tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87232698829192066122024-03-13T00:34:29.762-04:00Sibley Guides NotebookField identification and related studies of birds and treesUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger76125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-35192347012862913262009-11-06T12:20:00.000-05:002009-11-06T12:20:38.091-05:00A new Sibley Guides blog and website!This blog has been moved to a new and improved blog and website at sibleyguides.com.
Thanks for your support!
Comments here are closed. All future posts will be at the new site, and all of the old posts and comments from this blog have been transferred there as well.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-17000057217955244702009-10-20T14:25:00.001-04:002009-10-20T14:27:13.618-04:00Ageing Canada GeeseDetermining the age of a goose can be helpful for identification, and can also reveal some interesting behavioral and ecological information by enabling you to sort out family groups and subflocks. Given good views it's not hard to distinguish Canada Geese that are still in juvenal plumage from those that are in adult plumage. By October many immatures (hatched in the summer a few months earlier)Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-1920160089240366652009-10-19T10:55:00.000-04:002009-10-19T10:55:42.769-04:00Obsolete Bird NamesHave you seen any Field Plovers lately? Blue Nutcrackers? Day Owls? These are all alternate common names of North American birds. Richard Banks has assembled a complete list of outdated English names of North American birds along with the current official names for those species, and it makes a great resource to find out what early authors meant, as well as just fun browsing. You can read it at Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-660638663547476972009-10-14T16:55:00.002-04:002009-10-16T15:33:27.847-04:00Corrections to The Sibley Guide to Treesupdated 16 Oct 2009
Here are page-by-page corrections and changes for the Sibley Guide to Trees. This listing will be updated periodically as issues come to my attention. Please feel free to leave comments or send me an email if you notice anything that is not listed here.
p 3 - California Torreya, the common and scientific names should be justified left
p 28 - Red Pine needs a new name to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-89648783713783746682009-10-03T09:25:00.002-04:002009-10-07T11:48:12.436-04:00Trees with opposite leavesIn the past, tree identification guides have emphasized the presence of opposite leaves as one of the most important field marks. In the Sibley Guide to Trees I used a more holistic approach, like modern bird identification, giving equal weight to all parts of the tree. A tree might catch your attention because of its flowers, twigs, bark, fruit, etc., and I don’t think it’s helpful if the field Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-58064117435269444722009-10-01T15:07:00.000-04:002009-10-01T15:07:06.979-04:00Probability in bird identificationOne of my regular birding spots is a small farm field near my house in Concord, Massachusetts. I can walk around the entire place in about 20 minutes, but I usually take about two hours and get in some good sparrow-study. The clump of taller vegetation shown here is always a good spot to study birds that come up out of the grass and weeds and perch a little more conspicuously, so I usually spend Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-37260005653711947622009-09-23T09:27:00.003-04:002009-10-01T11:10:29.893-04:00Correction to maples, page 332Reader Sherman Dunnam sent me a note about an error in the introduction to maples on page 332. The third paragraph begins "All maples have palmately compound leaves..."
