Ornithology B/C

[cbrant554]

Also, the scientific name for the European Starling has a typo (should be Sturnus, not Sternus).

Anyone else find it extremely weird that some birds on the list are given scientific names and others not?

Ya it makes it feel a bit rushed and incomplete honestly. Like the people who made the list were like “oh shoot we have to do this” and then gave up after half of the work was done.

Hopefully, this is not the final copy. (It's still early in the season anyway.)

I think this was done so that you could narrow down the specific species on some more common things, like for Common Loon, there are probably multiple types but they want us to focus on Gavia Immer. Other birds may only have one look or body types that could be meshed into one.

[Unome]

I'm pretty sure not all scientific names being included are intentional, and I assume this indicates that excluded scientific names should not be asked about.

Being allowed the list separately is kind of strange - a binder with "information in any form and from any source" obviously already includes the list...

[hmmm]

I'm pretty sure not all scientific names being included are intentional, and I assume this indicates that excluded scientific names should not be asked about.

Being allowed the list separately is kind of strange - a binder with "information in any form and from any source" obviously already includes the list...

Hasn't having a list outside your binder been standard for Id events(at least for fossils and rocks)?

[Unome]

I'm pretty sure not all scientific names being included are intentional, and I assume this indicates that excluded scientific names should not be asked about.

Being allowed the list separately is kind of strange - a binder with "information in any form and from any source" obviously already includes the list...

Hasn't having a list outside your binder been standard for Id events(at least for fossils and rocks)?

That doesn't make it any less strange.

[hmmm]

I'm pretty sure not all scientific names being included are intentional, and I assume this indicates that excluded scientific names should not be asked about.

Being allowed the list separately is kind of strange - a binder with "information in any form and from any source" obviously already includes the list...

Hasn't having a list outside your binder been standard for Id events(at least for fossils and rocks)?

That doesn't make it any less strange.

So one person can do classification questions and the other can look for more info?

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

Hasn't having a list outside your binder been standard for Id events(at least for fossils and rocks)?

That doesn't make it any less strange.

So one person can do classification questions and the other can look for more info?

Yes, you can have the list outside the binder for various purposes while someone else is searching.

[PacificGoldenPlover]

Hi all:
It's been years since I posted here, so for all the new kids on the block, I'm a former Science Olympiad competitor who did Ornithology when it was last in rotation, and am now a graduate student studying Dark-eyed Juncos at UCLA. I'm also an avid (insane?) birder. I am beyond excited that this event is coming back rotation; it took long enough. I just wanted to share a couple tips for studying this event.

1) Many things have changed since this event was last in rotation a decade ago. One of the newer creations that will be most beneficial for you is the Macaulay library, a digital repository of bird photos, audio, and video curated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. These media are retrieved from checklists submitted by users of their citizen science projects, primarily ebird (eBird is our way as birders to submit our birding checklists online to make them publicly available to other birders and scientists) Anywhere from thousands to tens of thousands of photos, and smaller numbers of audio and video, have been uploaded for any given species on the list. This media can also be filtered by age, sex, location taken, behavior, subspecies, etc, making studying more efficient. Photos, audio etc. can be reviewed by other users, making it more accurate than a search engine like google. Overall it is a great resource for learning bird identification. Try it out here: https://ebird.org/media/catalog

2) In terms of actually learning how to identify the species, I recommend spending a lot of time learning the "difficult" plumages, molts, etc. of the different species. To give an example of what I mean, here's a photo of a male Scarlet Tanager:
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/17074 ... 513462029 Pretty easy right? All red body except for jet black wings? Now let's check out a female in less ideal lighting conditions:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/17143 ... 1513462029
Much less distinctive. Overall it's a greensh-yellow, which blends in well with its surroundings (anyone who's thinking adaptation to themselves right now gets a point). But note that structurally speaking the bird is virtually identical to its mate: it's relatively stocky, with a thicker bill than warblers, and it has a much shorter tail than an oriole does. Furthermore, it also has wings that are darker than the rest of the body, like a male has. These as well as other subtle traits indicate that while looking very different, these two individuals are of the same species.
My point is that while learning to look for those subtler fieldmarks like structure, wing bars, bill shape, tail length, etc. may be more difficult initially, mastering these techniques allows you to identify a much larger proportion of individuals. Also, remember that most of the time when looking at birds, we do not have National Geographic-type views of them. They're often distant, or high in the trees, obscured by branches or facing that we can only see their underside or back, etc. Learning how to identify birds even given less then ideal photos will be more difficult, but will make the event *much* easier in the long run.

