Bird Words: A Glossary

Digiscoping Taking photos with a digital camera through a telescope or binoculars

Distribution The geographic area(s) where a particular species can be found

Diurnal Birds that are active during the day

Endemic A bird that is native to a particular area and found nowhere else. For example, the Island Scrub-Jay lives only on Santa Cruz Island off the coast of California

LBJ Little Brown Job, or generic brown sparrow-like bird

Life list A list of all the bird species seen in one's life. There are many possible variations—and birders often keep multiple lists— such as year lists, state, county, or backyard lists, heard-only lists, and even lists of birds seen on television(See box "The Lowdown on Lists")

Lifer The first sighting of a particular species in a birder's life

Molt The process in which birds replace their feathers by shedding old ones and growing new ones

Nocturnal Birds that are active at night, such as owls and nightjars

Non-native (a.k.a. "Exotic" or "Introduced") Birds that have been released from captivity and are now living in the wild, but that are not native to North America, such as pigeons, starlings, and monk parakeets

Pishing Making hissing sounds to imitate the alarm calls of songbirds, and attract them so they will come into view

Trash bird A bird that is annoyingly common

Twitching Seeking rare species of birds to "tick" off your life list (a British term)

Warbler Neck A sore neck that you get from staring at the tops of trees for hours, looking for warblers