According to a 2022 survey by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, birders, those people in parks aiming binoculars and long-lens cameras at birds like they’re spies tracking a terrorist, are split almost evenly between men and women. But a recent study published in People and Nature suggests that, at least in cities, men may have the advantage, since city birds seem to be afraid of women.

Researchers across France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the Czech Republic tested how close humans could get to urban birds before they high-tailed it out of there. The researchers consistently found that birds let men approach on average about a meter closer than they allow women to approach. The findings were consistent across 37 species, ranging from the average patient and crow to slightly rarer birds like Robbins, suggesting that this isn’t a coincidence.

This is the kind of experiment where some bias, accidental or otherwise, might slip in, so the researchers controlled for variables that might tip the scales one way or another. Male and female participants were matched in height and were dressed similarly to mask gender as best as possible. And were instructed to walk the same pace directly toward the birds. Even distinguishing features like their hair were tucked away, effectively creating a gender-neutral pair.

No matter what the researchers did, the birds still reacted differently depending on gender.

City Birds Seem Weirdly Suspicious of Women

As for why, they have no idea. Of course, they have theories that may one day be proven or debunked. For instance, they think it might have something to do with an individual’s gait, meaning the difference in postures and movement patterns between men and women. Maybe there is something inherently more threatening to a bird about the way a human woman moves?

Another idea is scent. Birds have long been theorized to have a weak sense of smell, but newer research suggests that may not be the case. If that proves true, it means birds might be able to pick up on chemical cues given off by women that help them distinguish between the sexes. Still, neither theory fully addresses the why of it all, as in why do the birds find either a woman’s gait or a woman’s scent inherently more threatening than a man’s?   

It may be a while before we get a definitive answer to this, but in the meantime, speaking purely anecdotally, all of the birding meet-ups that my wife and I attend, which are filled mostly with women, don’t seem compromised by a bird’s inherent discomfort around a human woman. Weird, considering all the guys are the ones who routinely get up in the birds’ business.