Am I a twitcher?

12/4/19

A friend of mine emailed an article about an extremely rare Red-flanked Bluetail spotted in Los Angeles.  This is a small bird from Siberia who was way out of its range.  The email notification about the article started this way, "Hundreds of hard-core birders and twitchers from across the nation have been flocking to South Los Angeles this week..."  Twitchers?  What the hell is a twitcher?  So I Googled it.  A twitcher is someone who regularly goes chasing after rarities to add to their life list, year list or other important list.

I thought about this and wondered, “am I a twitcher?”  Is it fair to say I’m not because I had never heard of the term?  My friend calls me a twitcher now and we laugh.  I’m not sure if he’s laughing with me or at me.  Either way it’s ok—all in good fun.

So, am I a twitcher?  Sometimes?  Maybe.  Here’s why.

Thinking long and hard about this, I remembered only a few instances where I might be considered a twitcher.  Early on in this hobby, I started receiving rare bird alerts by email from the American Birding Association.  When I saw a few instances of a Snowy Owl being seen in an area about an hour and a half away, I was drawn to go see him.  A friend alerted me once to a rare Red Phalarope who wasn’t far from me; I saw him but didn’t get any photos.  In January 2016, we drove 3 hours south to find one Streak-backed Oriole who decided to visit the United States for a few months.  Last February, we drove 3 hours east to find one Ringed Kingfisher; she stayed in that area for quite a few months.  Our first Texas Spring migration trip, we planned to visit a specific area hoping to see a Blue Bunting; after waiting patiently in the area for a few hours, we never saw it.

While I would love to tell you more about those adventures, each of them is unique and deserve much more than a paragraph.  While I would love to share photos of these birds with you right now, I’m going to hold off until I can share those stories with you in complete detail.

I did not take the drive to L.A. to see the rare Red-flanked Bluetail, and I don’t regret it.   I’ve been alerted to other rare sightings that I could have traveled to but didn’t.  I’m not sure what my motivation is in determining whether I should seek out one lone rare bird or not.  But what I do know is that I’m not one to be in a flock of people to seek out one bird.   I enjoy the opposite.

So the question remains....am I a twitcher? 

Sometimes.

Other words used to describe birdwatchers:

Birder - A person whose birdwatching status hovers somewhere between an obvious twitcher and an obvious dude.

Dude - A casual birder who likes to go birdwatching but doesn’t make it a high priority for themselves.   Dudes prefer to go birdwatching in nice weather and easy to access areas.

Elitist - Any experienced birder who doesn’t believe what you saw.

Lister - A person who obsesses about the size of their life list.

Protobirder - A new birdwatcher and usually one who thinks they know more about birds and birding than they actually do.

Stringers - A birder who regularly reports rare species which turn out to be more common birds.

Yabow - A non-birder who scares off all the birds from an area either due to their carelessness or their hyperactive dog.

NOTE:  You can be a dude, but please don't be a yabow!

Please leave a comment.  You'll have to log into SmugMug, Facebook or Google to do so. Your name and profile photo will not be displayed.  Thank you.