How Well Do You Know Your Birder Lingo?
Quiz yourself with some of these common nicknames and phrases.
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This is BirdNote.
Birds communicate with each other in the most enchanting ways.
Birdwatchers also have their own way of saying things. Say you鈥檙e birding and you hear this,
A birder might say, 鈥淎ww, another LBB.鈥 That鈥檚 short for 鈥渓ittle brown bird.鈥 It鈥檚 a bird that鈥檚 small, brown, and common鈥 and sometimes鈥 impossible to figure out.
Ah, of course! It鈥檚 a lovely little House Wren.
What do you think a birder might say when she hears this?
If it鈥檚 a first-in-a-lifetime sighting, you might call this Snowy Owl a lifer.
And if you saw it in a field in New Jersey鈥攊t鈥檇 be a vagrant - someone who doesn鈥檛 belong 鈥榬ound these parts.
There鈥檚 also slang for different species. Peeps? Sandpipers.
Can you guess what a 鈥渂utterbutt鈥 is?
It鈥檚 a Yellow-rumped Warbler! The 鈥渂utterbutt鈥 is for the bright yellow patch above its tail feathers.
Birders love to share, so don鈥檛 feel like you have to know everything. Just ask somebody with binoculars! There鈥檚 always more to learn about birds.
Until next time, I鈥檓 Mary McCann.
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Credit:
Written by Monica Gokey
Producer: John Kessler
Managing Producer: Jason Saul
Editor: Ashley Ahearn
Associate Producer: Ellen Blackstone
Assistant Producer: Mark Bramhill
Narrator: Mary McCann
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. House Wren ML 210537 recorded by B Rideout; Snowy Owl ML 137339 by P Taylor; Yellow-rumped Warbler ML 129418 by G Keller.
BirdNote鈥檚 theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
漏 2019 BirdNote June 2019
ID# birding-27-2019-06-10 birding-27