Something I’d like to do more often this year is, when I really feel like blabbing about a piece of media, is do more than write a long comment about it. Why not give it a whole article! So I’m starting off with something weird, that I would love to put on more people’s radar: A feature length YouTube documentary about bird watching.
I was introduced to this film when I saw it on a stranger’s list of their favorite things from 2025. There was no explanation attached, just the movie’s name. But for me, the promise of a title like Listers: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching was more than enough to rope me in. I am all in to see any mundane activity taken to ridiculous lengths.
Listers comes from a pair of brothers, Owen and Quentin Reiser. Their explanation for this whole venture, within the film, is Quentin just got interested in birds after reading a guide-book about them while high. Rather then casually sink their feet into bird watching, the brothers deciding to go all in by committing to a Big Year — a year long challenge to spot as many birds as possible. [This concept also inspired the 2011 comedy The Big Year, starring Jack Black, Steven Martin, and Owen Wilson. I remember seeing trailers for that. I gave the slightest consideration to watching it after this documentary, but that did not seem worth it.]
The Reisers hit the road, committing to sleeping in their car in Cracker Barrel parking lots while seeking winged friends. That means this is ultimately a road trip movie. Being that, enjoying it depends a lot on how much you enjoy spending time with these guys. And I think you’ll figure out if you enjoy their vibe very quickly. They are very much dudes. They’re pretty crass and get up to some antics. Sometimes they’re funny, sometimes they’re not. There was a point where I felt like it would be more interesting to be following a truly committed birdwatcher instead of guys who are bird watching for the bit. But there is ultimately value in this being grounded in an outsider’s perspective of the hobby. And the film has a strong sense of identity through their outsider spirit.
That said, of the course the film isn’t just about hanging out with its filmmakers. It’s a full on descent into the rabbit hole of this hobby. Unsurprisingly, there’s a lot of eccentric characters in the bird watching world. Of course, there’s people who just seem like charming nerds with a love of wildlife. But then there’s people who clearly have an odd level of obsession with the whole thing. It’s entertaining getting to know them through interviews and encounters on the road. And it’s fun learning the ins-and-outs of their subculture — all the lingo and the controversies and the petty feuds that’ll make up any niche community.
A stand out detail is learning about the existence of eBird, an app that’s apparently become ubiquitous in the world of bird watching. It’s described a being a genuinely a useful tool — and the idea of being able to follow bird sightings all around your area is pretty cool to me. But it’s also discussed how much of a negative effect it has on the community, how it drives people to treat bird watching like it’s a game they have to complete, a checklist they have to get through. Milestone hunting becomes more important than actually enjoying bird watching. This fascinates me, because it feels like a very familiar story. If you allow me to compare it to more sedentary hobbies, it reminds me of people who ruin their enjoyment of a video game because they feel they have to 100% it. It reminds me of people who try reading through books as fast as possible so they can meet their yearly goal on GoodReads. And it reminds me of how I end up motivated to watch so much media just so I can log it on Letterboxd and add it to one of my lists. It’s just amazing to me how much this listing or achievement mindset can really hack your brain.
There are beautiful moments of discovery on this adventure. Sometimes it’s the colorful people they meet along the way. But sometimes, it is all about the birds. I said these guys are kind of doing bird watching for the bit, but they do clearly have an appreciation for the animals. And they care enough to get some beautiful footage of the birds they encounter. They introduced me to several beautiful birds I would love to see in person one day, but probably won’t. I come away regretting how little I know about them. I don’t know if I’ll ever pick up bird watching, but maybe I should at least try out that Wingspan game people nerd out about one day.
The movie may be a lot of silly fun, but by the end it does feel like a meaningful experience. It makes you wonder why we as humans get obsessed with the things we do, but also asks what’s the right way to appreciate the creatures that live around us?
As you can see with the link above, this film is fully available for free on Youtube on Owen Raiser’s channel. And I would say the release of this film is an interesting story in of itself. This is an entertaining documentary, with a lot of style and substance, and clearly wasn’t an insubstantial financial investment. This is something that could have done the film festival circuit, and could have been picked up by a legitimate streamer. Reiser apparently turned down all those avenues, in favor of releasing the film in a fully accessible way.
Here’s what surprised me about this: My guess would have been that Owen Raiser and his brother were established Youtubers who did this big project knowing they had a big audience on their channel to present it to. But they didn’t – there are no public videos on Owen Reiser’s channel older than four months ago, when he released this film. He is not a Youtuber, he is a Wildlife Photographer (which I guess explains why the bird footage is so good!) But that makes it seem even more bold to me they would commit to this project with no guarantee of an audience. And even more incredible that it paid off, with the doc already being past 2.5 Million views on Youtube. I guess it’s just the sort of the movie that once you see it, you feel like you’ve got to tell other people about it.