Subject: Re: Twitchers
Date: Oct 21 13:09:09 1998
From: "S&C Richardson" - salix at halcyon.com


> How about--Hello my name is______ and I am a Amateur Field Ornithologist.

I can't believe I'm getting wound up in this thread...

Birdwatcher, birder, and ornithologist. Label yourselves as you will, but make
the label meaningful.
Not all birders (the watching kind) are ornithologists and not all
ornithologists are birders.
You want to spend more time explaining than birding? Tell someone you're an
orthinolo-- orinthol-- uh ornithologist.

I was a birdwatcher for 20 years, a birder (synonymous, but "cooler") for 5
years, and a focused student of birds for 2 years before I felt capable of
labeling myself an ornithologist. The turning point? A focused study of birds
that led to a peer-reviewed publication in a scientific journal.

I do not agree with those who contend that everyone out looking at (and perhaps
"studying") birds is an amateur field ornithologist. Nor do I believe that
participation in a Christmas Bird Count (for example) suddenly makes a
birdwatcher a scientist.

I admit the line between birdwatching/birding and amateur ornithology is
difficult to draw. But certainly our collective knowledge of birds would be
vastly greater if every "birder" was actually engaged in the scientific process
as a contributing ornithologist.

(I hope I am not construed as an exclusionary scientist. Most of what I do is
just plain birdwatching.)
--
Scott Richardson
Olympia, Washington
salix at halcyon.com