Well, I’m relieved to hear I’m a “bird watcher” and not a “birder”.
My life list, last time I checked was still shy of 500 species so I ain’t even remotely in the running.
They missed a term - “twitcher” - A twitcher is mostly a Brit term for those who dash around following unusual sightings, most often of single, out-of-range birds.
If that one guy was faking his sightings there’s another Brit term that applies:- “wanker”.
Twitchers are an odd lot, eh?
I first heard of them when living in NW PA. Apparently an owl (Snowy? Great Gray?) not normally seen outside of the far north had come down and taken up residence in a tree by the river. Folks were driving in from hundreds of miles away to add it to their lists.
I guess, using the classification scheme in your post there and from the article, I'm just a watcher. Here I always thought I was just a wannabe birder. At University, near the room with all the dried birds they used for the wildlife students, the locals kept a list of birds seen in the county or some such. I glanced at it one day and realized I'd seen the majority of them outside of some shore/ocean birds and the unidentifiable (to me) LBBs (little brown birds). Since that time my wife and I have obtained multiple books and even though somewhat tech challenged I managed to get the Merlin app on the phone and have even used it. Picked up a bird I couldn't see in the trees and ID'd it for me too.
Having moved around the States for work and such, I've seen a lot of birds stay at home folks might not have. Was kind of weird vacationing in Hawai'i to see and African bird there too, and not an ostrich on a farm either.
I'm not gonna spend money on gas to drive 250 miles just to see some lost bird though. Maybe if I was headed in that direction for something else, but not just to add it to a life list.
Dwayne, cool story about the sapsucker!
