I think you misunderstand what's involved in birdwatching. It's not just looking, but searching, and using often very fine details to tell different species apart.
Comments like the one you're responding to is why I always collapse the top comment on any HN frontpage story. It wasn't always like this, but it's a reflex of mine at this point.
I’ve started to do that too. Weird. Def feels like a change happened. But then famously people have been saying this since like the second week of HN being online lol