Use The GBPI Field Guide to Birders To Determine Types of Birders

Introducing the Field Guide to Birders

The GBPI (GreatBirdPics Institute, pronounced “grippy”) is pleased to announce the release of the GBPI Field Guide to Birders.  The Field Guide to Birders is being published exclusively on GreatBirdPic.com as a service to its members.

Typically it can take millions of years for sub-species to evolve within a species.  GBPI research has confirmed that contrary to other classes of Mammalia within the phylum Chordata, the Birder species of Homo Sapiens can actually evolve through several sub-species within one lifetime!  It is important to note that not every Birder will evolve through each of the sub-species; some will skip sub-species altogether and others will halt their evolutionary progress at a specific level.

The Field Guide to Birders was compiled by the GBPI staff after observing thousands of Birders in their natural habitat.  As a result of this extensive research GBPI has identified 7 sub-species of Birders.  Each Birder sub-species can be easily identified with the help of the GBPI Field Guide to Birders.  Due to the detailed and extensive (some within the GBPI family would say long-winded) nature of the field guide, one sub-species per week will be published on GreatBirdPics.com.  Below is an explanation the descriptive fields used for each entry.

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

An overall description of the sub-species, often including historical data.  Birders within each sub-species exhibit specific behaviors, which when observed, help in their classification.

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

The number of bird species individuals within each sub-species can correctly identify by sight.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

The number of bird species individuals within each sub-species can correctly identify by sound.

Vocalizations

If you are able to get close enough to individuals within the Birder species you will be able to hear them vocalize (if you hang binoculars around your neck and carry a small notebook you should be able to approach them without startling them away).  By carefully listening you will obtain important cues as to which sub-species they should be classified in.

Plumage and Accessories

Each Birder sub-species tends to use similar clothing and equipment when they are out in the field.

Birding Activities

What you can observe individuals within each sub-species doing while in their pursuit of birds.

By carefully observing Birders and noting the traits they exhibit in the wild you, too, will soon be accurately identifying which sub-species he or she belongs in!

Our first sub-species entry will be the Backyard Birder.

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Backyard Birder

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

The Backyard Birder was the first subspecies to evolve in the Birder Family.  Paleoanthropological-Ornithologists believe it was formed some 35,000 years ago.  Today the Backyard Birder is most frequently observed peering out into their backyard each morning in a bathrobe (or less), scanning for birds or any other critters that could be messing up their yard.  They take notice of “pretty” birds but don’t pay any attention to the rest.  The Backyard Birder sometimes Googles a bird they see, entering “Pretty yellow bird in Illinois” and gets frustrated because they can’t find out what it was (it was a Goldfinch).

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

• If pressed, could identify 10 common birds; gets 50% of them wrong.  Doesn’t care if they’re wrong.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

• Accurately IDs Daffy Duck, Road Runner, Tweety Bird and Foghorn Leghorn.
• Can identify a Robin if they are watching it sing.
• They can hear the theme song to the Today Show from their backyard after the commercial so they can get back and watch that zany Hoda.

Vocalizations

• “Hey, that’s a pretty bird.  I wonder what it is?”
• “Shoo!  Shoo!” while scanning the backyard and spies a bird pooping on their lawn furniture.

Plumage and Accessories

• A bathrobe, a coffee cup and a Dunkin Munchin’ (or four).
• Fisher-Price binoculars.
• Their kids’ “Little Golden Book of Birds” to see if it was a Blue Jay or Bluebird in their back yard (it was a Grackle).
• Uses the Angry Birds app regularly.

Birding Activities

• Makes their kids watch National Geographic shows about birds, “Because they’re educational” and pretends to read the paper while actually watching the show.
• Has watched the Disney movie “Penguins” twelve times (because it puts the kids to sleep at night).
• Throws stale bread into the backyard for the birds.

Next entry: The Almost-A-Birder Sub-Species

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Almost-a-Birder

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

The Almost-a-Birder subspecies evolved very soon after the Backyard Birder when several members of a Homo Sapiens clan started admiring birds instead of eating them or plucking off all their feathers to accessorize.  Today the Almost-a-Birder gets up in the morning and looks in their backyard specifically for birds and writes down the ones they know along with a description of the ones they don’t know.  They then Google, “Pretty red and black bird in Illinois,” and write down that their unknown bird was a Cardinal (it was a Scarlet Tanager).

