Word: birder
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...single bird may produce more than a dozen different songs and calls, and plumage may vary widely by sex, age, region and season. Even if a species is seen for only a second, a top birder can sift through all the clues and come up with the right identification most of the time. "In part, birding is a mental challenge," says Dunne. "It attracts a disproportionate number of doctors and engineers -- people whose jobs involve the same kind of deductive reasoning birders...
...Many birders get started in their preteen years. "They may get wide-eyed seeing their first 'Baltimore' oriole," says Turner, a birder since age six. "That aesthetic component gets mixed quickly with the urge to collect -- the baseball-card factor -- and the hunting instinct, which is probably in the genes...
...some watchers are dedicated nonactivists who enjoy birding largely for the companionship it brings. A birder can travel a thousand miles into the wilds of another state and find instant rapport with local birding fanatics, who are busy collecting new species, along with mosquito bites and ticks. "Camaraderie is what birding is all about," says Benton Basham, a Chattanooga, Tenn., anesthetist...
Like other addicts, birders can let their work slip. Don Roberson, a well- known California birder, dropped his law practice at the age of 29 to follow the birds, though he has since relapsed and returned to work. Like ski bums, some talented young birders take low-level jobs as clerks or night watchmen, thus saving their major energies for the chase...
...That's not my idea of bird watching, never finding anything on your own," says Colorado Birder Jack Reddall, who travels to see birds but refuses to chase. "Real birding is getting to know your own area and turning up good birds at home." California Birder Jon Dunn admits to mixed feelings about birding in the fast lane. "Competition taken to an extreme can lead to bad birding, too much pressure to tick off one more species...