Birding Snobs
House Sparrows - there are no "trash birds" as far as I am concerned.Are some birders snobs? First of all, let me say that I have been a birder all my life and have been around birders, all my life and the overwhelming majority are the nicest people you would care to meet. It's been one of the best parts about being a birding group leader and birding guide.
The answer, though, is, yes, there are some birders that are snobs, just as there are snobs in every other interest group or activity group I’ve joined over the years. It is human nature; you will always encounter people who need to feel superior to others and, thus, you will find some few birders who need to look down their nose at others. I’m not talking, here, about the overly exuberant and sometimes rude birder who has to impress others: those birders are not necessarily snobs; they sometimes just need to slow down a bit. I’m talking about true snobs and they can show their true colors in several ways.
Some birders are snobs about the birding binoculars or the birding spotting scopes they use and just assume that anyone who doesn’t own the best and greatest in a binocular or spotting scope are not serious birders. Now, I do carry and use the best in the way of birding optics, but I know better than to think that equipment makes the birder. To those people who rate birders by the birding binoculars they carry around their necks, you should’ve met my college ornithology professor. He carried an old beat up Tasco binocular, but he was as good a birder as I’ve ever met, not to mention being an excellent and demanding teacher.
Some birders rate other birders by the length of their life list or by the number of great birding destinations they’ve visited. I rate that as a better measure of someone’s bank account or length of time they’ve been birding, perhaps, but I know from experience that it takes more than that to make a skilled birder. Some of those impressive life lists and loaded passports don’t translate all that well to skill out in the field.
The last type of birding snob is, perhaps, the least obvious, but, to me, the most worrisome. These are birders who assign human values to birds; who rate common birds as beneath their notice and, worst of all, rate some birds as evil and categorize other birds as trash and worthy of eradication. This hurts me, personally, because of my earth-centered spiritual belief that all life is worthy, but it also irritates me from an ecological point of view. No, don’t bother to inform about the ecological disruption caused by birds such as the House Sparrow or the Starling. I know full well how these non-native birds have impacted our environment, but I also know that we imported those birds and we have created the environment that allows them to flourish. I also know that there is nothing unnatural about humans and other animals acting as vehicles for species transport to new areas. If we are guilty of anything, here, we are guilty of accelerating the process with our technology and our surge in population. Besides, all the nasty expletives in the world won’t make them disappear.
So, next time you see that House Sparrow or Starling when you are birding with me, please refrain from the slurs, labels and putdowns about these birds. They are here because they best fill the niches we have created for them and that kind of competition is as old as life, itself, on this planet. Furthermore, the presence of House Sparrows, Starlings and Pigeons can actually be beneficial. Many inner city urbanites simply don’t have the budget for a guided birding trip to Costa Rica and these so called “trash birds” are quite capable of sparking an interest in nature and birding. What could be more important than an opportunity for these people to connect with nature in this ever more urban society? Surely, this is better than no birds. Then, too, many a backyard birder simply enjoys the presence of birds, any birds, in their backyard. They appreciate all birds. Why can’t a few so-called “real birders” do the same?
By the way, all pics you see in my blogs, such as the House Sparrows at the begining of this blog, are my own. Feel free to ask questions about digiscoping.
Thank you so much for this post!! (Posted by
Kerri: 6:49 PM )