Bird watching or birding, mostly involves the study and observation of birds with the help of visual enhancement devices such as the binoculars or with naked eye. Most birdwatchers and birders follow this activity for social or recreational reasons. This is completely dissimilar to the ornithologists, who mostly engage themselves in the conventional scientific bird study. Most birders in the United States and Great Britain often like to segregate themselves from birdwatchers. At a most fundamental level, the distinction between “birdwatching” and “birders” is mostly of intensity or dedication. More often than not, people who describe themselves to be birders are more concentrated on the study of birds and searching birds, as compared to maintaining a general observation. Hence, they tend to be more acquainted in details such as habitat usage, migration timing, distribution and moult. Birders, who are more dedicated in nature, travel widely and mostly invest in optical equipments such as telescopes. On the contrary, most bird watchers have a confined outlook and embark on fewer investments in optical equipments.

A Brief Elaboration on Bird Watching:

The most active times of the year for birding are observed during the spring and the fall season. These are the times when the greatest varieties of birds are observed. In such events, large numbers of birds either travel south or north to nesting or wintering locations. The best time of the day for watching birds is early morning. This is the time when most of the birds look for food, which makes it easier to locate and observe them. Those bird watchers who are keen to seek rare species of birds would not mind traveling large distances for finding new species. They mostly intend to add them to their list of observed birds in person. Mostly, these lists take the form of national list, life list, county list or state list. Another method of bird watching involves seawatching. In this methodology, the birdwatchers base themselves at a coastal watch point and observe the birds which fly over the sea. It is considered to be a type of pelagic birding, in which mostly oceanic birds are observed. The other method of watching oceanic bird species is through the seagoing vessels.

More on Bird Watching:

Most of the bird watchers, take part in migratory patterns and the bird population census. Sometimes, these are specifically based to certain individual species. In addition, these birders might also calculate all the birds in a specific region, as in case of the “Christmas Bird Count”. Another term which is mostly specific to the bird watchers, who observe birds within the boundaries of a particular nation, is “twitching”.  In Great Britain, the term “twitching” is normally used to indicate the “observation of a rare bird” which was previously located.  In large parts of North America, “twitching” is often referred to as “chasing”, although younger birders prefer to use the British term. Some birders do involve in competition with each other for the accumulation of the most prolific list of species.