As a birder for more than 30 years, I have come to realize that we are a heterogenous group. Passive birdwatchers, such as my mom, simply enjoy watching the backyard birds; they know a handful by their proper names but refer to most as "those little yellow ones" or "that big one with the long beak." These birders usually buy their feeders and seed at the grocery store (or at Walmart) and have no use for binoculars. Casual birders, on the other hand, can identify a dozen or more of our common birds, generally have a pair of binoculars and buy their feeders and special seed blends at bird specialty stores.
Social birders are members of the Audubon society and local birding groups. Equipped with the latest birding gear, they take part in bird counts, bird walks and birding seminars. They also maintain a "life list" of the birds they have seen and are among the most common patrons of the ecotourism industry. Naturalist birders, with whom I identify, enjoy birds as an interesting component of natural ecosystems; while they may have a special devotion to birding, they are more interested in the interrelationship of plants and animals with their physical environment. And though they may hang feeders in the yard, naturalists are more likely to attract wildlife with a variety of native plants.
Competitive birders, usually middle-aged men, are primarily interested in adding species to their various lists (home, State, National, Worldwide, lifelong, annual, etc.). Some actually take part in contests and, monitoring various online sighting reports, many will disrupt their daily routine to go see a rare or out-of-place bird; I suspect that these birders are using this sport to satisfy their basic urge to hunt. Finally, professional birders (ornithologists) concern themselves with bird behavior, migration patterns and other scientific matters; they also regularly combine, separate or rename species to keep the rest of us off-balance!
