Jizz or giss is the overall impression or appearance of a
bird
Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
garnered from such features as shape, posture, flying style or other habitual movements, size and colouration combined with voice, habitat and location. The concept was popularised in
birdwatching
Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, b ...
, but is so useful that it has since been adopted increasingly widely by field biologists in referring to the impression of the general characteristics of other animals.
It similarly appears in such fields of observational biology as microscopy.
Ecologists and botanists may speak of "habitat jizz" or the jizz of a plant.
Sean Dooley
Sean Dooley is an Australian writer. He has written for TV comedies including '' Spicks and Specks''. His first published book was 2005's '' The Big Twitch'', an account of his attempt to break the Australian record for the number of birds see ...
described jizz as "the indefinable quality of a particular species, the 'vibe' it gives off" and notes that although it is "dismissed by many as some kind of birding alchemy, there is some physical basis to the idea of jizz."
Experienced birders can often make reliable identifications in the field at a glance by using jizz. Often jizz is useful for identifying to the
family
Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...
or
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...
level, rather than the
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
level, as in: "It definitely had the jizz of a thrush, but I couldn't see what kind."
Etymology
The term was first used in print in 1922, in
Thomas Coward
Thomas Alfred Coward (8 January 1867 – 29 January 1933), was an English ornithologist and an amateur astronomer. He wrote extensively on natural history, local history and Cheshire.
Life
He was born at 8 Higher Downs, Bowdon, Cheshire ( ...
's "
Country Diary
''Country Diary'' is a daily natural history column in the English newspaper ''The Guardian'', first published in November 1906. It is also now freely available on the newspaper's website. Past and present contributors include Pete Bowler, Arnol ...
" column for the ''
Manchester Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' of 6 December 1921; the piece was subsequently included in his 1922 book ''Bird Haunts and Nature Memories''.
He attributed it to "a west-coast Irishman",
and explained:
concludes that the term was further popularised by its use by Miss E.I. Turner, "a popular author", in the journal ''Open Air'' in 1923.
There is a theory that it comes from the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
RAF
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
acronym GISS for "General Impression of Size and Shape (of an aircraft)", but the use of the term in 1922 precludes that.
Another theory claims that jizz is a corruption of ', a German word that roughly means form or shape.
Other possibilities include the word ''gist'', or a contraction of ''just is''. These theories were debunked by Jeremy Greenwood and his brother Julian in 2018.
References
External links
Texas Park and Wildlife Department – Project Prairie Birds – JIZZ Descriptions and Alpha Codes for Selected Species
* ttp://canberrabirds.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/CBN/cbnvol21no1.pdf McDonald, D 1996, 'The etymology of jizz', ''Canberra Bird Notes'', vol. 21, no. 1, pp. 2–11.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jizz (Birding)
Birdwatching
Wild animals identification
1920s neologisms