Kirsty Costa didn't grow up with binoculars around her neck. Her birding life began in the first week of Melbourne's pandemic lockdown, on a dawn walk with her dog when a strange, wide-eyed shorebird appeared in the reeds of her local wetland. It turned out to be a Latham's snipe, a species that migrates every year between Japan and Australia, and something about that discovery, a bird she'd never known was living on her doorstep, changed how she saw the world around her.

That single sighting became Weekend Birder, now one of the most-listened-to science and nature podcasts in Australia, built around the idea that you don't need to be an expert, or even call yourself a birdwatcher, to fall in love with the birds already sharing your neighbourhood.

In this episode, Kirsty joins Chris as the show's first Australian and first non-British guest, to talk about the difference between birders, birdwatchers, and twitchers, why she gets more joy from a surprise garden visitor than a guaranteed rare bird, the mental health science behind why birdwatching works as informal mindfulness, and what a two-week birding trip through Australia would actually look like.

Episode Takeaways:

• Kirsty's spark bird story: how a Latham's snipe on a Melbourne dawn walk during lockdown turned into Weekend Birder
• Birder vs. birdwatcher vs. twitcher, and why Kirsty calls herself a "bird noticer" at heart
• Why the surprise of an unplanned sighting means more to her than the guarantee of a rare bird everyone's chasing
• A rapid-fire tour through Australian birding: where to start, what to see, and the best-kept regional secrets
• The neuroscience of birdwatching as mindfulness, and why it can leave you "a totally different person" after one walk

Episode Timestamps:

• 03:44 Pandemic Spark Bird
• 06:48 Birder vs Birdwatcher
• 08:34 Twitching Ethics Debate
• 14:25 Melbourne Birding Boom
• 17:38 Two Week Australia Plan
• 25:02 Digital Bird Lists
• 25:45 Backyard Birds With Names
• 27:05 Tawny Frogmouth Devotion
• 29:25 Why Weekend Birder
• 35:49 Birding As Mindfulness

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• Weekend Birder Website
• Listen to Kirsty's Podcast
• Follow Kirsty on Instagram