For many birdwatchers from the northeast, a Greater Roadrunner might be a life bird.

Birdwatching, or birding, is one of those hobbies that has its own particular set of terms that someone outside the hobby of birdwatching might not understand when they first run across them. One of those terms is seeing a life bird. A life bird is, quite simply, a bird of a species that you have never seen before in your life.

Many birdwatching enthusiasts keep detailed records of the birds that they see. They might mark down the first time they see a particular bird species and record the time, date and place of the sighting. Like anyone, birdwatchers can’t recall the first time they saw the very common birds of their own geographical area. Who can recall the first robin they ever saw? Life Birds tend to be those that are either rare and possibly endangered, or those from faraway places.

Some birders will count the bird no matter where they see it. It could be an ostrich in a zoo or an emu on an emu farm. For them, it doesn’t matter, it’s still a life bird if they see it in person. Other, more serious birdwatching enthusiasts only count a life bird if it is in the wild. Either way, recording the time and place of the first sighting of each species of bird can be quite addicting.

Some well known wildlife organizations put out books, known as birder’s journals, specifically for recording the bird species that one has seen. These books are meant to be written in, but also contain listings and pictures of the various bird species of North America. The best of these, like the National Geographic Birder’s Journal, for instance, will also contain listings for birds that are not normally found in North America, but which might stray to this continent from time to time.

Keeping records and seeking out new life birds is a great way to keep the birdwatching hobby fun and exciting throughout one’s lifetime. The handy checklists found in a good birder’s journal can make keeping track of those birds that are yet to be seen much easier.