You know you are addicted to Birding if:
- You wear your binoculars to the park for family get together.
- Your friends introduce you as "He is Sumeet - he is a bird photographer, and they don't even know what you actually do for living
- You have driven your car erratically while gazing up at a bird, to make sure you got a positive ID.
- Your neighbors mistake you for undergoing some military training every weekend because you go out in those camouflage clothes and carry a monopod that looks like a training stick and a huge lens that looks like a bazooka
- Your wife asks "How was work?" You respond with "Not Bad. I saw five Scaly breasted Munias on the drive-in, a spotted dove at lunch, and a red wattled lapwing on the drive home!"
- Your dog / kids are named Robin, Munia, Myna, Bulbul, etc.
- You have been "just a few minutes" late to work because you were checking out a bird sitting on the electric pole
- You try to talk up random strangers you see that are wearing t-shirts with pictures of specific birds on them, only to receive blank stares and the comment "I don't know or care what bird that is, someone gave me this shirt."
- When someone that knows you are "into birding" casually mentions they saw Indian Pitta. Your heart starts racing because you have only seen once and weren't able to get a clear shot.
- When talking to a friend, all of a sudden you move your head and look towards the direction from where a bird call came, only to your friends surprise as to what happened
- Every time you go out for shopping, you end up buying a green base shirt, thinking you might need it and use it during your birding trips / outings as well.
- Every present you get on your birthday is bird related. No one would ever consider disappointing you with anything else.
- You go to your brother's wedding and of course plan a side trip to do some birding. You come down with the flu at the wedding, but still drive several hours and get till that lake to catch one glimpse of the bar headed geese from siberia
- Whenever you spot a lifer, you start jumping like a kid in the process scare that bird away
- Every time when you come back from a bird outing, your wife asks - was there any lifer - and you just hang your head low to say NO however when you post process you see there was a lifer green warbler in your shots which you mistook as any other warbler but still clicked - Hurray!
- You just happen to see a bird on a power line and drive right on by, thinking it's probably just another dove or sparrow. Then you turn around 5 minutes later to go back and check for sure.
- You plan visits to friends and family members based on the time of year (especially when the siberian migration is happening)
- You go to a National Forest Safari where the entire crowd is going mad looking at the Lion and all of a sudden you start pointing at the opposite direction because you spot a Kingfisher there
- When your whatsapp status says the number of species you captured till date
- And When your profile picture is always some bird that you recently saw
(Some points borrowed from whatbird.com)
