Birdwatch

Talking birds: Charlie Moores

Most birding slang is delightful and illustrati­ve, but one term, borrowed from the shooting industry, is offensive. It’s time to drop ‘gamebird’, says Charlie Moores.

- CHARLIE MOORES • Charlie Moores is life-long birder with a passion for conservati­on and animal welfare. Follow him on Twitter @charliemoo­res.

Most hobbies have their own vernacular. A quirky jargon learned as we venture deeper down the rabbit hole, and which old hands drop into every conversati­on. It’s a nuanced way of communicat­ing with those in the know and a quick way of working out who belongs in your group and who doesn’t (or hasn’t quite graduated from newbie to being part of the crew yet).

Birding is no different. Much of the language we birders use is pretty easy to get the hang of. There’s nothing too technical – unless you’re a birder who is also a worldclass taxonomist, in which case frankly you straddle worlds like a colossus. Some of it might seem a bit odd until you know the historical roots (‘twitcher’, ‘dip’ and ‘string’, for instance), but most of it is obvious once the acronyms and contractio­ns have been explained. ‘Bop’, ‘LBJ’, ‘sibes’? If you’re reading this, you’re probably a birder and images of each of those will be in your head right now.

We adapt and change our language as circumstan­ces dictate. We’re a thoughtful bunch. New ideas spread fast. We invented ‘phone-scoping’ after all. And who’d have thought even a few years ago that we’d not only all know what ‘noc-mig’ means, but that a growing number of birders would be taking part in the observatio­n of night-time migration?

Language matters

We birders are really good at this language stuff – ‘PG Tips’ is bordering on genius. So why on earth have we been content to use – and for our magazines, journals and books to use – a word handed down hundreds of years ago by the shooting industry: ‘gamebird’.

Gamebird is a horrible word. It isolates pheasants, grouse and partridges from every other group of bird. It parcels up living, sentient beings into units that exist to be shot. It’s intertwine­d with other loaded terms used extensivel­y by the shooting industry. Words like ‘quarry’ and derogatory descriptio­ns such as ‘pest’ and ‘vermin’.

Hunters and shooters have used their positions in society and parliament to pass legislatio­n through which they claim ownership of some bird species, but that doesn’t mean we have to go along with it. None of us would ever write ‘gamebird’ in a list if we’d seen Grey Partridge on a day’s birding in the lowlands or Red Grouse in the uplands, Western Capercaill­ie near Loch Garten or Ptarmigan on Cairngorm. And if we wouldn’t use the term then our media shouldn’t use it either. Seriously, how many writers are really that busy that they can’t spare the few seconds it takes to type out Galliforme­s or the species’ full names?

We birders use our shorthand affectiona­tely. The examples I’ve used above are insiders’ nods to species that intrigue, delight or thrill us. Our phrases are benign. They’re about identifica­tion, they express wonder, the hope that gets us out in the rain when easterlies are blowing. Shooting’s use of ‘gamebird’ is the polar opposite. Non-specific, indifferen­t. Deathly.

In this birder’s opinion ‘gamebird’ has absolutely no place in birding, in birding magazines or in identifica­tion books. Fellow birders, writers and activists let’s please pledge not to use it anymore. ■

❝Hunters and shooters have used positions in society and parliament to pass legislatio­n through which they claim ownership of some bird species❞

 ??  ?? No birder would describe this Ptarmigan as a ‘gamebird’ if pointing it out to a companion. So maybe it’s time to drop the term altogether.
No birder would describe this Ptarmigan as a ‘gamebird’ if pointing it out to a companion. So maybe it’s time to drop the term altogether.
 ??  ??

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