Twitchers' vocabulary

Twitchers watching a "mega"—Britain's fifth-ever white-tailed lapwing—and probably adding a "lifer" to their "list"; see text for explanation of italicised terms

Twitchers' vocabulary is the set of jargon words used by twitchers. Twitchers are committed bird-watchers who travel long distances to see a new species just to add a species their "lifelist", "year list" or other lists. Some terms may be specific to regional birding communities, and not all are used due to dialectic and cultural differences.^[1]

Terms

• To burn up or flog:^[2] To beat around in the undergrowth hoping to flush a bird. A desperate measure and not a kind way to treat an exhausted migrant.
• Mega or megatick:^[2] A very rare bird
• Chooks: already seen or common birds (used in Australia).^[1]
• Crippler: A rare and spectacular bird that shows brilliantly, perhaps an allusion towards its preventing people from moving on.
• To dip out (or dip): To miss seeing a bird which you were looking for.
• Dude: "A posh bird-watcher who doesn't really know all that much about birds."^[2] A novice birdwatcher; slightly pejorative term. Also used to refer to someone who primarily seeks out birds for photography rather than study.^[1]
• First:^[2] A first record of a species (in a defined area, such as a county first).
• To grip off (or grip):^[2] To see a bird which another birder missed and to tell them you've seen it.
• Jizz: the overall impression given by the general shape, movement, behaviour, etc., of a species rather than any particular feature. Experienced birders can often identify species, even with only fleeting or distant views, on jizz alone.
• Lifer:^[2] A first-ever sighting of a bird species by an observer; an addition to one's life list.
• List:
  • Noun: a list of all species seen by a particular observer (often qualified, e.g. life list, county list, year list, etc.). Keen twitchers may keep several lists, and some listers compete to amass longer lists than their rivals.
  • Verb: to keep or compile a bird list (lister is close in meaning to twitcher).
• Plastic: Adjective used to indicate a bird which has escaped from captivity, rather than a genuinely wild bird.
• Sibe:^[2] A bird from Siberia (usually applied to rare migrants).
• String:
  • Noun: A dubious, "ropy" record.
  • Adjective: Stringy^[2]
  • Verb: to claim such a record.^[2]
• Tick:^[2] An addition to a personal list (sometimes qualified as year tick, county tick, etc.). Life tick and lifer are synonymous. A tart's tick is a relatively common species added to one's list later than might be expected.
• Yank: A bird from North America (usually applied to rare migrants).

Some species have nicknames, for example: "RB Flicker" for red-breasted flycatcher, "Gropper" for grasshopper warbler, "PG Tips" for Pallas's grasshopper warbler. Twitchers (and birders in general) will also use a mixture of scientific and slang terms for feather tracts and so on.

References

1. Anon. 2008. "The A to Z of birding." Australian Geographic 90: 104-105.
2. Oddie, Bill (1980). Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book. Methuen Publishing. ISBN 0-413-49480-2.