It's been a while since I wrote my last blog in the occasional series about beginning birdwatching. For this latest instalment I'll try to break down one of the major hurdles for anyone taking up an interest in wildlife - understanding the terminology.
As in many aspects of our lives, birdwatchers are prone to using many abbreviations and slang terms, and these will often confuse and baffle any beginning wanting to take up the hobby. In fact, the very words we use to describe ourselves are confusing, so let's start there.
Birdwatcher - anyone with an interest in birds, from garden birdwatcher to professional guide. Generally an all inclusive term, of which the following are subsets.
Birder - usually used to refer to more experienced birdwatchers and those who dedicate more time to the hobby.
Lister - any birdwatcher who keeps lists of how many birds they have seen in a certain location or time period. This could be a garden list, county list, reserve list, UK list, world list, year list. Some birdwatchers have even been known to keep a "birds seen from the toilet" list!
Twitcher - the minority of birdwatchers, this term refers to those who head off to far flung parts of the country in search of rare birds. The word is often erroneously used by the media as a synonym for birdwatcher. Many birders will twitch occasionally, especially if they hear of a rare bird close by, but may be less inclined to travel great distances.
A couple of other words might sometimes to be used, especially among twitchers.
Stringer - someone who regularly misidentifies commoner species as rare ones.
Dipper - someone who has a habit of failing to see the rare bird that they are looking for is said to dip it
Next up, let's look at some of the words used to describe the equipment used by birdwatchers.
Bins or binos - short for binoculars
Scope - short for telescope
Digiscoping - the art of using your mobile phone to take photos through your telescope. Many telescopes now have special adapters available to make this easier, but it still takes some practice to get good pictures. It's also possible to digibin, which means taking photos with your phone through your binoculars - a really tricky technique to master
Big lens - a term sometimes used to describe the large zoom lenses used by some photographers, who become known as big lens boys (or, less commonly girls)
Now let's look at some of the abbreviations that are commonly used by birdwatchers. This list is far from exhaustive, and I've tried to focus primarily on species that are regularly seen at Minsmere. Some terms may be more obvious than others, and some may be more commonly used, so feel free to add your own terms as comments. It's also worth remembering that if another birdwatcher users a term that you are unfamiliar with, then please ask them.
Great spot = great spotted woodpecker (by association, lesser spot = lesser spotted woodpecker, although these are also referred to as lesser peckers)
Blackwit = black-tailed godwit. As above, barwit = bar-tailed godwit
Spot shank = spotted redshank
The word goose or geese is often left out when naming these species, which therefore become pinkfeet, white-fronts, greylags, barnacles, brents, etc
Barnie = both barn owl and barnacle goose
Spoonie = spoonbill (or spoon-billed sandpiper, but you won't see one of those at Minsmere)
Sprawk = sparrowhawk (and gos = goshawk)
Comic tern - a term used for either common or Arctic tern when the identification is not certain
Willow-chiff - likewise, refers to a warbler of indeterminate identification that is either a willow warbler or chiffchaff
Beardie = bearded tit
Spuggie = house sparrow. This is one of my personal favourites, but the term is not widely used these days
Pec sand = pectoral sandpiper. As this is a scarce species in the UK, you are more likely to hear the terms green sand, wood sand or common sand
LBJ = little brown job, meaning any small bird that you don't now the identity of. From experience, at Minsmere these will often be dunnocks, stonechats, or linnets, but can also be any of our warblers, chats or pipits
Mippit = meadow pipit
Pied wag = pied wagtail
Finally, you'll also often hear mention of plumage features or ages of birds. I won't try to define the different feathers, such as primaries, scapulars or coverts, in this blog, as those are adequately addressed in most fieldguides. I will, however, list some of the terms used for aging birds.
Fledgling = a bird when it first leaves the nest
Juvenile = the first plumage of young birds, which strictly speaking only applies until they undergo their first moult. In reality, many birdwatchers use this term to mean any young bird.
First winter = the plumage acquired after the first moult, which often has a mix of adult and juvenile feathers. In most species, by the following spring they will be in full adult plumage, but in bigger gulls and birds of prey this plumage may be followed by first summer, second winter, etc. These terms are now often replaced by first (calendar) year (fcy), meaning the year in which they were born, then second (calendar) year, etc.
Eclipse = a post-breeding moult plumage, mainly in ducks, in which most of the bright colours are lost and the birds become much more female-like in plumage.
I hope you find this useful, and I'd love to hear about any terms that you either use or hear but don't know the meaning.