I suppose every hobby, sport, pastime, and obsession has their own words and jargon used while pursuing that activity. Some even carry over from a professional side of said hobby. Over time words and phrases develop that only seem to be found in those circles. So it’s no great surprise that the world of birding does as well.

First of all, is it bird watching or is it birding? Some say it’s the same thing, but many say that bird watching or being a bird watcher is maybe more on the “easy” side of the hobby, enjoying backyard birds and casually watching birds around your area. The more serious hobbyists define birding or being a birder as more on the “serious” side, even competitive, keeping lists of birds for every outing, and traveling solely for the purpose. That’s the beauty of enjoying birds… you can take it to any level you wish!

The one thing that really helps to see birds no matter what your level of involvement is a pair of binoculars. But who as time to call out for a pair of binoculars when in the midst of seeing that rare birds! Binos! A few folks still stick to “binocs,” but most just shorten it to “binos.” Oh and if you have a nice, big, fancy spotting scope mounted on a tripod to view far away with… that’s just a scope.

So you’ve gotten serious about those birds. Now you are keeping track of every one you see on lists or on eBird or other listing software. You might be keeping a list for your yard, a list of birds seen in your state, or country or… you get the picture. Now you are a… lister! You tick off species on the list as you see them.

Today I got a text from my coworker Sue from the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory about a fairly rare bird that had been found in our area. It wasn’t long before my girlfriend Denise and I were loaded up in the truck with our binos and scope driving over to the refuge to try to find it. We were chasing that bird! Well no, not like getting out and running after it chasing it or chasing it away… just going to find it to see it. Chasing! We did manage to find it, making it a successful chase. By the way, in Britain it is called twitching… chase a bird and tick it off the list.

That same bird was a bird Denise had never seen before in her life, and made it extra special. It was a lifer, a new bird on her life list of birds she has now seen. Lifers, especially the more rare ones, are certainly a reason to celebrate. So now a growing part of birders are now celebrating with lifer pie. Yes, it really is pie! Eat some pie for every day with a new lifer.

And that seems to be a good place to end this deep lesson into the birding lingo! Enjoy the birds… and hopefully with some lifer pie!