Ornithology B/C

[amerikestrel]

memorizing the family and oorder is my job in my group, how many people are you working with in this?

It's two people per team.

[kjhsscioly]

memorizing the family and oorder is my job in my group, how many people are you working with in this?

Does your team generally work in groups? If so, that's a bit dangerous, since only two can compete, and you might have gaps in your knowledge

[purplepeopleeater]

agreed, Orno is a heavy memorization event, seeing how (for TX) its usually in 2 min. stations with like, 5 or so (tons) of questions, and if you don't immediately know the bird, a book won't help.
i know when we study our A and B study together, but between the two partners, we usually split like-- you do the front, i will do the back (id and sounds) and then everything else, we both need to know...

[austinfhs]

memorizing the family and oorder is my job in my group, how many people are you working with in this?

Why memorize the order and family if you can bring the National Bird List? Just wondering, haha

What I'm doing is having my partner and I both cover everything. That way there should be no gaps, hopefully. It's time consuming, but it should work ...

[kjhsscioly]

Because knowing the order and family straight off will leave you station time to look up additional info, which you will need

[austinfhs]

Because knowing the order and family straight off will leave you station time to look up additional info, which you will need

Hmmm, I guessing that other states are a lot harder than NorCal, then. We rarely have more than 2 questions per bird: 1) ID the bird 2) some random fact. I suppose that leaves me more time that others to look on the list :\

[kjhsscioly]

Our state had several questions per station, for example, one of the stations was a 4 bird matching and diet, and then some odd questions about beaks, run in two minutes(i think), but some were longer and some were shorter. Definitely much more than ID, in fact most of it was bird anatomy, migratory act, structure function, that type of stuff.

[Paradox21]

Hi!
So I got put in this event last week and I'm expected to compete in this at regionals (March) any suggestions on where to start? I have a few guide books, and a strong determination but thats about it.

Start out by learning to identify all birds by sight. In that process you will likely learn quite a bit about the specific birds and birds in general. This event is an identification event so most of the questions require you to identify a bird, then answer something about it. If you can not identify the bird, you are severely hindered in your ability to answer the follow up questions.

[VPN_vIPer]

Indiana gets binders...but when it comes down to it, you just have to know the info because it takes too long to go binder searching.

i find the iPhone/iPod apps by Peterson to be very helpful in learning the calls of birds. i used those last year and never missed a call on a test.

Which iPod app are you using? I can only seem to find the ones for Backyard Birds, Birds of Prey, and Warblers. Did you get all 3?

I've got the National Geographic Handheld Birds app ... it's decent and provides quite a bit of information, but no "favorite" features or quizzes, like the Peterson's. However, I would recommend just researching birds on Cornell's Lab of Ornithology, group information together, try to connect things together. I do this event out of love and not necessity ... personally, I'm against memorizing information as much as understanding and relating information.

Also ... the rules this year say one guide book/notes sheet per team member, if I recall correctly. Does this mean each team gets two books and notes sheets?
That would be a welcome relief from last year.

[austinfhs]

The National Geographic app is a little expensive at $10, but I might try it out ... hmm. Does it have audio features for all of the birds on the national list (that require audio)? I'm also afraid that it will crash a lot, like some reviews said. Does the search feature work now?

Yes, we can bring two papers and two books per TEAM.