Palmwoods
District News

April 1,
1999

Page 9

How to get started with Bird Identification - it really is not all that easy, however, a few simple rules will help.

• Get a good field guide - they are often on special offer in book clubs. You may get a slightly outdated edition, but the birds still look the same.
• Don’t always be on the lookout for unusual findings, sightings, of the Lesser-Spotted Tiddlewinker are much much rarer than hens’ teeth. If your field guide says that a bird is not found in this district the chances are that it is right - not always but much more often than not.
• Get to know the size of some common birds, for instance the Noisy Minor or Mickey is usually between 24-28cms in length and a White-headed Pigeon is 38-42cms long, a Mistletoe Bird is a real lightweight at only 10-11cms.
• Get an overall impression of shape, size and colour. Is it all black and looks like a crow and is quite a bit bigger than a White-headed Pigeon, then Torresian Crow is the answer in our area.
• Get to know the males of each species, the males are often much more distinctive, being much flashier dressers than mere human males.
• Give the birds a made up name - my wife once asked me to identify a bird that looked like a Green Thrush. A quick look at alternative names in my Readers Digest Complete Book of Australian Birds showed that Green Thrush was an alternative name for an Olive Backed Oriole - Bingo! If your made up name was Red and Black Wren, it is only a short step to Red-backed Fairy-wren.
• Remember the colour of the top of the head, the throat and breast. For a lot of land species that have plain (not striped) colours all you may need is the size, general shape and head, throat and breast colour. Try these to see what I mean.

I realise that these rules of thumb are less helpful for most sea birds, ducks and birds of prey, and the little brown jobs. But of our area, you will get good success and a very good start.

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