Identifying Birds

Birds fall into various groups or families as they are scientifically called. This grouping is the initialization for identifying bird. Birders should first familiarize themselves with these groups like sparrows, doves, parakeets, kingfishers etc. It is not neccessary that right from the day one names have to be learnt by heart. Just an idea of which familiy a particular bird belongs to solves the purpose.

A good birder should further increase his vision to identify a particular specie from the group. Like if its a dove than which dove, a laughing dove or a collered dove. Ones a bird is spotted then it should be carefully observed, its activities, its call etc. Stress should be on its anatomical and behavioral features.

Once familiar with common groups of birds in the area, birder should now start noticing major/minor differences in the birds which are known as field marks. Like beak of a little egret is black unlike cattle egret which is yellow. Once this habit is developed, a birder starts thinking in terms of many different field marks. For example, both little and median egret have black beak but toes of little egret are yellow whearas that of median egret are black. Size of median egret is more that little egret which again requires comparison with other large or smaller birds.

Reference books and field guide provide a variety of field marks about different species. Example of description from 'The Book of Indian Birds - Salim Ali' for Yellow Throated Sparrow: 14 cm. Pale earth brown sparrow. Conspicuous chestnut shoulder patch, two whitish wing bars and a lemon yellow patch on throat which is absent in female. Regarding its habitat it says, Dry deciduous forest, scrub, thorn jungle, groves, cultivation and oasis with date palms.

Bird Call is another important feature that helps to identify birds when they are not openly visible. Birds like ashy prinia, magpie robin and white browed wagtail, iora and golden oriole have sweet calls while that of cormorants or herons is harsh. Everyone is familir with 'kaw kaw' of a crow and chirping of house sparrow. By practicing call identification, a birder expands his bird spotting skills to a large extent such that he can identify a bird without even seeing the bird.

Gradually, bird listening becomes nore interesting and corresponds with bird watching. Its much easier to identify birds by their calls. Field guides provide information on various bird calls, but interpretion depends by and large on the birder. Birder should develope his own thinking and connect bird to its song as he feels simpler to remeber. Descriptions like cheewit cheewit, or who did he do it are given in the books.

Silhouette also provide a fair enough idea to the birder about birds identity. Since birds of a certain group have similar body shape and proportions, its therefore easy to recognize birds by their silhouette. Like crows have large sized stout body with medium length tail and heavy strong bill. Doves have plump body, small head with short legs and neck.

Size of a bird is another factor which ornithologists use more often. Its difficult to estimate the size of a bird from a distance or even through a binocular(magnification has something to do with it) and therefore standard size should be kept in mind. Size of known birds are used for standardization like house sparrow(15 cm), house crow(43 cm), common myna(23 cm).

There are certain birds which have characteristic flight pattern. Some birds fly straight, flapping their wings continously whille others flap their wings and glide for some time. Vultures use thermals to glide high in the air. Woodpeckers flight is similar to a wave form with moderate rise and fall. Hawks are seen soaring while cormorants fly strainght like a aeroplane. Birds like cranes and storks can be easily identified in flight.

:: Parag Bakshi ( info at bhopalbirds dot com ) ::