in 2014 and audio identification in 2021.<\/p>\n Pennsylvanians logged 32,000 checklists \u2014 digital records of birds spotted during field trips \u2014 into eBird in August alone, said Kathi Borgmann, a spokesperson for the Cornell lab. <\/p>\n \u201cWe are seeing month-over-month growth of 10% to 20%,\u201d Borgmann said of the service.<\/p>\n Though Cornell does not officially track user demographics, Borgmann added, \u201cWe see all these young people on social media talking about eBird and Merlin.\u201d<\/p>\n For Katrina Clark, a 47-year-old literacy specialist from Cobbs Creek, eBird helped draw her to the urban birding scene.<\/p>\n She first picked up binoculars during the 2020 lockdowns. Strolling through her neighborhood, a friend pointed out a gray catbird, a species Clark assumed belonged in a zoo, not a neighborhood of concrete.<\/p>\n Driven by curiosity, she checked eBird, studied local maps, and eventually joined the board of the In Color Birding Club, a group founded in 2020 to cultivate a safe, inclusive environment for Black birders.<\/p>\n \u201cI did not think about birds except that they were far away, not connected to the city,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n While large sanctuaries like the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge offer massive species tallies, Clark finds equal satisfaction watching a downy woodpecker work a solitary tree along Cobbs Creek while city trolleys rattle past.<\/p>\n Elise Greenberg, 35, founded Philly Queer Birders in 2021 to merge her background in biology with a desire for community during the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cI wanted to get outside, I wanted to be around other people, and I was missing the queer community and missing birding,\u201d Greenberg said.<\/p>\n What began as a small outing quickly exploded. Today, her informal walks draw up to 100 people, backed by an Instagram community of over 7,000 followers. Her group draws an intergenerational mix that leans heavily toward young adults and young families. <\/p>\n Greenberg focuses the itinerary on transit-accessible locations like the Woodlands and the Discovery Center, with occasional trips out to Chanticleer Garden or Tyler Arboretum.<\/p>\n Unusual sightings often spark massive interest. When a rare tundra bean goose landed near Fairmount Park along the Schuylkill<\/a> in 2021, birders from across the region flooded the riverbanks. <\/p>\n \u201cThe joy they found seeing it provided a spark,\u201d Greenberg recalled.<\/p>\n It is a sentiment shared by other bird-watchers.<\/p>\n \u2018Outlets that bring us together\u2019<\/p>\n Jonah Perelman, a 22-year-old biophysics major at Penn, moved from suburban New Jersey to Philadelphia, assuming his passion for birding would be put on hold. But a poster hung by Sindlinger in a dining hall pointed him toward the Quackers.<\/p>\n