Unlike professional ornithologists or biologists, who engage in the study of birds via formal scientific methods, most birdwatchers pursue the activity for recreational and social reasons.

The term appeared for the first time in 1901 as the title of the book Bird Watching by the British ornithologist Edmund Selous.

When cheap air-travel became feasible in the 1960s, the cost of flying to remote birding destinations became a possibility for large numbers of people.