This should instead say "Nearly all maples have palmately lobed leaves..." And could go on to elaborate that a few species have the leaves so deeply lobed that they are compound, and Boxelder is unique among the maples in having Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-27494515517523630922009-09-23T09:20:00.003-04:002009-09-23T09:27:10.753-04:00Updates to the Tree GuideI have spent the last seven years working intensively on my new Guide to Trees, but of course a few misstatements and errors somehow managed to creep in. I'm always interested in learning more, correcting my mistakes, and passing along to you - the reader - newer, better, more accurate information.So if you notice any errors, or anything that seems to be missing or misleading, please don't Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-84173516305329848192009-09-22T21:42:00.004-04:002009-09-22T21:55:01.754-04:00Tree Guide newsTwo events related to The Sibley Guide to Trees: It is the featured product today on the Daily Grommet website. I’ll be checking in periodically, responding to comments and answering questions through noon tomorrow (Wednesday Sep 23rd) . And “The Art of Identification” - a show of my artwork and field sketches at the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s Visual Arts Center in Canton, MA, will be Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-52810667720121028812009-09-10T22:13:00.002-04:002009-09-10T22:13:00.189-04:00My latest projectAfter seven years of work, my new Guide to Trees goes on sale officially on September 15th (but those who live near Philadelphia can get it as early as Saturday the 12th when I'm there for book-signings). I'll be traveling quite a bit this fall to book-signings across the US and Canada, doing a variety of publicity-related things, and adding tree identification to the topics I cover here on this Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-77501570765829345092009-07-09T22:15:00.009-04:002009-07-10T13:04:42.550-04:00More vocal copying by American Goldfinch, Purple Finch, and OvenbirdAfter listening carefully to Pine Siskins this year to pick out the calls of other species (see my earlier post) I have run across several other mimics. In early June in Arlington, Massachusetts I heard a remarkable American Goldfinch song that incorporated several phrases of a Song Sparrow song along with Northern Flicker and I suspect other species were being copied but I couldn't pick them outUnknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-77411803727667705342009-06-24T14:43:00.003-04:002009-06-24T15:29:08.061-04:00Promising new window film may prevent bird collisionsThe most recent research by Dr. Daniel Klem, who has been studying the problem of bird/window collisions since the 1990s, has just been published in the June 2009 Wilson Bulletin. It is available, along with lots of other bird/window resources, at his website here. Klem tested the effectiveness of various window treatments confirming, for example, that single decals on a window are not effective Unknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-13540548298066599282009-05-14T06:48:00.002-04:002009-05-14T07:03:34.660-04:00Identification of Belding's Savannah SparrowIn early March 2009 it was my pleasure to spend a few days in California at the San Diego Bird Festival. On my first morning in San Diego I headed straight out to the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve hoping to spend a few hours studying Savannah Sparrows (who wouldn't, right?). I had seen some Belding's Savannah Sparrows in March 2008 in Orange County, California, and realized Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-74721681937641954942009-05-13T13:42:00.004-04:002009-07-10T08:30:17.714-04:00Vocal copying by Pine Siskins[10 July 2009 - update added at end]In July 1990 I spent several weeks birding in west-central British Columbia, where Pine Siskins were one of the most conspicuous birds, and I became convinced that Pine Siskins were copying the sounds of other species of birds and incorporating these sounds into their songs. I was able to identify American Robin (squeal call), Evening Grosbeak (“krrr” call), Unknownnoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-34652893179796703042008-11-24T22:13:00.009-05:002009-03-13T11:02:19.190-04:00More on identification of Greenland White-frontsCoincidentally, just days after my last post about the two White-fronted Geese in Concord, two White-fronted Geese showed up in Amherst, Massachusetts (about 60 miles west of Concord, but not the same birds) that appear to be one Greenland and one North American type. James Smith has some discussion and really nice photos on his blog, and he's allowed me to post some of the photos here. Two Unknownnoreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-47334239436668101482008-11-21T14:21:00.000-05:002008-11-21T14:24:01.976-05:00Identification tips for Greenland Greater White-fronted GooseThe Greenland Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser frontalis flavirostris) is known to be a rare visitor to northeastern North America, but I have never been satisfied with a reliable, objective way of distinguishing it from the North American subspecies of Greater White-fronted Goose, also