Some birds are described as “rare,” others as “difficult,” and some as “unlikely.” But birding brochures tend to prefer the word “elusive,” which sounds much more promising.
So this is what the brochure might say:
“We will search for several elusive species, including the highly sought-after ground cuckoo and several shy understory specialists.”
And this is what it means:
We will try to find a few birds that are hard to see and may not appear at all. If we do see one, it will probably be brief.
“Elusive” is a reassuring way of saying that failure will not be considered surprising
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 22 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well.
He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.
That’s a lovely Black-breasted Thrush – definitely an elusive bird.
What I really dislike is the mention of a super rare bird (an elusive one) in a birding book when the author of that book has only seen it once, poorly, and it never ever appeared again. With eBird that is fortunately no longer such an issue but this practice has led me on some wild goose chases in the past. No surprise that I like guides who just tell you: “That’s not going to happen, that bird is not here now”.