Becca Heywood is a third-generation birder. She learned to watch birds alongside both her father and her grandfather and today she's turning that inheritance into something new, sharing South London's urban wildlife with the world. By day she works in inclusion and equity at WWF-UK, and that same lens shows up throughout this conversation with Chris.
Chris and Becca trace her path from childhood trips down the M5 spotting buzzards, through a teenage stretch of quietly shelving the hobby for fear of not being "cool," to relaunching her passion at the very end of 2025 as a way to build community after moving to London.
From there they dig into the parts of birding culture that don't always get talked about — the "all or nothing" mentality, the stereotype of who a birdwatcher is supposed to be, and why nobody is born knowing how to ID a gull.
They also swap notes on why kingfishers still feel mythical no matter how many you've seen, Becca's love affair with analog Field Notes notebooks and a pocket photo printer over yet another listing app, and a rapid-fire round that surfaces a proper nemesis bird.
Episode Takeaways:
A Third-Generation Birder: Buzzards spotted from the back seat with her dad and grandad, birding as shared curiosity, not expertise.
Birds With Becca, Built for Belonging: Launched 30 December 2025 to build community after a move to London, no gear or right answers required.
Knocking Down Birding's Barriers: On the "hardcore twitcher" stereotype and why "I don't have the kit" is the easiest barrier to knock down.
Notebooks Over Apps: Why Becca traded digital life-lists for handwritten Field Notes notebooks, plus the WWT Barnes bittern that's become her nemesis!
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