Twitchers' vocabulary

Twitchers' vocabulary is the set of jargon words used by twitchers. Twitchers are generally rarity seekers and will travel long distances to see a new species just to add a species their "life list", "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.Anon. 2008. "The A to Z of birding." Australian Geographic 90: 104-105.]

Terms

* 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.
* "Mega": A very rare bird
* "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.
* To "dip out" (or "dip"): To miss seeing a bird which you were looking for.
* "Dude": A novice birdwatcher; slightly pejorative term. Also used to refer to someone who primarily seeks out birds for photography rather than study.
* "First": A first record of a species (in a defined area, such as a county first).
* To "grip off" (or "grip"): 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.
* "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").
*"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).
* "String":
**Noun: A dubious, "ropy" record.
**Verb: to claim such a record.
* "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.
* "Yank": A bird from North America (usually applied to rare migrants).

Some species have nicknames, for example: "RB Flicker" for Red-breasted Flycatcher, "Gropper" for Grasshopper Warbler, "PG Tips" for Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler. Twitchers (and birders in general) will also use a mixture of scientific and slang terms for feather tracts and so on.

References