Photo by A. Morris
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Bird Words: A Glossary
By Jennifer Uscher, July 2006
Even if you haven’t yet learned to imitate the song of the White-throated Sparrow, you’ll sound like you know what you’re talking about in the field if you master a little lingo. The following is a good start
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Digiscoping Taking photos with a digital camera through a telescope or binoculars
Distribution The geographic area(s) where a particular species can be found
Diurnal Birds that are active during the day
Endemic A bird that is native to a particular area and found nowhere else. For example, the Island Scrub-Jay lives only on Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California
LBJ Little Brown Job, or generic brown sparrow-like bird
Life list A list of all the bird species seen in one's life. There are many possible variations—and birders often keep multiple lists— such as year lists, state, county, or backyard lists, heard-only lists, and even lists of birds seen on television
(See box "The Lowdown on Lists")
Lifer The first sighting of a particular species in a birder's life
Molt The process in which birds replace their feathers by shedding old ones and growing new ones
Nocturnal Birds that are active at night, such as owls and nightjars
Non-native (a.k.a. "Exotic" or "Introduced") Birds that have been released from captivity and are now living in the wild, but that are not native to North America, such as pigeons, starlings, and monk parakeets
Pishing Making hissing sounds to imitate the alarm calls of songbirds, and attract them so they will come into view
Trash bird A bird that is annoyingly common
Twitching Seeking rare species of birds to "tick" off your life list (a British term)
Warbler Neck A sore neck that you get from staring at the tops of trees for hours, looking for warblers
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