Birdwatching Slang

As a form of repentance for misidentifying a backhoe as a big bird the other day, I spent an hour or so visiting an assortment of websites dedicated to birds and birdwatching.  Bird watchers are a sober and dedicated bunch.  Turns out, they have also developed their own language.

Posted below are a few of the slang terms you might hear while birding:

Bins: Binoculars.

Butter Butt: Yellow-rumped warbler.

Dip (or dip out): To miss seeing a bird which you were looking for.

Dude: A casual birder who likes to go birdwatching but isn’t overly dedicated.

LBJ: Little Brown Job – Any small, brownish bird that you have not been able to identify.

Lifer (Life Bird): A bird species you have never seen before in your life.

Moo-Tweet: Cowbirds.

Nemesis: A bird that has eluded a birdwatcher despite multiple attempts to see it.

Nottabird: Something that looks like a bird from a distance but once binoculars or a spotting scope is used, turns out not to be a bird at all.

Patch: A local area often frequented by birdwatchers. 

Spuh: Birds that are only identifiable to genus level (from “sp.”, abbreviated form of species).

Twitch: The act of traveling a long distance to see a rare bird.

Twitcher: A birdwatcher obsessed with keeping and sharing lists.

Usual Suspects: Birds you expect to see in an area each time you go there.

Warbler Neck: A pain in the neck from studying birds high in the treetops.

—Mitchell Hegman