Twitchers' vocabulary

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Twitchers' vocabulary is the set of jargon words used by twitchers. Twitchers are committed bird-watchers who travel long distances to see a new species to add a species their "lifelist", "year list" or other lists. Some terms may be specific to regional birding communities, and not all are used due to dialectic and cultural differences.

Video Twitchers' vocabulary

Terms

• Big Day: A birding event in which a birder or team of birders tries to see as many species of birds as possible within a calendar day.
• Big Year: A birding event in which a birder tries to see as many species of birds as possible within a defined area (county, state, ABA area, etc.) within a calendar year; originated with the American Birding Association, and the basis for the movie The Big Year.
• To burn up or flog: To beat around in the undergrowth hoping to flush a bird. A desperate measure and not a kind way to treat an exhausted migrant.
• BVD: "Better View Desired", describing a lifer that was observed well enough to identify, but not enjoy.
• CBC: Christmas Bird Count.
• Chooks: Already seen or common birds (used in Australia).
• Crippler: A rare and spectacular bird that shows brilliantly, perhaps an allusion towards its preventing people from moving on.
• Dip (or dip out): To miss seeing a bird which you were looking for.
• Dude: "A bird-watcher who doesn't really know all that much about birds." A novice birdwatcher; slightly pejorative term. Also used to refer to someone who primarily seeks out birds for photography rather than study.
• Empid: Any of the flycatchers of the genus Empidonax, infamous among North American birders for being difficult to identify in the field without the aid of vocalizations.
• Fallout: A natural occurrence where migratory birds are forced down by adverse weather in a way that makes them congregate in large numbers; generally associated with meteorological and geographical conditions (exclusively in spring, generally in the United States along the Texas and Florida coasts of the Gulf of Mexico).
• First: A first record of a species (in a defined area, such as a county first).
• Grip (or grip off): To see a bird which another birder missed and to tell them you've seen it.
• Jizz: the overall impression given by the general shape, movement, behaviour, etc., of a species rather than any particular feature. Experienced birders can often identify species, even with only fleeting or distant views, on jizz alone.
• LBJ (or little brown job): Drab songbirds that are difficult to differentiate and identify.
• Lifer: A first-ever sighting of a bird species by an observer; an addition to one's life list.
• List:
  • Noun: a list of all species seen by a particular observer (often qualified, e.g. life list, county list, year list, etc.). Keen twitchers may keep several lists, and some listers compete to amass longer lists than their rivals.
  • Verb: to keep or compile a bird list (lister is close in meaning to twitcher).
• Mega or megatick: A very rare bird
• Nemesis (or nemesis bird): A bird that has eluded a birder despite multiple attempts to see it.
• Patagonia Roadside Rest Effect (or Patagonia Picnic Table Effect): (US) The phenomenon that occurs when one bird draws many birders to a remote area, who then find more rarities and other interesting species in that same location. Named after an actual roadside rest area just west of Patagonia, Arizona.
• Patch (or local patch): A birding location or set of birding locations near one's home that a birder visits frequently.
• Pelagic: (noun) A boat trip designed for birders to find open-ocean (pelagic) species, such as albatrosses.
• Pish: An emphatic shushing noise used by North American birders to elicit mobbing behavior; made in imitation of alarm calls of chickadees and titmice.
• Plastic: Adjective used to indicate a bird which has escaped from captivity, rather than a genuinely wild bird.
• Sibe: A bird from Siberia (usually applied to rare migrants).
• Siesta time (also the doldrums) (US): The period in mid-afternoon when birds (and therefore birders) are least active.
• Slash: A term used to describe cryptic species pairs not identifiable to species (on a day list), ie. long-billed dowitcher/short-billed dowitcher, willow flycatcher/alder flycatcher
• SOB: "Spouse of Birder", a non-birder spouse.
• Spark bird: A species that triggers a lifelong obsession with birding.
• Spuh: A term used to describe birds only identifiable to genus level (on a day list) (from "sp.", abbreviated form of species).
• String:
  • Noun: A dubious, "ropy" record.
  • Adjective: Stringy
  • Verb: to claim such a record.
    • Note: In the United States, the term stringer is specifically used to denote people who intentionally mislead and falsify bird sightings, as opposed to well-intentioned mistakes made from lack of field experience.
• Tick: An addition to a personal list (sometimes qualified as year tick, county tick, etc.). Life tick and lifer are synonymous. A tart's tick is a relatively common species added to one's list later than might be expected.
• Twitch: The act of traveling a long distance to see a rare bird. Synonymous with chase.
• Vagrant: A stray far from normal ecological range.
• Yank: A bird from North America (usually applied to vagrants seen in Europe).
• Zootie (US, uncommon): A locally rare or unusual bird.

Some species have nicknames, for example: "RB Flicker" for red-breasted flycatcher, "Gropper" for grasshopper warbler, "PG Tips" for Pallas's grasshopper warbler; in the US, these are generally reserved for common species ("TV" for turkey vulture or "butterbutt" for yellow-rumped warbler). Twitchers (and birders in general) will also use a mixture of scientific and slang terms for feather tracts and so on.

Maps Twitchers' vocabulary

References

Source of article : Wikipedia