The Urban Birder

David Lindo uses birding in an urban environment as a means to connect people to nature.

Hollander Bishoff

When people think of birding they often think of going out into rural areas—perhaps a reservoir, forest or other natural area—to view birds in their habitat. What they often don’t realize is how much birds have adapted to urbanization and how easy it is for them to bird right outside their homes. During the course of the Covid-19 pandemic the hobby of bird watching increased drastically as over 1.4 million people downloaded the Merlin Bird ID app in 2020, with a 20.7% increase in bird sightings during the months of May 2019 and May 2020.

As a broadcaster, writer, speaker, tour leader and educator, David Lindo’s mission is to engage city folk around the world with the environment through the medium of birds. To do this he created The Urban Birder World, a group dedicated to sharing the lifestyle of birding with others.

“I see myself as a bridge, people often gain an interest through listening to me or…seeing something that I’ve done and then they explore that interest and develop [it],” says Lindo.

Well known among the birding community, Lindo has been an influential figure in the scene. Recently named the 7th most influential person by BBC Wildlife Magazine, Lindo’s work to accomplish his goal with The Urban Birder World has paid off.

“I’ve got a good grassroots following,” says Lindo. “A lot of people identify with me because…I like to… put out there that it’s okay to make mistakes.”

Lindo had no background in conservation or bi- ology; in fact, his background is in sales and marketing, something that offered him no knowledge of conservation or birds. But Lindo feels that this has helped him the most. “I think that’s actually helped me more than anything else… I come from a background in which you understand the fact that you need to sell ideas,” he says.

Selling ideas is exactly what Lindo did. In 2014, Lindo launched a campaign to find Britain’s national bird, something Lindo originally wanted to do as a kid. “Britain’s National Bird Campaign,” the official name of the project, attracted many people.

“It was rewarding, I managed to get…a quarter of a million people to vote,” says Lindo.

The official winner of the campaign—the robin—was not officially ratified as Britain’s national bird, however, Lindo still considers the Campaign a success, saying, “60 percent of those [who voted] were not members of any wildlife conservation organization, which was great because the reason why I did this campaign was not so much to get Britain’s national bird but to get people talking about birds who never normally speak about them.”

Lindo’s fascination with birds began very early on. “I’ve always been interested in natural history… I just had an inborn, inbuilt interest,” he says.

Lindo often jokes that his love for birds began even before his birth, saying “I was a puma [in a previous life] and I used to chase after birds, and one day I missed one, and I thought, wow, that’s amazing. So I started watching birds as a puma.”

In an interview with best-selling author Robert Macfarlane, Lindo talked about how he wanted to be a veterinarian as a child. “I remember going to the careers teacher with my mom and they said to me, ‘well what do you want to do David?’ and I said, ‘well, I’d actually like to be a vet.’ And he said, ‘A vet…I think you should be a bricklayer or a carpenter.’”

This was not the only time Lindo felt a negative impact regarding his education. In fact a lack of encouragement and help from his teachers left him feeling unintelligent. In the same interview Lindo said, “it stunted my kind of development to the point that I didn’t actually read much.”

Even with a lack of support from teachers this didn’t stop Lindo from doing what he wanted to do. Before Lindo fully committed to The Urban Birder World he first was a DJ. “When I was at school…Saturday Night Fever just came out, and… I sold all my punk records and bought disco, 12 inches, and started going to clubs.”

Lindo worked as a DJ in the early 2000s, and he was playing in five to six residencies in central London. “[I got] to a point where I could have actually crossed over and been a DJ but then one day I was at a club… I got home at six [in the morning] and then basically I just turned around and went straight out birding.”

Moving into full-time birding, he began to write and became the author of multiple books about birding: The Urban Birder, Tales From Concrete Jungles, #Urban Birding, How To Be An Urban Birder and The Extraordinary World of Birds. As his fame grew so did his opportunities. In 2020, Lindo was shortlisted for the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) Columnist of the year award. Lindo was also on the 2021 judging panel of the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the year award and judged both the Bird Photographer of the Year and the British Wildlife Photography Awards.

Lindo continues to grow the birding community and share it with those who have not yet had the opportunity to be a part of it. Anyone can be an Urban Birder, they must first always remember to #LookUp.