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'What is a birder?' with Rosemary Mosco
Every hobby has its own lingo, including birding!
Rosemary Mosco’s latest book, The Birding Dictionary, is a tongue-in-cheek guide that defines many of the terms that you might hear on a bird outing, like calling a particularly cute bird a "birb" or shortening the word binoculars to just "bins" or "nocs."
BirdNote®
'What is a Birder?' with Rosemary Mosco
Written by Ariana Remmel
This is BirdNote.
Every hobby community has its lingo, and folks who love birds are no exception. Even the word “bird” has multiple meanings, says Rosemary Mosco, the author and illustrator behind a new book called The Birding Dictionary.
Rosemary Mosco: Bird, noun: A type of animal that is, by all scientific and objective measures, the best one. Verb: The worthy act of beholding a bird and giving it the time and attention it deserves.
Rosemary’s tongue-in-cheek guide defines many of the terms that you might hear on a bird outing, like calling a particularly cute bird a birb or shortening binoculars to just bins or nocs. And for anyone with doubts about who gets to use these words, she also included this entry:
Rosemary Mosco: Birder, noun. A person who engages in the hobby of spotting, listening to, and/or otherwise perceiving birds. If you love observing birds, you’re a birder. If you’re new to the hobby, you’re a birder. If you love birds but have never heard any of the slang or scientific jargon in this book before, you’re a birder. If you’re the type of person who judges other birders for not knowing enough about birds, you’re still a birder, but you’re also an a** [Canada Goose honk]. If you’re a Peregrine Falcon and love observing birds, you’re just hungry.
[Peregrine Falcon call, ML136378]
I feel like there is no hobby where people are more nervous about calling themselves a part of it. I try to reassure people, like, you are a birder and you belong in the community.
To all the birders out there, I’m Ariana Remmel.
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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Peregrine Falcon ML 136378 recorded by M Andersen. BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2025 BirdNote July 2025
Narrator: Ariana Remmel
ID# MoscoR-02-2025-07-DD MoscoR-02
