If you have spent very much time in birding circles, you’ve probably heard someone comment, “Mr. So-and-so goes birding all the time, but he is not much of a birder.” Or, perhaps you’ve heard somebody say, “Ms. Whats-her-name hardly ever goes on outings with the bird club, but she’s definitely a real birder.” As I have said elsewhere (How do you know if a birder is recruited or retained?), being a birder is not really about what you do, but rather who you are. What exactly do I mean by that? How would you know if somebody is a real birder or is just somebody who goes birding?
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| Are any of these people birders? |
Characteristic attributes associated with being a birder
Many long-time birders can remember some experiences where they went birding under some really challenging circumstances. Maybe it was freezing cold, or blazing hot, or raining water and warblers all at the same time. In his book, Birders: tales of a tribe, British birder and author Mark Cocker shares lots of stories of situations through which birders persevered and developed character – or characteristic attributes. Cocker’s birding buddies withstood long hitch-hikes, having pig manure spread on them by an irate farmer, having to sleep in rat-infested barns, being robbed, and of course missing the hoped-for bird.
Some of Cocker’s friends had to be very patient while trying to hitch-hike to a birding locale or while waiting for a particular bird “to show.” Some had to be tenacious and persistent in their efforts to see some species of bird. Some had to have dogged determination. Many were highly skilled although many had only average birding ability. Certainly, these are characteristic traits for some birders, but not for all. There undoubtedly are many, many possible characteristic traits, and different kinds of birders almost surely have different attributes.
Because different birders will disagree about what the characteristic attributes are that make someone a birder, ample evidence exists to indicate that there is more than one birder identity. I will develop another post that investigates the question: How many different birder identities exist? Well, given that multiple birder identities exist, and that different birders will list overlapping traits or characteristics, a list of characteristic attributes is not a good way to determine what anthropologists call the ”boundary” between identities, in other words what separates one birder identity from another.
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| Developing traits as birders? |
Other important questions to examine about characteristic attributes are these. How does somebody develop characteristic attributes? Who determines which attributes go with which birder identity?
Here is a chance for you readers to provide some input. How would you describe a birder to someone who does not know what a birder is? What three words or phrases would you use to fill in the blanks below? (Please put your responses in the comments to this blog and I’ll tally them up. Thanks!)
A birder is……
_________________________________________
_________________________________________
And _____________________________________
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