Preliminary findings from The Spark Bird Project: learning about timing, emotions, and sparks through contextual self-defining narratives

Introduction Spark bird stories are a unique transformative life experience sharing the moment or moments that helped an individual develop their appreciation of birds. The Spark Bird Project gathers, shares, and studies these stories with the aim of building knowledge in order to inform the birding community’s efforts to broadly spark and sustain an appreciation of birds. Methods The present manuscript summarizes preliminary findings from 560 spark bird stories collected to date as part of a large panel study of birders. Results Findings indicate that spark bird experiences happen across the lifespan with many happening in childhood and in recent years. Linguistic analyses and self-ratings of spark bird experiences indicate they are highly positive and engaging sparking curiosity and interest. Common spark birds include the Northern Cardinal and Great Blue Heron though over 200 birds as well as people and media are reported as sparks. Discussion These preliminary findings from ongoing research provide initial insights to help better understand who birders are and who potential birders may be – insights which can help shape how organizations engage with birders to the potential benefit of birders, the birding community, and the birds.