With tongue planted firmly in cheek, the creators of the GBRS reveal the top 10 requirements for attaining a place in the vaunted Top 5! You can visit my new favourite birder blog "Bourbon, Bastards and Birds" for a good giggle here:
http://seagullsteve.blogspot.ca/2013/07/the-human-birdwatcher-project-presents.html You can also find a link in the blog to explain just what the secretive GBRS is. Also here's an excerpt from the final 5 requirements regarding birder behavior to give you the idea:
10. Conduct. A birder is a birder both in the field and after the binoculars come off. The Final Five are expected to have social skills far and above those of the average birder, or to be explicitly clear, the social skills one would expect from the average nonbirder. Expected conduct does not compel the Final Five to be mild-mannered or inoffensive, but the following habits and traits are strongly desired: Not embarrassing themselves in online forums/Facebook groups/listservs; keeping an even temper; comprehension of basic social cues (i.e. the ability to detect and dispense sarcasm, making a joke that other people can understand, etc); lacking prejudices against large swaths of the population (i.e. men, women, Asians, beginning birders etc.); not pronouncing bird names in bizarre, completely unconventional ways; not being overly serious, petty, or passive-aggressive. A mild amount of awkwardness is acceptable for members of the Final Five, however the stifling awkwardness abundant in the birding community generally prevents birders from advancing beyond Birder #85 or so.