They text a birder-friend cellphone photos saying, “I know this is a lousy picture but can you tell me what kind of bird this is?”  It’s usually a House Sparrow.  Or a Henslow’s Sparrow – which was no longer there by the time their birder friend rushed over since the Almost-a-Birder shoo’d it away (it was pooping on their lawn furniture).  The Almost-a-Birder hears the term “Lifer” for the first time from their friend. 

After birding, the Almost-a-Birder has their spouse carefully inspect every square inch of their body for tics like chimpanzees do in the jungle.

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

• Knows 25 common birds; gets 25% of them wrong. 
• Wants to know what the wrong ones are and tracks them down by pestering their birder friends or looking them up. 
• Gets upset when they realize they had a Scarlet Tanager in their backyard last week and thought it was a Cardinal.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

• Robin, Blue Jay, Mallard, Canada Goose, Cardinal (sometimes). 
• Hears other bird sounds but has no idea what they are.

Vocalizations

• “We had two Cardinals in our backyard this morning, and another bird that looked like a Cardinal except it was all pale.”
• “Can we go out to the park again today and look for birds?”
• “How can I get better at birding?”

Plumage and Accessories

• Walking shoes and a wide-rimmed hat.
• A Field Guide (specific to the birds in a bordering state) bought at the AAUW Book Sale. 
• Downloaded the Ebird App but hasn’t figured out how to use it yet.
• Dug out dad’s old WWII binoculars which weigh 8 pounds and has a broken leather strap (replaced it with one of their son’s guitar straps).

Birding Activities

• Latches on to birder friends to take them out to local parks and look for birds.  
• Watched The Big Year.
• Bought a bird feeder at a garage sale and fills it up with the cheapest birdseed sold at Wal-Mart.  Feeder is empty half the time.

Next Entry: The Secret Birder Sub-Species

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Secret Birder

NOTE: During the most recent meeting of the GBPI Executive Board (with input from the Jacksonville, FL chapter) it was decided that in some instances, before evolving into a Birder Wannabe some people go through a Secret Birder phase.  This sub-species addition was prompted by in-the-field observations that a small percentage of Birder Wannabes try to keep the fact that they are birding a secret from some of their friends and family.  These Birder Wannabes found that these family and friends did not understand why anyone would actually go outside and look at birds for long periods of time, and would mock the Birder Wannabe for participating in such an activity.  As a result, they stopped talking about birding to those family and friends.  Hence, the addition of the Secret Birder Sub-Species.

On the other hand, many Almost-A-Birders don’t give a damn about what others think of their birding activities and evolve directly into Birder Wannabes (which is covered below).  The reader should reclassify their birder friends accordingly.

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

Starts looking for birds whenever they’re outside but doesn’t want to tell most of their friends because they’re afraid some of those friends would make fun of them.  They begin to see more birds whenever they are outside and look them up in their field guide when they get home.  They are amazed that there are so many different birds in their neighborhood that they never saw before.   After birding in the field they have a fellow birder check their back for tics.  No longer freak out if one is found.

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

• Knows 50 common birds; gets 20% of them wrong. 
• Knows what a House Sparrow looks like but thinks all the rest of the sparrows look the same. 
• Starts doing research on Ebird and Cornell’s All About Birds website to learn more about birds.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

• House Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch, Robin, Blue Jay, Mallard, Canada Goose, Cardinal (sometimes). 
• Hears other birds but has no idea what they are or assumes they are mostly Robins.
• Buys a CD of bird songs and listens to it when other family members are in the car, driving them crazy.

Vocalizations

• “I can’t believe all these birds were around here and I never noticed them before.”
• “I went birding over at the Forest Preserve today, but don’t tell Pat.  Pat wouldn’t understand.”
• “Alex, I didn’t know you were into birds!” to a fellow Secret Birder friend who happened to be on the same bird walk.
• “Which one’s that?   What’s that one?  What’s that one over there? That’s a Red-winged Blackbird, right?”

Plumage and Accessories

• Bought Sibley’s or Peterson’s Field Guide and a pair of Bushnell Binoculars. 
• Has figured out how to use the Ebird app and has uploaded another app some lady at the bird club was talking about to the person next to her. 
• Buys a second feeder and fills it with thistle.  All the thistle falls out because they bought a regular seed feeder instead of a thistle feeder.  Goes back and buys a thistle feeder.

Birding Activities 

• Forces spouse to attend a local bird club’s meeting, “Just to see what’s it all about.  But don’t tell Pat we went.  Pat wouldn’t understand.” 
• Finds out the club regularly sponsors bird walks and signs up for two of them. 
• While on the bird walks, constantly asks whoever is next to them to ID every bird.

