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bird watcher
bird watchernouna person who identifies and observes birds in their natural habitat as a recreation.
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bird-watcher
bird-watchernouna person who studies wild birds in their natural surroundings
bird watcher
Americannoun
noun
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of bird watcher
First recorded in 1900–05
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That's one reason why we say birder instead of bird watcher.
From Salon ● Jul. 19, 2023
A former Olympian hammer thrower, Gillard had recently become an avid bird watcher and photographer.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2023
He recalled that Katherine, an avid bird watcher, said she wanted to be cremated and to have her remains scattered in the Montrose Beach area of Chicago, where there is a bird sanctuary.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 6, 2022
I’m a rotten bird watcher — I don’t know one bird from the other — but I know a bit more this year than I did last, I’ll tell you that.
From New York Times ● Dec. 25, 2020
Miss Ellis was looking at the two of them like a bird watcher onto a rare species.
From "The Great Gilly Hopkins" by Katherine Paterson
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“I want to say it was the happiest day of my life, but I have two children,” said Debra Schiff, 69, a bird-watcher, while admiring a turtle at the lagoon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 16, 2026
"You look at people the way a bird-watcher looks at birds," said a friend.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
What’s especially charming about the latter is that Gary, a nerdy sweetheart who lives alone with his two cats and is an avid bird-watcher, is clearly the opposite of danger.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 4, 2024
This she overlays with audio of Amy Cooper, who, when an African American bird-watcher asked her to leash her dog in Central Park, infamously called 911 to report him as a threat.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2021
Officer Delinko wasn’t a bird-watcher, but he was intrigued by the toy-sized owls.
From "Hoot" by Carl Hiaasen
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.