Ornithology B/C

[Paradox21]

I just had a competition in Wisconsin for this event and it was a very hard test. I didn't get the test back so I can't put it on the Wiki but I will give some highlights. It was a PowerPoint and the hardest part was looking up all of the information before the slide changed. There were a lot of multiple part questions where it gave 5 or 6 scientific names and you had to answer a question about each bird. One example was a list of 5 scientific names and you had to identify them as precocial or altricial. Very little of the test was about identification. There were 3 or 4 calls on it; one was the Whip-poor-will. I didn't know the others. There were a few questions that were unexpected. One question asked what pesticide caused thinning of eggs. We did not have that in any of our notes but luckily we knew it was DDT. One question we basically guessed on was a question that gave 4 different birds and asked which states had that bird as their state bird. Overall it was probably the hardest ID test i have ever seen.

[Ginamazing]

I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by all of the stuff there is to learn. Where do I start?

[Celeste]

I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by all of the stuff there is to learn. Where do I start?

You should start by getting the national list and a good field guide. Then check out the training handout, which has some good basics. Then start working on your one page note sheet and writing in your field guide, you can put whatever information you want in those. One good really source for info is the Cornell Lab ornithology page.

[amerikestrel]

I'm feeling kind of overwhelmed by all of the stuff there is to learn. Where do I start?

You should start by getting the national list and a good field guide. Then check out the training handout, which has some good basics. Then start working on your one page note sheet and writing in your field guide, you can put whatever information you want in those. One good really source for info is the Cornell Lab ornithology page.

Yeah, I think that covers most of it. Also, you should learn as much as you can about each bird (or at least each family). Go through the bird list and find information online or in books. And make your field guide as organized as possible. Tab it, and write in it to add extra information. If you don't already have a guide, then I would recommend either the Sibley or the Peterson.

[duckiegirl2]

What I've found when tabbing my guide, is that I spend so much time looking for the right tab, that I run out of time. So what I do is tab them by the order so I can just flip through the pages of the order and find it sooner by making the search area smaller.

[amerikestrel]

What I've found when tabbing my guide, is that I spend so much time looking for the right tab, that I run out of time. So what I do is tab them by the order so I can just flip through the pages of the order and find it sooner by making the search area smaller.

Yeah, that's a good idea. Though for large orders such as Passeriformes you probably would want to tab by family

[Celeste]

While tabbing and organizing my guide, I found that the Wilson's Snipe was the only one from the list that was not in my Sibley guide. I then went to its Cornell Lab page, and it said that it is also called the Common Snipe, which is in the guide. But, then I went to its Wikipedia page and it said it was more like a subspecies of the Common Snipe. So I went to several more web sites, and some sites said they were the same, (like Audubon) but some sites said they were different, (like WhatBird) though very closely related. Does anyone have a straight answer here? Or are the differences so minimal that it wouldn't even matter?

[kjhsscioly]

In Sibley's Guide, I found that the Roseate spoonbill is listed under the genus Ajaia, while on the Official List, it is of the Genus Platalea. Has the taxonomy changed, or is it a printing error? The error is unique to Sibley's guide, which lists it as Ajaia Ajaia. In Peterson's and National geographic, it is listed as Platalea Ajaja.

Also in Sibley's, The Laughing Gull is under the Genus Larus, while on the list, it is the genus Leucophaeus, another possible error? This variation occurs among all three books.

I went through all of Sibley's guide and also found that Wilson's snipe is the only bird missing, in addition to the various discrepancies listed above. However, I do not believe that it is the same species as the common snipe, because Peterson's Guide lists them separately. Peterson's Guide also notes key differences :

"[the common snipe has] paler underwing, bolder white trailing edge to secondaries, weaker flank barring, slightly buffier overall color, and lower pitched winnowing in flight display."

The pictures in the guide also show Wilson's snipe as having a longer beak, but real pictures show that there is a variation in beak sizes among individual animals. Sometimes the beak of a common snipe appears longer, and vice versa.


Common Snipe (Gallinago Gallinago)



Wilsons Snipe (Gallinago Delicata)

Sorry about the large image size, I could not resize them

Also, has anyone who has done a competition found one guide better than than another? I am new to the event, having gotten rosters only a few days ago, and I like the layout of Sibley's guide, but it doesn't give much info on habitat. I liked National Geographic's visual Index, but the layout is similar to Peterson's and appears rather cluttered to use in competition, and doesn't have much space for notes. Does anyone know how many of the birds national Geographic's guide contains?

[Lily Essence]

Just a note about the common names/scientific genus that I learned though A&R: Whenever and wherever you are, you always go by the Common name and genus on the Official list for answers on tests. Last year in amph and rep, three turtles were given new taxa, but the competitions would always go by the ones on the list, even if it had changed.

[Flavorflav]

Just a note about the common names/scientific genus that I learned though A&R: Whenever and wherever you are, you always go by the Common name and genus on the Official list for answers on tests. Last year in amph and rep, three turtles were given new taxa, but the competitions would always go by the ones on the list, even if it had changed.

Absolutely. I would add only that much of the time it isn't a question of right and wrong, it's just two sides of an argument. Sibley proposed a major revamping of the classification of birds back in 1990 based on DNA-DNA hybridization. It seems like most of his proposed changes will not end up being adopted, but the jury is still out.
http://www.scricciolo.com/classificazione/sequence4.htm gives a little description of the changes.