🐦 Birdwatcher 🤲 Person with twitches

twitcher

1 8.1

A person who travels to see rare birds as a hobby

noun
/ˈtwɪtʃər/

Jargon

: pajarero

Look, he's a twitcher.

Examples

We got a twitcher!

Over the Hedge (2006)
Look, she's a twitcher.

Dawn of the Dead (2004)
As a result, practically every one of North America's approximately 650 breeding bird species is observed every year by some birder ("ticked off" by a "twitcher," in birder's jargon).

Academic text (1991)
As a dedicated twitcher, she traveled across the country to spot the rare golden eagle.
During the birdwatching festival, many twitchers gathered to share tips and sightings.
He has been a twitcher for years, always eager to add new species to his bird list.

Synonyms

birder

vstwitcher

8 5.1

A person who watches and identifies birds in the wild

focuses on long trips to seek rare species for leisure

bird watcher

vstwitcher

6 2.8

A person who watches wild birds for fun or study

travels long distances to see uncommon species

birdwatcher

vstwitcher

2 2.8

A person who watches and studies wild birds for fun

travels to find rare species rather than watching locally

How Dedicated

twitcher

Jargon

1 8.1

birdman

4 7.0

birdwatcher

2 2.8

Surface Forms

twitcher singular

twitchers plural

Morphology

twitcher = twitch (opaque) = twitch + er

Although the word is built as 'twitch' + '-er', the birdwatching sense depends on a specialized slang use of 'twitch' that is not predictable from the common modern meaning.

Etymology

Twitcher in the birding sense is a hobby word that grows from a use of twitch to mean 'to make a quick trip' to see a rare bird, with -er for 'someone who does it'. So a twitcher is a birdwatcher who travels quickly to spot rare birds.