The Order of Things



Diana Sudyka, 
http://thetinyaviary.blogspot.com/

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.