Hi,
I'm curious. Do you have a name for those of us who are still trying to
sort out one kind of bird from another? I don't know enough to list
anything yet,
so I don't consider myself a birder. I watch them, but in a confused way I
guess.

"Rank amateur" maybe. I have enjoyed reading this list for about a year,
and appreciate the information about what others have seen in my area. It
helps me "guess."

Evelyn Plamondon
Clark College, Vancouver, WA
eplamond at cs.clark.edu


--There has been an alarming increase in the number of things I know
nothing about--


On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, S&C Richardson wrote:

> > 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.