Ed Williams - Founder #birdthefeckathome
Q: Bird the Feck at Home – or Bird the Fuck at Home as it started – where did that come from?
A: It was during lockdown. There was that hashtag Stay the Fuck at Home going around, and at the same time I read stories of birders in Ohio and the UK chasing fairly ordinary birds while the pandemic raged. It felt wrong. So I thought – why not just stay home and focus on what’s in our own backyards? I expected maybe 50 or 100 people would join, but because it launched right at the start of lockdown, it exploded. Friends in the UK and US shared it, a guide in Arizona invited half the world, and suddenly it was spiralling.
What made it work was the vibe. The name – with “feck” instead of the harsher word – kept away the overly prim types, and the silliness kept away the obsessives. Somehow it attracted a happy middle, a positive community. Even now, it still ticks along as a drop-in place for people to stay connected.
Q: The group grew so fast. For me, what stood out was the positivity.
A: Exactly. It had to be positive. Life’s too short to be angry on Facebook. I used to call it “good-natured anarchy.” If someone stepped out of line, instead of lecturing them, we’d post a silly GIF – Judge Judy shaking her head, that sort of thing. It always defused tension.
I was lucky too – my work with SAP was flexible, so I could check in throughout the day. For me, life during lockdown boiled down to work, homeschooling, holding the household together, and Bird the Feck at Home. It became what life was for 18 months.
Q: How many birds did you end up with?
A: The original challenge was 200 backyard species. In the end, we hit just under 6,000 from 140 countries. We had contributions from people in places like Tristan da Cunha, Montserrat, the Virgin Islands, even fishing boats off Alaska. It was insane – proof of how birding networks and the internet combined could reach everywhere.
Q: And the shoebill story?
A: Ah, the famous shoebill! We were running a fun vote – Survival of the Feckest – on people’s best backyard birds. Cassowary was crushing kiwi in the final. I’d written a tongue-in-cheek rule saying, “If a shoebill is seen in someone’s backyard before the vote ends, it wins.” And then, incredibly, a birder living in Uganda’s Mabamba Swamp posted a shoebill flying past his hut. We had no choice – the shoebill was crowned the ultimate backyard bird. Some people still think I staged it, but I swear I didn’t! It was just perfect serendipity.
Q: Where in the UK are you from?
A: Originally Manchester, then the Cotswolds, then Coventry. I’ve now lived in Melbourne longer than anywhere else – 17 years. No regrets – I love it here.
Q: How did you get into birds?
A: I’ve always loved them. As a kid, I’d watch blue tits pecking through the foil tops of milk bottles to get at the cream. My mum would hang bacon rinds for magpies, and we had coconut feeders for tits. I also collected bugs, kept tadpoles in buckets – I was just a total nature nut. Birds, being the most visible and dramatic, always had top billing.
Q: And what brought you to Australia?
A: My wife. She’s a Melbourne girl. We met while both working at Jaguar Land Rover – me in finance, her in engineering. She decided to retrain as a dentist in Sydney, and asked if I’d come if she got in. Coventry vs Sydney – not a hard choice! Four years in Sydney, then we settled in Melbourne with kids. Even now, I’m still in awe – driving past cockatoos or seeing kangaroos up the river blows my mind. My wife jokes I’m still fresh off the boat after 17 years.