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Subject:

What is a birder?

From:

Bob Mumford

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Date:

Thu, 16 Feb 2006 13:15:51 EST

The discussion about birding today brings up an issue that surfaces from  
time to time, to wit, what is a birder?
 
I know people who can barely tell the difference between a blue jay and a  
blue bird but really enjoy watching them.  Others can tell you the color of  
terciaries on a second year Iceland gull in winter and can successfully identify  
every bird in North America.
 
There are people who travel to the ends of the earth to see different birds  
and others who would not drive to the other side of Washington.
 
I have known people who have never had a list, yet love birds, and others  
who are obsessive-compulsive about every kind of list, from year to yard, from  
county to country, and presumably whether they have seen males, females and  
juveniles of every species.  For them, "closing out" a species in Maryland  is 
a feeling of accomplishment.
 
There are highly educated people who make their living from birds  
(ornithologists), studying some very, very narrow aspects of one species of  birds.  
There are many others who never have, and never will, make a dime  off of birds.  
And don't care.
 
There are those who love going birding in groups for the social aspects and  
others who are loners.
 
Some people have virtually no other interests, go birding every day, read  
practically nothing but birding literature.  And others who have far  broader 
interests and bird when time becomes available.
 
There are some folks who want to take the best possible photograph of a  
bird, others who are content to have a blurry image that can identify the bird,  
and still others who would not carry a camera into the field under any  
circumstances.
 
Some birders are into the organizational aspects of birding and aspire to  be 
an officer in the ABA; others wouldn't join a birding organization on a  bet.
 
I ran into some top listers from California years ago chasing a Fieldfare  in 
New Brunswick.  Once they had seen it, ticked it off, they were ready to  
drive back to the airport.  I wanted to watch it, study it, photograph the  bird.
 
Some people become so interested in one family for birds - gulls, sparrows,  
hummingbirds, for example - that they concentrate most of their time on these  
birds and become experts.  Other folks want to see them all.
 
There are some people who want to identify subspecies to "bank it" for a  
possible future split.  Others just want to understand the  distribution.  Still 
others are interested in the identification  challenge.  And some just don't 
care about subspecies at all.
 
There are folks who are far more interested in the conservation aspects of  
birds and making sure that habitat is protected.  Others don't care much  about 
this and don't want to be involved in such activities.
 
There are folks who love birds and birding who can still laugh at  themselves 
and their colleagues and others who take birding so serioiusly that  they 
cannot even crack a smile about any of the compulsive behavior.
 
And of course, there is every combination and permutation of the above that  
anyone can imagine.  In short, there are as many kinds of birders as there  
are of people.  All of the above folks are birders, all are legitimate  birders. 
 They are just different species.
 
Bob Mumford
Darnestown