Where the Wild Things Are: The stigma of being a bird-nerd!

Hunched back, greasy hair, socks and sandals with big binoculars hanging around the neck - this is the stereotypical image that comes to mind when thinking of a twitcher!

I used to laugh at my parents getting excited when they saw a kestrel... or when they saw something they didn't recognise and ran home to I.D. it in their bird books.

And then something happened...

I became one of them!

It all began, as much did, on my journey in Africa. During my first three months of volunteering I noticed birds, learnt to recognise a few calls but not too much more... But whilst training as a field guide on Shamwari Game Reserve my transformation happened. Okay... so I didn't form a hunch back, I rarely let my hair get greasy, and socks and sandals will ALWAYS be a no no! But binoculars became a regular necklace and I rarely left for a drive without my bird book.

Birds, once you really stop and look, are incredible! Their variety is beyond anything a human could imagine - they can be as big as an ostrich or as tiny as a bee hummingbird which is so small it can easily be mistaken for an insect. Their colours go beyond our visual spectrum: inflorescence is the most beautiful thing I've seen. They can make beautiful song, or horrible screeches, they live during the day or during the night!

Did you know that female ostriches are brown
because they sit on the eggs during the day, whereas
males are black so they can be more camouflaged
when they sit on the eggs during the night?

And here is the nerdy part: spotting a bird and identifying it correctly is one of the most exciting things on African Safari! Of course seeing the big African animals, the lions, leopards, cheetahs, elephants.. That never, ever gets old. But in between, when you spend long hours driving around, bird watching is incredible! I once spent a good hour following a bird trying to I.D. it... and eventually it was confirmed as a Long Legged Buzzard, a species of bird that has been identified less than 10 times in Southern Africa! (Unfortunately I don't have any decent photographs to show you).

The Secretary Bird falls into its own category:
it has the head of an eagle and the legs of a crane.
Unlike most birds of prey it hunts on the ground.

So why is there all this stigma around being a bird nerd? What is it that makes us recoil, laugh and mock?

I think people having a passion for something is beautiful and however manifests... however nerdy it may seem, we should embrace their love and excitement!

So I leave this post with a few photographs of some of the birds I managed to capture on camera... And hope that in the future you don't fear the stigma of being a bird nerd!