birding-aus

Waders or Shorebirds

To: Chris Corben <>
Subject: Waders or Shorebirds
From: Ian May <>
Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2013 20:59:35 +1000

g'Day Chris

My thoughts exactly.

In the late 1950's, the Bird Observers Club produced a magnificent booklet "Field Guide to the Waders". And later, wader enthusiasts formed the Australian Wader Study Group. It was in the early 1960's when Fred Smith first told me that the term "Shorebird was used in America to describe waders. By the mid 1960's we would occasionally hear the term "shore bird" mainly when referring to the unabridged 1962 edition of a book "Life Histories of North American Shore Birds". By late 1960's a few wader enthusiasts had a copy of that book but most of us considered "shore bird" a foreign term used to describe waders if you were visiting the United States and otherwise, best ignored. I had the impression it was just another Americanism and probably used by the same people who later referred to our Stone Curlews as "Thicknees". I remember when I first heard the term Thicknee. Had a chuckle at the sad corruption of a great name. Most Ausies knew that a "thicknee" was not a bird at all; but a symptom of an exotic venereal disease brought home after an overseas deployment to Vietnam. In a similar way the term "shore bird" is seen by some as a cringey term. But by the late 1990s "shore bird" had invaded our birding vocabulary. So much so now that if i mention waders to some of the more recent birding enthusiasts, they look back at me as though I just reported seeing a Pteranodon. Probably the shorebird word/words has crept into environmental learning courses more as a result that reflects the American origins of the many university lecturers in that field that have worked in Australia rather than any conscious decision to change from the proper Australian use of the term "waders" and "migratory waders" that should be used in Australia to describe birds of the order "Charadriiformes". (alternative name Laro-Limicolae)

Ian May
St Helens, Tasmania
0428337956




Chris Corben wrote:

Oh NO!

Has Australia adopted the American term?


On 06/19/2013 03:14 AM, Mike Carter wrote:

Fred was world famous for his observations on waders (which we now call shorebirds)


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