3) Find a mentor! Local chapters of the Audubon Society* can be found all over the country, including near you (https://www.audubon.org/about/audubon-near-you). Local Audubon chapters lead field trips to local birding spots, host special bird classes, run ecological and bird preserves, and is a great place to find people in your community passionate and knowledgeable about birds.Audubon is also investing heavily in getting the next generation (you) interested in birds, and will relish the opportunity to work with you. So join some field trips, attend some events, volunteer for your local Christmas Bird Count, and learn! Some places might have local birding clubs or ornithological societies not affiliated with Audubon; check those out as well.

*Disclaimer: I am on the board of my local Audubon chapter.

That's all from me right now, but hopefully I provided some good places to start out your ornithology journey. Hope these help, and feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

[hmmm]

Hi all:
It's been years since I posted here, so for all the new kids on the block, I'm a former Science Olympiad competitor who did Ornithology when it was last in rotation, and am now a graduate student studying Dark-eyed Juncos at UCLA. I'm also an avid (insane?) birder. I am beyond excited that this event is coming back rotation; it took long enough. I just wanted to share a couple tips for studying this event.

1) Many things have changed since this event was last in rotation a decade ago. One of the newer creations that will be most beneficial for you is the Macaulay library, a digital repository of bird photos, audio, and video curated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. These media are retrieved from checklists submitted by users of their citizen science projects, primarily ebird (eBird is our way as birders to submit our birding checklists online to make them publicly available to other birders and scientists) Anywhere from thousands to tens of thousands of photos, and smaller numbers of audio and video, have been uploaded for any given species on the list. This media can also be filtered by age, sex, location taken, behavior, subspecies, etc, making studying more efficient. Photos, audio etc. can be reviewed by other users, making it more accurate than a search engine like google. Overall it is a great resource for learning bird identification. Try it out here: https://ebird.org/media/catalog

2) In terms of actually learning how to identify the species, I recommend spending a lot of time learning the "difficult" plumages, molts, etc. of the different species. To give an example of what I mean, here's a photo of a male Scarlet Tanager:
https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/17074 ... 513462029 Pretty easy right? All red body except for jet black wings? Now let's check out a female in less ideal lighting conditions:

https://macaulaylibrary.org/asset/17143 ... 1513462029
Much less distinctive. Overall it's a greensh-yellow, which blends in well with its surroundings (anyone who's thinking adaptation to themselves right now gets a point). But note that structurally speaking the bird is virtually identical to its mate: it's relatively stocky, with a thicker bill than warblers, and it has a much shorter tail than an oriole does. Furthermore, it also has wings that are darker than the rest of the body, like a male has. These as well as other subtle traits indicate that while looking very different, these two individuals are of the same species.
My point is that while learning to look for those subtler fieldmarks like structure, wing bars, bill shape, tail length, etc. may be more difficult initially, mastering these techniques allows you to identify a much larger proportion of individuals. Also, remember that most of the time when looking at birds, we do not have National Geographic-type views of them. They're often distant, or high in the trees, obscured by branches or facing that we can only see their underside or back, etc. Learning how to identify birds even given less then ideal photos will be more difficult, but will make the event *much* easier in the long run.

3) Find a mentor! Local chapters of the Audubon Society* can be found all over the country, including near you (https://www.audubon.org/about/audubon-near-you). Local Audubon chapters lead field trips to local birding spots, host special bird classes, run ecological and bird preserves, and is a great place to find people in your community passionate and knowledgeable about birds.Audubon is also investing heavily in getting the next generation (you) interested in birds, and will relish the opportunity to work with you. So join some field trips, attend some events, volunteer for your local Christmas Bird Count, and learn! Some places might have local birding clubs or ornithological societies not affiliated with Audubon; check those out as well.

*Disclaimer: I am on the board of my local Audubon chapter.

That's all from me right now, but hopefully I provided some good places to start out your ornithology journey. Hope these help, and feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

Thanks for the tips!

[hmmm]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/ ... p=drivesdk
SoCal list(nats birds+like 15 specific) with much better formatting than nats list

[Scrambledeggs]

If you're in socal, will the state list apply for regionals or will it use the national list?