Expert birdwatchers show structural brain differences compared to novices, suggesting the hobby reshapes neural pathways similar to learning a language or instrument. These changes may help build cognitive reserve against age-related decline. A study highlights increased brain activity and complexity in key regions among skilled birders.
Researchers at York University in Canada, led by Erik Wing, examined brain structure and function in 48 hobbyist birders, divided evenly between experts and novices based on a screening test. Participants, aged 22 to 79, were comparable in sex, age, and education levels.
During functional MRI scans, individuals viewed an image of a bird for under four seconds, followed by a 10-second delay, then attempted to identify it among four similar species options. The task, using highly confusable birds, repeated 72 times with images from 18 species—six local and 12 non-local.
Experts outperformed novices, accurately identifying 83 percent of local birds and 61 percent of non-local ones, compared to 44 percent for both categories among novices. While processing non-local birds, experts displayed heightened activity in the bilateral prefrontal cortex, bilateral intraparietal sulcus, and right occipitotemporal cortex—areas linked to object identification, visual processing, attention, and working memory.
Structural scans revealed greater complexity and organization in these and related regions for experts, indicating neuroplasticity akin to that in musicians or athletes. As age advances, such brain organization typically diminishes, but the decline was milder in expert birders, hinting at enhanced cognitive reserve.
"It speaks to the wide range of cognitive processes that are involved in birding," Wing noted. Robert Zatorre of McGill University added, "It suggests that maintaining brain activity with some specialised abilities is also linked to reduced effects of ageing." Wing emphasized that similar hobbies engaging attention, memory, and sensory integration could yield comparable benefits, though not uniquely tied to birds.
The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience (DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1307-25.2026), is cross-sectional, so longitudinal research is needed to confirm causality over factors like pre-existing brain traits or lifestyle correlations.