Birder, bird watcher, wildlife watcher, twitcher, amateur field
ornithologist, and professional avian ecologist/ornithologist. I am all of
the above (and so much more)!

When I drove all the way to Hailey, Idaho, from Pullman, WA, to see the
Siberian Accentor in the middle of winter, I was a twitcher. When I stopped
in Lewiston to pick up the Northern Cardinal and wandered all around Hailey,
Ketchum, and Sun Valley to increase my Blaine County, Idaho, year, and life
lists, I was a birder. When I sit at my front window and admire the beauty
of the Bohemian Waxwings striping my mountain ash of berries, I am a bird
watcher. When I am watching the flying squirrels licking the sugar water
out of my hummingbird feeder, I am wildlife watcher. When I am visiting
Mann Lake, Idaho, every few days and making detailed notes on what is there,
including counting the number of individuals and the behavior of the birds,
I am an amateur field ornithologist. When I am standing in a clear-cut,
devoid of birds, at 5:00 a.m., after driving two hours on twisty logging
roads full of logging trucks, to gather data, so that I can analyze it to
test a hypothesis and write my thesis and (hopefully) publish a paper or two
in a peer-reviewed, scientific journal, I am an ornithologist (or avian
ecologist). When I am presenting a paper at a meeting of the AOU, Wilson's
Ornithological Society or Cooper's Ornithological Society, I am an
ornithologist.

I am also a "bird freak" (most of my family call me this), a
taxon-biased throw-back (my professional colleagues call me this) or a
crazed football fan (my significant other calls me that).

My point is the lines are very blurry. When I am doing one thing, I am
usually doing another. Even this football-crazed fan can't help but watch
the kinglet in the crab apple tree, even when it is fourth and goal on the
two.
The great thing about birds is you can enjoy them at any level you want.
If you want to get scientific about it, you can. If you just want to wander
around the woods and know what you are hearing, you can. If you just want
to enjoy the beauty of those feathered critters that come to your backyard
feeder, you can. If you want to record your bird sightings to increase the
body of knowledge on bird distribution and migration timing, you can do that
too. If you just want to have the biggest list, you can. If you want to do
all of the above, you can. One isn't any better than the other.
And ornithologist doesn't equal birder. Some of the best ornithologists
I know are not birders. They study birds at scientific subjects only. And
many people who study birds don't want to considered "ornithologists". They
prefer to identify themselves as "physiologists", "ecologists", "taxonomist"
because the discipline is the important thing for them. They study birds
only because they are the taxa that answers the questions they are
interested in researching. However, I am an ornithologist; I study birds
because I love birds. It is not a popular stand with many biologists but
too darn bad!!!!! I love them and I am obsessed by them.

Deb


Deborah K. Beutler
Dept. Zoology
Washington State University
Pullman, Whitman Co., WA

dbeutler at wsunix.wsu.edu