Next: The Birder Wannabe

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Birder Wannabe

In most cases individuals pass through the Secret Birder phase quickly as their interest in birding expands, soon morphing into a Birder Wannabe.  As a Birder Wannabe the individual is gaining in their observational skills but still struggles to differentiate similar species and to ID less frequent species.  They are eager to learn yet have so much more to learn.

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

They can now be observed openly talking about birds with their friends, and anyone who happens to be next to them in line at the store.  As they submit more Ebird checklists they begin to wonder why everybody else who birds the same Hotspots report so many more species than they do.  Often observed about town with binoculars around their neck.  Will remove ticks from others after a bird walk.

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

• IDs 40 bird species correctly the first time.
• Able to differentiate male and female for some species except they still have a hard time telling the difference between a female Mallard and a Gadwall and a Black Duck.
• Female Red-winged Blackbirds still throw them for a loop because they look so different from the male and vary in color.
• Have no idea what the little brown bird on the path ahead is (it was a female Cowbird).
• Correctly IDs House Sparrow, Field Sparrow, and most Song Sparrows and thinks the rest of the sparrows look pretty much the same but knows there has to be some differences so they study their field guide to try and figure out what they are.
• Can tell the difference between and hawk and a Turkey Vulture in flight and when they see a hawk they guess it’s a Red-tailed Hawk because they really don’t know what the other types of hawks look like.  Tries to study them in their field guide but soon gives up because they all pretty much look the same.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

• Can ID 18 different birds by sound.  The rest still sound like Robins.  Or Sparrows.
• Somehow the bird song CD they were playing all the time in their car has gone “missing” and no one in their family will fess up.

Vocalizations

• “I recognize that bird from my bird song CD!  It’s a Wood-Pewee!” (it was a Phoebe).
• “I just got a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher!  It was a Lifer!”
• “How did she [a First Class Birder] learn how to identify so many birds by song?”
• “Maybe we can go out birding together sometime,” to that First Class Birder.

Plumage and Accessories

• When traveling out of state, purchases local Field Guides so they can bird there. 
• Carries a cheap point-and-shoot camera to help ID unfamiliar birds.   All of the pictures turn out “fuzzy”. 
• Uses a shoulder harness strap for binoculars and a pouch to carry field guides while on bird walks. 
• Has downloaded at least four bird apps and tends to spend more time looking at them than the birds during bird walks – often bumping into the people who have stopped to actually observe birds.
• Places a bird bath near their feeders (which are now kept full).

Birding Activities

• Goes out birding 3-5 times a week. 
• Often leaves earlier than necessary to pick the kids up from school so they can go through the park on the way and try one more time to find that blasted Common Yellowthroat everyone else has reported there.
• Has watched The Big Year 4 times.
• Has read the January, 2018 National Geographic issue titled, “Why Birds Matter”.

Next:The Bird Booster

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Bird Booster 

Although some birders remain a Birder Wannabe the rest of their lives, many continue their evolution.  Similar to Athletic Boosters at the high school, the Bird Booster does all that they can to promote birding.  As they gather more knowledge about birding they feel it is their duty to share that expertise with everyone around them.

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

They can be observed openly talking about birds with their friends, who start to avoid making eye contact with the Bird Booster when they arrive at a gathering because they’ll start talking about birds.  Again.

Studies the Daily Needs Alerts on Ebird to see what has been seen recently.  They also check other birders’ Ebird accounts to see if they have recorded more or fewer species; the Bird Booster then makes a mental note to befriend those who have seen more.

Begins to landscape their back yard to become more bird-friendly by putting a pile of dead branches back in the corner and planting more native scrubs and flowers.

Likes to tell people sitting around them in a movie theater that the bird songs in the background are wrong for the location and then recommends that they watch The Big Year (because it was Steve Martin’s best role eve!).

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

• Feels confident in identifying 125 species on sight and is mostly successful.   
• Now looks for sparrows in the field.  Rushes over to a friend’s house because they texted a fuzzy picture of a Henslow’s Sparrow in their back yard.  It was gone by the time they got there (it would have been a Lifer).
• Knows a Red-tailed Hawk in flight.  When seeing smaller hawks tosses a coin to determine if it was a Cooper’s Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk (or records whichever was most recently reported there on Ebird).
• Knows everyone in the neighborhood with a bird feeder by name.  Encourages them to become members of the local bird club.
• Has a bumper sticker, “I Brake For Birds”.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

• Can ID 40 birds by sound.   Buys another copy of the Bird Song CD and plays it in the car.  It goes “missing” a week later.
• While observing birds, waits to hear them sing so they can associate the song with the bird.
• When visiting a friend in their backyard, constantly interrupts the conversation to tell the friend what bird is singing.
• Drives everywhere with their windows open so they can hear any birds around.

