NUMBERS OF BIRDWATCHERS IN AUSTRALIA

["Dave Torr" <>]

I think one big difference between the UK (and the USA) and here is that in 
the former countries people are actively encouraged to feed birds in their 
backyards - indeed in the USA there are shops that sell little else but bird 
food, feeders, baths etc. Whereas here the main organisations try to 
discourage it.
As a Pom I know my interest in birds developed as a result of attracting 
them to the back garden and then learning to identify them - if I had grown 
up here then this may not have happened. I am NOT of course advocating that 
we should encourage people to feed birds, but it may explain some of the 
differences?