To a packed and enthusiastic auditorium at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts on February 25, Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Ed Yong discussed the implications of becoming “bird curious.” 

Having become increasingly popular in the past few years, birding has provided Yong not only with a new and passionate hobby to share with others, but also with a renewed ethos of attention. His lecture, billed as “Becoming a Birder: Immersion in the True Reality,” traced the physical, cognitive, and ethical dimensions of birdwatching—and it included a series of his own captivating photographs. 

Yong achieved prominence for his writing about scientific inquiry into COVID-19 from 2020 to 2023 in The Atlantic, New York Times, and other venues. He recounts this work as “grueling, brutal… like staring straight into the sun.” Birding has had a healing effect after this ordeal, through its cultivation of patience, care, and mental presence in the shared natural world. Rather than a soothing diversion from what is called “real life,” birding is, in fact, attunement to real life itself, every bit as much as his reporting on COVID-19. 

But there are important differences. Yong discussed the physical benefits of birding: greater time outdoors, flexing the neck to look up instead of down, more walking, steadier nerves, and an awareness of the physical world often lost in other activities—especially those which are screen-based. He also recounted the geographical dynamism of birding, taking him to new places around the world, but also revealing to him anew the ecosystem around his home in Oakland, California, with its especially rich variety of bird life. 

Drawing from his book, An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us, Yong explored how birds perceive reality through sensory systems fundamentally from those of humans. Birds possess tetrachromatic vision, perceiving approximately one hundred times more colors than humans. Most remarkably, many migratory species navigate using magnetoreception—the ability to sense Earth's magnetic field, potentially through quantum mechanisms that scientists still don’t fully understand. These scientific insights complement Yong’s observational practice, providing both greater knowledge and mystery.

The keen eye and patient curiosity which birding requires are not merely aesthetic for Yong; they form an ethics of care—for birds, of course, but also for their threatened habitats, their migratory patterns, the temperaments of different species, and even care for the act of caring itself. Birding, for Yong, demonstrates a form of commitment to the world, which is indeed challenging, but also intrinsically rewarding. For example, in this richer sense of attention comes Yong’s appreciation of the common brown wren, rather than just of the vibrant, exotic birds of his more impressive photographs. 

Yong concluded his lecture with an account of his “Spoonbill Club,” monthly birding trips he organizes specifically for people with long COVID and other energy-limiting illnesses. The club provides accessible birding experiences with minimal walking, supplied seating, and binoculars—creating a supportive community for those facing isolation and disbelief about their conditions. In a smaller discussion session with graduate students and faculty the day after his lecture, Yong exchanged experiences of the challenges of reporting on chronic illnesses and argued for the advantages of patients’ own testimony as a source of medical knowledge. At the same time, he shared his motivation for lively and accurate scientific writing as a safeguard against disinformation. 

Yong’s lecture is part of a larger movement occurring across many academic disciplines and cultural spheres:  Attention to attention itself is recognized as an increasingly important counterweight to the incessant demands that screens make on our time and energy. Ed Yong invites us, through practices of attention like birding, to reattune ourselves to our shared world and its surprising rewards to our curiosity.