Bird Nicknames & Abbreviations
There page is a list of abbreviations, old/regional names or nicknames used by twitchers (and to an extent birders) in the UK (and some from North America, Australia etc)
Acros = Acrocephalus Warblers
Barwit = Bar-tailed Godwit
Beardie = Bearded Tit (Bearded Reedling)
Blackwit = Black-tailed Godwit
Bluj = (Blooge) Blue Jay (US)
Bonxie = Great Skua
Butcherbird = Shrike
Butterbutt = Yellow-rumped Warbler (US)
Cans = Canvasback (US)
Chooks = Common Birds (Aus)
Clownface = Lark Sparrow (US)
Comic Tern = Common or Arctic Tern too far off to positively identify
Culls = Unidentified, but common gulls
Dabchick = Little Grebe
Dark Lark = European Starlings (US)
Dicks = Richard’s Pipit
Empid = Empidonax warblers (US)
Ewok = Black-and-white Warbler (US)
Fink = Unidentified finch (US)
Frenchie = Red-legged Partridge
GBH = Great Blue Heron (US)
Ginger = Red-headed Woodpecker (US)
Goatsucker = confusingly, either a Nightjar or a Wryneck
Gozzer = Goshawk
Gringo = Greenfinch
Gropper = Grasshopper Warbler
Growl= Great Horned Owl (US)
Harnser = Grey Heron (Handsaw in Shakespear)
Hippos = Hippolais Warblers
Hudwit = Hudsonian Godwit
Junk Bird = A bird that twitchers find to common to count
Junks = Unidentified Juncos (US)
Kezzie = Kestrel
Lawn Carp = Domesticated Canada Geese (US)
LBJ = Little Brown Job
Leastie = Least Sandpiper (US)
LEO = Long-eared Owl
Lollypop – ©Ashley Beolens
Lollypop = Long-tailed Tit
Lotty = Long-tailed Tit
Lush = Olive-sided Flycatcher (US)
Manxie = Manx Sheerwater
Mipit = Meadow Pipit
MoDo = Morning Dove (US)
Moo-tweet = Unidentified Cowbird (US)
Mother Carey’s Chicken = Wilson’s Storm Petrel
Mucky Duck = Any hybrid or domestic duck
Mudpecker = Shorebird (US)
Nutter Butter = Red-breasted Nuthatch (US)
OBP = Olive-backed Pipit
Old Yeller = Prairie Warbler (US)
Oyk = Oystercatcher
Pec(k) = Pectoral Sandpiper
Peeps = generic for small waders (US)
Peewit = Lapwing
PGTips = Pallas’s Grasshopper Warbler
Phylloscs = Phylloscopus warblers
Pibble = Pied-billed Grebe (US)
Pine Swine = Pine Siskin (US)
Pink Stink = Rose-coloured Starling
Plastic = Not a genuinely wild bird
Purple Pooper = Grey Catbird (US)
RB Fly = Red-breasted Flycatcher
Redcoat = Rarity from UK (US)
Ripit = Rock Pipit
Rockit = Rock Pipit
Sea Parrot = Puffin
Sea Pigeon = Black Guillemot
SEO = Short-eared Owl
Seven Whistler = Whimbrel
Sharpie = Sharp-shinned Hawk (US)
Sibe = Vagrant Siberian Birds
Snakebird = Anhinga (US Aus)
Snog = Song Sparrow (US)
Spadger = House Sparrow
Spawk = Sparrowhawk
SpotFly = Spotted Flycatcher
SpotRed = Spotted Redshank
Stormcock = Mistlethrush
Tanglepicker = Turnstone
The Stink = Sewage Works anywhere
Thistlebird = Goldfinch (US)
Throstle = Thrush
Tripit = Tree Pipit
Tubenose = Unidentified shearwater, petrel etc
TV = Turkey Vulture (US)
VG = Violet-green Swallow (US)
Wa-Haa = Cedar Waxwing (US)
Water Ouzel = Dipper
Windfucker = Kestrel
Windhanger = Kestrel
Wipit = Water Pipit
X-Bill = Crossbill (US)
Yaffle = Green Woodpecker
Yank = A vagrant North American bird in Europe
Zonos = Sparrows of the genus Zonotrichia (US)