What is the difference between.....

[nightowl57]

A bird watcher and a Twitcher? I get called a twitcher, but I don't think I am, I believe twitchers have a book where they cross off all the birds they have seen....... I just enjoy seeing birds for what they are

[barquar]

twichers will go anywhere and travel milesto see unusal birds or rare sightings.
Barquar

[sunnydale]

I'm a walker first......but enjoy seeing birds as I go along (just said that on another thread!) I think that makes me a 'Walking Bird Watcher!'

[aeshna5]

The media + consequently Joe Public equate birding with twitching, but twitchers are a particular sub-set of birders. As implied above twitchers are those that rush around looking at rarities all over the place.

Some twitchers are excellent birders who also put a lot back doing survey /conservation work as well + enjoy the common birds too. There are some who are purely obsessed with getting new ticks + otherwise don't take much interest in common stuff- these are the guys (+ they usually are blokes!) I don't really understand.

Some twitchers are at the cutting edge of bird ID + have forwarded our knowledge of tricky IDs, yet at the other extreme you do get twitchers who don't know much, go on a twitch + actually see the "wrong" bird + tick the rarity!

[oxycera]

If you're watching birds in your garden you're a birdwatcher;
If you're scoping gulls on your local res. you're a birder;
If you're ticking a new bird at some rarity hotspot you're a twitcher
simple

[Hedge Witch]

I thought I'd see what Wikipedia had to say as it usually provides an entertaining read:

Birding, birdwatching and twitching

The term birdwatching was first used in 1901 while "bird" was introduced as a verb in 1918.[3] The term "birding" was also used for the practice of "fowling" or hunting with firearms as in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor (1602) She laments sir... her husband goes this morning a-birding.[4] The terms 'birding' and 'birdwatching' are today used interchangeably, although 'birding' is preferred by many since this includes the auditory component involved in spotting birds.
The term 'twitcher', sometimes misapplied as a synonym for birder, is reserved for those who travel long distances to see a rare bird that would then be "ticked" off on a "list". The usage of the term twitcher began in the 1950s originating from a phrase used to describe the nervous behaviour of Howard Medhurst, a British birdwatcher. Prior to that the term used for those who chased rarities was "pot-hunter", "tally-hunter", or "tick-hunter". The practice of travelling long distances to spot rarities was aided by the rising popularity of cars.[5]
The goal of twitching is often to accumulate species on one's lists. Some birders engage in competition with one another to accumulate the longest species list. The act of the pursuit itself is referred to as a "twitch" or a "chase". A rare bird that stays put long enough for people to see it is called "twitchable" or "chaseable".[2][6]
Twitching is highly developed in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland, Finland and Sweden. The smaller regional size of these countries make it possible to quickly travel inside their borders with relative ease. The most popular twitches in the UK have drawn large crowds, such as a group of approximately 5,000 people who came to view a Golden-winged Warbler in Kent. Twitchers have developed their own vocabulary. For example, a twitcher who fails to see a rare bird has dipped out; if other twitchers do see the bird, he may feel gripped off. Suppression is the act of concealing news of a rare bird from other twitchers.[2]

I wasn't disappointed

[shei111]

Well that makes me a bird watcher then . sheila

[Adam Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by aeshna5

The media + consequently Joe Public equate birding with twitching, but twitchers are a particular sub-set of birders. As implied above twitchers are those that rush around looking at rarities all over the place.

Some twitchers are excellent birders who also put a lot back doing survey /conservation work as well + enjoy the common birds too. There are some who are purely obsessed with getting new ticks + otherwise don't take much interest in common stuff- these are the guys (+ they usually are blokes!) I don't really understand.

Some twitchers are at the cutting edge of bird ID + have forwarded our knowledge of tricky IDs, yet at the other extreme you do get twitchers who don't know much, go on a twitch + actually see the "wrong" bird + tick the rarity!

Aeshna has pretty much got it sussed, though I would add the following.

You are whatever you choose to call yourself. For instance I am a birder yet I go on twitches for rarities when they are near enough for me to reasonably attempt to see them, yet I would not call myself a twitcher.

No person I know would call themselves a twitcher just because it usually has derogotary undertones when used within the world of birding (as opposed to when used by the lay person who knows nowt about birds, i.e the press) even though they may regularly go on twitches.

Cheers,

Adam

[Adam Cheeseman]

Originally Posted by Hedge Witch

I thought I'd see what Wikipedia had to say as it usually provides an entertaining read:

I was under the impression the term 'twitching' came from the Richard Richardson days of birding with his schoolmaster in the 1950s.

Cheers,

Adam

[Hedge Witch]

Ah, interesting, Adam