costa rica all inclusive family
Previously, I explained the importance of learning to see individual birds as members of a larger group (See my article, “Wren or Warbler?”). Placing an unknown bird into a particular group improves the odds of identifying it. You need then only compare your unknown bird against a couple dozen birds within that group, maybe more or less, not several hundred or more. To acquaint you with different groups (i.e., families), I suggested browsing online resources or bird guides.
Let’s assume that in the comfort of your home, you’ve been browsing a field guide like Peterson’s. From this effort, you’ve learned that birds are grouped in a hierarchy of categories, beginning broadly and narrowing down to the particular species. What’s more, you’ve learned that birds with similar characteristics (and DNA) are grouped into particular families. For example, read below Peterson’s description of the wood warblers (Family Parulidae):
“Brightly colored active birdlets, usually smaller than sparrows with needle-pointed bills. The majority have some yellow.”
Imagine now that outside your window, perched on the branch of a nearby birch tree, is a small slate gray bird with a white chest and belly. Based on the general description of wood warblers (a particularly large family by the way), you could immediately exclude that group as a possibility.
So ignoring warblers, you begin skimming for gray birds, where you stall briefly over various flycatchers. Could your gray mystery bird be a flycatcher?
Wait! There’s something more to consider. Birding is much like detective work: you need to consider the “scene.” Specifically, in what season do you find the bird?
Knowing which birds are seasonal for your location and which are year-round residents can significantly help. For instance, you live in central Pennsylvania and the gray and white bird outside your window perches against a background of December snow. Flycatchers are warm-weather visitors to the state and so you can collectively discount that family as well.
What next?
Perhaps this is when you happen onto the page containing the gray and white Dark-eyed Junco. Not only does it look like the bird outside your window, you discover its label of “snowbird,” specifically because it spends winters in middle latitudes throughout the country and summers in more northern climates. Eureka! You’ve nailed it!
Albeit not of typical plumage, the Dark-eyed Junco belongs to the family of sparrows. Since most sparrows are generally brown with streaked or clear chests, you might have been inclined to ignore this family of birds when doing your original review. But such seeming inconsistencies are what makes birding a challenge and thus so much fun!
So–you’ve identified your bird by excluding it from other families of dissimilar description and by noting it as a visitor of the winter season. Next time will briefly examine birding by habitat.
I’ll be writing and periodically posting more articles on this topic of becoming a birder. This series began with the article, Become a Birder Today! Article two is titled Wren or Warbler: Learn to Bird by Grouping. And you have just read article three. Check back soon for article four. Till then… Keep birds in your heart!
Georgia Anne Butler is a birder of Central Pennsylvania and author of the trilogy Of the Wing. Book 1 of this trilogy, The Legend Awakes, is currently available and Book 2 is scheduled for release in June, 2010. Visit the trilogy web site at:
You’ll also find a link from the home page to the author’s Bird Blog, where she weekly posts on bird or birds encountered during the week.
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