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Tips for beginning birders
- To: carolinabirds@duke.edu
- Subject: Tips for beginning birders
- From: Joshua Stuart Rose <jsr6@duke.edu>
- Date: Wed, 13 Feb 2002 18:34:07 -0500 (EST)
- In-Reply-To: <000101c1b498$74c6d160$1c4afea9@jerry>
- Sender: carolinabirds-owner@acpub.duke.edu
On Wed, 13 Feb 2002, Jerry Partrick wrote:
>
> I am sorry to report that the photo of the owl has been seen by Will Cook
> and although the photo is not very good, Will does not think it to be a
> Snowy Owl. I am sorry to have put everyone out. I think he is posting the
> photo on the website. Thank you all for being good birders.
Hi C-birders,
I also think the photo is of a Barred Owl; no idea why it was on the
ground so often... I want to thank Jerry for reporting his bird, and
express my hope that he and other novices watching the interrogation he
underwent will take this as a learning experience and not be discouraged
from saying something the next time they find a possible rarity. After
all, wasn't that White Wagtail at HBSP found by a teenager?
Some tips for Jerry and other beginning birders out there, in case the
field observations workshop idea at the CBC meeting doesn't pan out:
1. Know what's common and rare, and when. Harry LeGrand has pointed out
many times that the Christmas Bird Count archives are full of reports of
Eastern Kingbirds, Broad-winged Hawks, and other species which winter in
South America and have almost no confirmed records anywhere in the US in
winter, despite being common breeding birds here. The reports are
virtually always made by birders not aware of these birds' rarity in
winter, and so they do not take photographs or careful field notes or
confirm crucial field marks (like this owl's eye and beak color), which
leaves the CBC editors no choice but to consider the reports unverified.
Birders in the Triangle and vicinity should download the Triangle Area
Bird Checklist from Will Cook's website at
http://www.duke.edu/~cwcook/
so they have some idea when a bird can simply be reported and accepted,
and when a greater degree of scrutiny should be taken.
2. Field guides often convince novice birders that all birds can be
identified by plumage/coloration. This is not true. Pay attention to other
characteristics of a bird besides the color of its feathers: shape,
behavior, habitat, color of non-feathered parts, flight style, and so on.
As Len just pointed out, posture is also frequently useful.
3. Be very careful in making claims about size. Bird size can be very
difficult to percieve accurately, especially in flight. Using magnifying
optics doesn't help matters in this department. Color can also have
surprising effects on the apparent size of a bird to our eyes; I think the
general pattern is that white birds appear larger than dark birds of the
same size (but it probably depends on contrast with the background). And
heavy, stocky birds like jaegers and skuas often look dramatically bigger
than leaner birds like gulls, but in terms of length and wingspan are
actually smaller than most. If a bird is side-by-side with a bird of known
identity, or near some object of known size, then perhaps size can be
estimated with some confidence, but just seeing a lone bird and coming up
with a number of inches or centimeters is a real long shot.
4. Know the local common birds REALLY well. Field guides make us believe
sometimes that an entire species of bird can be summed up in a few images,
but in fact many bird species (Red-tailed Hawks, many other raptors, most
shorebirds, most large white-headed gulls) are highly variable. And many
birders often will catch "rare bird fever" and start ignoring common yard
species too soon in their rush to find vagrants. Age, sex, lighting, angle
of view, background, the time since the last molt, subspecies, diet now,
diet while growing up, and all kinds of other factors can add subtle or
even obvious real or apparent variation to an individual bird's size,
shape, and especially color. The more familiar you are with the common
birds, the less likely you are to overlook a subtle rarity in a flock of
a similar common species; and conversely, the better your grasp of how
variable each species can be, the less likely you are to misidentify an
unusual individual of a common species as a rare vagrant.
Good birding,
Josh
Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/