Bird Watching Or Birding?

Bird watching is a hobby that involves watching and tracking birds for pleasure or fun. The official term for this hobby is ornithology, even though it is more typically referred to as bird watching, or birding, based on your location. However, I was led to believe that there's more to this distinction than just geography.

The use of the shortened term birding was most commonly used originally in America, while in the Uk it was known as bird watching. But in the Uk, a third term is also widely recognized to tell apart someone as a person who watches birds and that is twitching. Nevertheless, there are now three different definitions widely accepted for the 3 different terms, those being that birding refers to someone that watches wild birds for pleasure, bird watching is for those amateurs who study birds but who do so for their own purposes and who're not professionals in the field, and that twitching is undertaken to compile a long list of all of the wild birds which have ever been seen in a particular geographic location. For those amongst you who participate in this hobby, you need to now be able to work out which specific kind of bird watcher you are!

Generally speaking, the hobby of bird watching hasn't had a very good press. Frequently seen to be the hobby of the geek, it's little known that there are really some celebrity fans who don their binoculars to take a look at birds of the feathered variety. Former US president Jimmy Carter enjoyed relaxing with nature while bird watching, as did former Uk Prime Minister Harold Wilson. It is also a bit known fact that Ian Fleming's most famous creation, James Bond, was named after a famous ornithologist of the same name. Suddenly the hobby seems a lot cooler.....!

Amateur bird watchers have also been responsible for some impressive finds over the years. The spotting of a rare species has been known to cause many professionals to descend on an area and conservational work has been undertaken as a result of the discoveries.

Bird watching is extremely popular and it's a great way for people to get out and explore nature first hand. The best time of day for bird watching is thought to be for the first few hours after the sun rises as it is when the birds are at their most hungry and so are more visible and somewhat less wary. Bird watchers often situate themselves in a hide, that is generally an enclosed hut with small spaces to view outside, so that they have a great view of the surrounding area but they are largely hidden from the birds, preventing them from scaring them off.

[youtube:g3h-94r1ds8;[link:Finches];http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3h-94r1ds8&feature=related]


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