Ornithology B/C

[googlyfrog]

Overall, I think they just have a wider head with eyes and ears far apart.

[Celeste]

I'm pretty dang sure it was a great horned owl. But, even if it was the long-eared, they're both in family strigidae, so it would be right either way. I don't actually know what place we got yet, but if it was 6th and we missed getting a medal by one point because of a grading error, I am going to be soooo mad.

On a totally random note, my computer's spellchecker thinks that 'strigidae' is a misspelling of 'Frigidaire'.

[amerikestrel]

Wow, I didn't notice the eyebrow difference! That seems to work well to identify them.

Celeste, did your invitational test mostly have questions that were specific to the different bird species, or were there also questions that had to do with bird characteristics in general?

[crazy77]

nd also, were the pictures of the birds u had to identify actual photopgraphs or drawings like those in the peterson field guide?

[amerikestrel]

nd also, were the pictures of the birds u had to identify actual photopgraphs or drawings like those in the peterson field guide?

If the test is being run as a powerpoint, then they will probably be photographs. If the test is run as stations, there could be anything from photos to live specimens. It just depends on who created the test.

Edit: Does anyone know what type of bird is on the cover of the Sibley guide?

[sewforlife]

red-tail hawk? that's just a guess?

[AlphaTauri]

Yeah. I think I'd have to agree with sew. There aren't that many similar-looking birds, especially with those colors.

[Celeste]

Wow, I didn't notice the eyebrow difference! That seems to work well to identify them.

Celeste, did your invitational test mostly have questions that were specific to the different bird species, or were there also questions that had to do with bird characteristics in general?

nd also, were the pictures of the birds u had to identify actual photopgraphs or drawings like those in the peterson field guide?

Mostly, it was with the individual species. It would have a photograph of a bird on the PowerPoint screen, and then 3 questions for each slide. The photographs were all pretty good and easy to identify from. The first one usually had to do with identification, asking for the common or scientific name, or for the order or family. Then the next two would be more specific, like when does it lay its eggs, what does it eat, where does it nest, or when can you find it in Kansas (that's where the meet was). There were two questions that my partner and I totally had no idea on. They both went something like, "The variation of this bird with the (characteristic of a regional variation of that bird) used to be classified as a separate species. What was this species called?" We had no clue on them, so subspecies and former subspecies would be a good thing for people to study. By the way, I used the Sibley guide and it worked pretty well for the meet. I wish it had more about mating and nesting behaviors, though.

[iYOA]

how involved were the questions? could you have answered them from the field guide alone? or would a REALLY good notes sheet be important?

[Celeste]

how involved were the questions? could you have answered them from the field guide alone? or would a REALLY good notes sheet be important?

I only wish I could have answered them from the field guide alone! I now know that a good note sheet is pretty important. I am going to change so much about my sheet for the next meet. It's kind of hard to say exactly what to put on it, because what kind of information you need will vary from test to test. The questions aren't too "involved", I guess, the answers for this one were usually just one or two words, not paragraphs of detail or anything.