Thats different though. There are so many pieces of journalism that start "It was a cloudy April day when Someone McSomeoneface finished their coffee and walked outside and had no idea that later that day they would take the first steps towards revolutionising sock manufacture" and you just know from the first sentence that its just going to take fucking ages to tell you anything
That's my point. Those stories are specifically about the journey not the destination. You don't read long-form articles to ingest information, you read them for the flowery prose and turns of phrase and evocative mental imagery.
Well then they should stop using enticing headlines. Its making promises they cant deliver. The headline should just be "a long form article about birdwatchers"
What does "A Once in a Lifetime Bird" tell you that isn't "a long-form article about birdwatching or ornithology or something"? It's not particularly calling you to any specific action. Clicking through and seeing the subtitle "Birding saved one man’s life. Maybe it can save the rest of us from climate change?" makes it even more obvious that it's some sort of personal story.
I read that headline and my first thought is "I don't particularly care about birds, probably not gonna click." (My second thought in this case was "curious to see on HN, I wonder if there's a specific connection?" so I clicked the comments.)