Vocalizations

• “That’s a Robin.  There’s a Cardinal.  That’s another Robin.  That’s a Song Sparrow. Here’s another Robin, our third.” as they rattle off each bird they see to everybody on a bird walk.
• “Did I tell you what I saw over at the Forest Preserve yesterday?” and then recites all 34 species observed.
• “I happened to notice your bird feeders have been empty the last four days.  You should fill them up on a regular basis, particularly in the winter.”
• “You should move your bird feeder farther away from your house because a startled bird might fly into a window.”
•  “Then Steve Martin misses the plane!” as they regale others with a scene-by-scene accounting of The Big Year.

Plumage and Accessories

• Wears a sport/camera vest while birding, keeping 3 field guides, lens cloth, phone, bandaids, audio recorder, business cards with their Ebird and GreatBirdPics ID printed on them, kleenex, binocular eyepiece covers, notebook, two water bottles, hand sanitizer, and three pens in the pockets.
• Buys a good camera with lots and bells and whistles.  Has their 14-year-old son set it up. 
• Takes pictures of birds with the camera and has their son upload them to Ebird and GreatBirdPics.com.  The son likes the bird pictures and confesses he threw the bird song CDs out the window of the car.  The son begs the Bird Booster not to buy another CD and play it in the car.
• Adds an Oriole and hummingbird feeder.  Only buys the best bird seed for the other feeders.

Birding Activities

• Goes on every local Bird Club outing and volunteers to keep the Ebird checklist for them.
• Invites neighbors to join them on the local Bird Club outings.
• Is the secretary of the Bird Club with eyes on the presidency. 
• Regularly receives text messages from friends with poor pictures of birds in their back yards, asking the Bird Booster to ID.
• Packs a lunch, loads the family into the car at 5:30AM and drives to downtown Chicago to see the famous Piping Plovers Monty and Rose.  The family eats lunch on Montrose Beach while the Bird Booster’s binoculars are glued to their eyes trying to find the Peregrine Falcon somebody reported there (it would be FOY). The son asks to borrow the binoculars and then proceeds to check out girls on the beach.

Next: The Birder First Class

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Birder First Class

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

Fewer than 20% of all birders attain this level (or higher) during their evolution.  Their Life List is well over 200 in their own state, and depending on how much they travel, it could be over 1,000.  They now select Target Birds and drive several hours to find them – successfully finding the Target Bird more than 40% of the time.  Members of the Birder First Class try not to talk only about birds when around their non-birder friends (unless they were the first person in 35 years to find a Yellow-crowned Night Heron in the county and have 15-20 pictures to share).

By virtue of their experience they will often have 15-20 more species on their eBird checklist than lesser birders when birding the same area on the same day and time. These birders exhibit the patience and tenacity needed to find those elusive birds others miss so their monthly and yearly life lists will be much longer than lesser birders’.

Birder First Class members begin to go on out-of-state bird trips, having already seen many of the species normally found in their home state.  After returning from Magee Marsh in Ohio one spring they become warbler fanatics and spend every minute looking for warblers during migration.   The Birder First Class starts a countdown in January as to when Spring Migration begins.   They start that countdown right after freezing their ass off at Sax Zim Bog.

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

• Knows 200 birds on sight, struggles with only 5% of them (particularly the Alder, Willow, Pewee, and Phoebe flycatchers). 
• Can ID most of the sparrows, has finally got their Henslow’s Sparrow, and really wants to see a Leconte’s and Nelson’s Sparrow. 
• Knows a Red-tailed Hawk even when they don’t see the red tail.   Has a better than 50/50 chance of identifying a Cooper’s Hawk.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

• Can ID 40 different birds by sound. 
• Starts to include birds on their eBird checklists that were HO (Heard Only).
• They begin to use bird sounds to help them locate birds visually.
• Plays the songs of Target Birds from an app (the Bird Song CD never did turn up) while driving cross-country to get another Lifer. 
• In bed at night carefully reviews the day’s eBird reports to plan their birdwatching the next morning; plays songs of the next day’s Target Birds, causing their spouse to buy ear-plugs.

