Birdwatching has become the most popular outdoor activity in America, with over 60 million enthusiasts and growing, and the watchers are as diverse as the birds they enjoy.

Although the term “birdwatcher” is more inclusive and is used interchangeably with “birder,” the latter is keen on the avian world beyond the backyard feeder. Unlike the birder that hunts with rifles, the watching birder carries binoculars (“bins”) and may “go birding” or just “go bird.” Yes, birders have their own jargon and at least one unique verb.

For example, my wife used to be an SOB, fondly meant, of course, as “spouse of birder.” But over the years of following me around, she, too, has become a birder, which I’m afraid makes me, in poetic justice, an SOB, too.

Birders who aspire to climb up the pecking order of experience might become “listers,” also known as “twitchers” in England. The term “twitcher” originated in the 1950s, when it was used to describe the nervous behavior of British birder Howard Medhurst. The main goal of “twitching” is to observe as many different birds as possible, accumulating species on one’s list. The pursuit itself is referred to as a “twitch” or a “chase.” A rare bird that stays put long enough in a location for many people to see it is “twitchable” or “chaseable” and when seen can be “ticked” on one’s list. And when visiting America a twitcher may see a “yank” (rare bird) and enter a “megatick” (rare bird ticked) on his or her list. All this twitching may sound a little obsessive, but it’s also birder energy that can be put to good use.

For example, birding organizations like Audubon sponsor competitive bird listing events to raise funds for their education programs and for bird habitat conservation. In a “Big Day” event, teams count as many different species as possible in a defined area within 24 hours. That’s right, it goes on for 24 hours, with owling at night. There’s even the World Series of Birding, a “Big Day” event where teams of some of the best birders compete in the annual event held at Cape May, N.J. Some birders even take on the personal odyssey of a “Big Year.” But if the thought of having such a big day or year makes you feel “Big Tired,” you might consider a “Big Sit” or “Big Stay” event in which you position yourself in a good spot and let the birds come to you.

And then there are those seemingly insatiable birders who seek all the birds the world has to offer. That would be about 10,000 species and only a small number of people have even come close to seeing them all, including Phoebe Snetsinger.

When Phoebe (also a bird name) was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma, she defiantly set out to spend her family inheritance traveling the world to set a new record of spotting 8,400 bird species. In the process, her cancer subsided. She survived an attack and rape in New Guinea but tragically died from a bus accident in Madagascar just after seeing one of her most desired birds, a red-shouldered vanga. Pheobe’s adventure is chronicled in her book, “Birding on Borrowed Time,” published posthumously in 2003. Tom Gullick, from England, established a new record of 8,800 species that’s held since 2008.

How do you like to bird? Of course each of us pursues the enjoyment of birds in our own way. Many birders keep a personal “life list,” which can be a reminder of birds seen over one’s lifetime, either at home or at exotic and faraway places. A new bird is a “lifer.” But if you’re becoming as forgetful as me, the new bird you saw last year may appear as new again the next time you see it!

I certainly enjoy seeing rare birds and “lifers,” but my days are also enriched by “rare encounters with ordinary birds,” a phrase I’ve adopted from the title of Lyanda Lynn Haupt’s book of that title. Like the tiny brown winter wren belting out its surprisingly big song from a tangle of blackberry as I walk out to the mailbox. Whatever the encounter, I always yearn for it to be long and lasting. It often is.

— Alan Huggins is a lifelong learner who enjoys birds and nature

The Great Backyard Bird Count

The Great Backyard Bird Count is a four-day event sponsored by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and Audubon that will take place Feb. 18 to 21. It engages bird watchers of all ages in counting birds to create a real-time snapshot of where the birds are across the continent. Anyone can participate, and it can take as little as 15 minutes on one day or as long as one wants to count for each of the four days.

See instructions and resources at the event website: http://www.birdsource.org/gbbc/