You know you are a birding fanatic when you

keep a bathroom bird list complete with scientific names in taxonomic order.

know some of the birds outside your country by their scientific name.

get asked about various birds first by your doctor.

visit a rain forest in a tuktuk spending 4 hours on the road to see a single bird. Twice.

feel it is perfectly okay to ask your friendly public bus driver to drive a bit slowly when going pass your favourite roadside wetland patch.

have no problem whatsoever to sit on the rain forest floor to see a ground bird that is coloured like decaying leaf litter.

always make comfort stops on jungle trails, strategically near fruiting trees.

have been bitten in all vital parts of the body by leeches while birding except in the eyes.

have no issues in standing near a stinking sewage canal with all forms of vicious biting things hovering around you to see a drab bird that doesn’t even sing.

carry your binoculars, checklists and field guides to bars & restaurants at dinner time during bird tours and feel perfectly okay about it.

are inordinately fond of garbage dumps to look for rarities.

keep a list of birds seen in your dreams.

have spent a better part of your life looking like this:

...and like this:

always prefer to buy clothes that are green, brown, grey and birdie.

have named your blog after a mythical bird that you have made up, which not many people can understand or pronounce properly.

feel like it is your duty to comment in blogs of non-birders who cannot tell a coot from a duck, whenever they post about birds.

wake up at 3.45 a.m., leave the hotel at 4.15 a.m. and reach a cold and dreary spot before crack of dawn to see a dark bird that mostly reveal in silhouette.

go on bird trips using public transport wearing binoculars, gum boots and leech socks. Oh, and a hands-free umbrella.

have nicknames and pet names from school days that are bird-related.

bump into a female bird watcher and check out her pair of binoculars first.

Okay, I may I have stretched things a wee bit here and there. But these remain largely true.

Let’s hear your contributions.