Vocalizations

•  “I can’t understand why they haven’t started The Big Year 2”.
• “How many Lifers do you have?”
• “There were 10 errors in The Big Year.”
• “Let’s leave at 5 AM so we can be sure to see the Prothonotary Warbler.”

Plumage and Accessories

• The Birder First Class has replaced a shelf of recipe or home-improvement books with field guides. 
• The kids’ college fund has been gutted to pay for Swarovski binoculars and a Zeiss scope with a Manfrotto head and tripod. (Note: I don’t get anything from B&H Photo, just using them as an example)
• Negative twenty-degree rated snowmobile suit for Sax Zim Bog next year. 
• Has muck boots in the trunk at all times, along with six different articles of clothing, cause, “… you never know what will turn up where.”

Birding Activities

• Goes out birding every day during migration. 
• Tells the kids to walk to and from school cause it’s good for them so they can go birding (goes out twice a day when possible).
• Leads several bird walks for the local Bird Club.
• President of the local Bird Club.

Next: Bird Brain

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Bird Brain

 Note:  There is debate among the GBPI community as to whether this sub-species should be split in two.  While most who attain this elite level of birding use their knowledge for the good of the birding community, a small segment of them become curmudgeons.  If this trend continues it may be necessary to add the sub-species Batty Bird Brain.

Behavioral Traits Observed in the Field

A Bird Brain has over 3,000 Lifers, usually closer to 5,000.   Almost all of their free time is spent on birds.  Has difficulty with people’s names unless it is Robin, Merlin, Phoebe or Jay.   The Bird Brain knows which species have split, when it was split and why it was split.  They’ve taken international bird trips too many times to count and has trips planned for the next 5 years.

Can be found packing up and leaving the parking lot at 7:30 AM as other birders are just arriving (the Bird Brain was there since 5:00 AM).

Was a consultant for The Big Year and National Geographic’s “Why Birds Matter” issue.

Bird Visual Recognition Capacity

• Who knows?  Every bird they look at, they instantly ID.  Even when in a foreign county and observing birds they’ve never seen, can ID them as a result of the hours of research they spent beforehand.
• Can see through tree trunks and ID a bird. 
• Knows the date, time, and location each Red-tailed Hawk in the county was hatched and has named them.

Bird Song Recognition Capacity

• Who knows?  When a Bird Brain makes a pronouncement of  bird’s song they are so revered that everybody agrees with them.  Even when they’re wrong.
• When birding they hardly use their binoculars, hearing far more species than others can see.
• Their nose whistle sounds like a House Wren.
• Can ID a Finch’s fart from forty feet.

Vocalizations

• “If I see the White Crane when we go to Siberia I’ll have seen every crane species in the world.”
• “That blasted sound editor didn’t know an Abbott’s Babbler from a Zone-tailed Hawk,” when responding to why there were 10 errors in The Big Year.
• “Fallout!?  Fallout!?  This wasn’t a Fallout, it was just a couple of warblers!  The last Fallout in this area was on May 13, 1989.”

Plumage and Accessories

• A pair of old Swarovski Binoculars, a reporter’s note pad and a pencil.  Their bird observation notes couldn’t be deciphered by Alan Turing. 
• The Bird Brain uses the same Tilly Hat every time they go out – it’s dirty and smells like the bat cave they dropped it in while in Kasanka National Park, Zambia but they don’t notice.
• The Bird Brain does not use an Ebird account and has developed their own sophisticated system to keep track of every bird they’ve ever seen with the exact time and place they saw it.
• They have 26 bird feeders and three water features (two heated) in their yard.  They get more birds just looking out their back window than a Birder Wannabe can get in the nearby Forest Preserve in three hours.

Birding Activities

• Bird Brains are the ex-president of the local bird club are a respected leader of the birding community.
• They lead many bird walks each year, patiently confirming each Robin, Blue Jay and Cardinal sighting to the Almost-a-Birders in the group.
• Mostly goes out of the country to bird.   When home, they tend to bird very early in the morning or in the afternoon so they don’t miss the Today Show  – that Hoda is such a hoot!

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This concludes this edition of GBPI’s Field Guide to Birders.  Our research is ongoing, so as new species of birders are discovered they will be included in future editions.  To learn more about GreatBirdPics click HERE.  To become a member of GreatBirdPics click HERE.  Happy Birding!