For every beginner bird
watcher who first opens a field guide there is immediate confusion regarding the
order of birds. Most field guides seem to start at the ocean with loons,
herons, and ducks then the middle of the book is filled with woodland birds
such as grouse and hawks and the end of the field guide is a collection of the
tiny birds that buzz the trees like warblers, sparrows and finches. The confusion
comes when the beginner wants to identify a “sparrow sized” yellow and black
bird that they saw. The American goldfinch located on page 535 of Sibley’s excellent tome Guide
to Birds is separated from the similarly colored Common yellowthroat by roughly
eighty pages. Attempts have been made to organize bird books visually or by
coloration, however conflicts arise with the less gaudy females as well as juvenile
and winter plumages. For anyone who has been puzzled by a female Red-wingedblackbird or an American goldfinch in winter this is no small matter.
The order of North
American birds is based on taxonomy, the genetic relationships between species.
The American Ornithological Union and their Classification Committee oversees this process and receives all current research and processes the list.
What’s incredible about this process is the constant change. Separate species like
the Slate-colored junco and the Oregon
junco are combined under a single Dark-eyed junco while the Northern oriole is separated
into the Baltimore oriole and the Bullocks oriole.
This graphic gives you an
idea of some of the confusion between bird coloration and taxonomic location in
a bird guide.
2 comments:
Really interesting; I learned much of my birding skills in an Ornithology class, and have never really given much thought to birds that are completely unrelated but look similar - like the Blackburnian Warbler and Baltimore Oriole. I can completely see where that would bring some confusion.
Isn't there a bird guide - Kauffman's maybe? - that sorts birds by color?
The "National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds" is one of the few comprehensive books to use color as an organizer.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/images/0679428526/ref=dp_otherviews_3?ie=UTF8&img=3&s=books
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