a rare visitor to the northeast.Bill color is the most frequently-mentioned field mark – supposedly orange onUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-55842156509156079402008-11-19T05:47:00.006-05:002008-11-21T14:20:54.859-05:00Sungrebe – New for North America!Stunning news from Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico: a female Sungrebe was photographed there on 13 November 2008, those photos here. It was correctly identified on 17 November from the photos, then refound and photographed more on 18 November. This is not only a new species for North America, but a whole new family.A map of the species' whole range can be seen here at InfoNatura (scroll down Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-51181427955761347562008-11-17T10:07:00.008-05:002008-11-18T08:03:42.710-05:00Lesser Canada Goose in the northeastern USThe primary challenge of distinguishing Canada from Cackling Goose centers on the intermediate-sized 'Lesser' Canada Goose, B. c. parvipes, which reportedly nests across the boreal forest regions of western Canada and interior Alaska (more details on my website here). I've seen a few birds that I thought were 'Lesser' in the northeast over the years, most convincingly one at Brigantine NWR in NJ Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-27105114002402637612008-11-15T06:14:00.006-05:002008-11-19T15:17:07.798-05:00How many rare birds did we miss before the internet?Yesterday morning I 'found' Canada's first Lucy's Warbler... in my inbox. After reading my recent posts about rare birds, Cathy Mountain (whose redpoll photos were featured here last winter) sent me a series of pictures of a warbler that had been in her yard in Fort McMurray, northern Alberta, from November 8-10, 2008. After rejecting the possibility of a drab Yellow Warbler, she thought it mightUnknownnoreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-72669435376336819142008-11-06T10:05:00.004-05:002008-11-06T11:49:42.691-05:00So how many do we find?My last post "How many rare birds do we miss?", was simply getting at the idea that we can miss something glaringly obvious if we are not looking for it. A popular psychology quote goes "I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't believed it". In the case of the moon-walking bear, since I wasn't looking for it, I didn't see it. In the comments a reader pointed to a discussion on his own blog "The Unknownnoreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-70385710037687544242008-10-21T06:46:00.003-04:002008-11-19T15:17:07.799-05:00How many rare birds do we miss?As birders we often talk about the problem of common birds being misidentified as rare ones. The counterpoint, but probably more frequent, is that rare birds are simply overlooked. Here's a link to a fantastic "Awareness Test" on YouTube. Give it a try, it only takes a minute. The relevance of this test to bird identification should be obvious, so now you can just imagine all the rare birds you Unknownnoreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-76106518950792299932008-05-06T09:29:00.001-04:002008-05-06T11:38:59.631-04:00Big Day, and Blogging hiatusUpcoming events: I'll be out on a fossil-fuel-free big day this coming weekend, bicycling around Concord, Massachusetts (hoping for 100 species) and I'll try to post a report about that next week. You can sponsor me through Bird Studies Canada, or through Malkolm Boothroyd's Bird Day Challenge.-----------------========-----------------The Blog: When I started this blog last August I didn't have Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-20024468621251395382008-04-10T09:32:00.003-04:002008-04-10T09:45:26.283-04:00More on Texas Border WallPrompted by some good discussion I've read on TexBirds and elsewhere: I want to stress the point that the danger to birds is not so much the height of the wall, but more the wide swath of habitat that would be cleared for the wall and service roads. Chachalacas, Pygmy Owls, Green Jays, etc will fly over a wall, but they're less likely to cross 100 yards of barren gravel. This project might asUnknownnoreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-71350989153912046092008-04-07T11:38:00.009-04:002008-04-08T14:48:20.816-04:00Border Fence puts Texas birds and birding at riskRevised 8 Apr 2008 -Do something: Write or call Congress. See the No Texas Border Wall campaign and their suggestions for action with several petitions to sign and instructions for contacting government officials. Defenders of Wildlife has a handy form here for writing to your representative.---------------------------The proposed border wall (1) from Texas to California has been hotly debated, Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8723269882919206612.post-88473161113846386002008-04-02T11:29:00.005-04:002008-04-02T11:59:59.996-04:00Variation in Wild TurkeyHere's an example of one of the countless thousands of questions that are still out there waiting to be answered about North American birds. I went to Texas in February (for the opening of the fantastic new Clif Moss Nature Education Center of the Corpus Christi Public Library) and I had a chance to see some Wild Turkeys nearby. As expected they had whiter tips on all the body feathers than Unknownnoreply@blogger.com6