I couldn't have said it any better even if I knew how. ;-)

Jerry Converse
Grand Coulee, WA

Deb Beutler wrote:

> 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