“Have you seen any good birds?”
It’s the expected question when you meet another birder on the trail. We’ve all heard it, and probably asked it ourselves.
The first time I heard this I was a bit confused. What’s a “good” bird? Does that mean there are bad birds? Since that time I’ve learned that the question actually means, “Have you seen any unusual birds?” This makes a lot more sense. We all want to catch the rarity. But if seeing a rare bird is the only reason to go birding, we’d get bored pretty quickly.