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Thanks for posting this great thead, razz  I'm an entomologist, and have spent some time in the field but not a lot of it focused on birding. I try to keep a lookout and at least get to know the common species in whichever area I'm in. Lots of green biologists are into birding, but the most competitive people seems to be people with office jobs or guys that have their own business that they can leave on a moments notice to drive across the country to see a rarity. Today it seems like a new wave of birders are into it mostly as photographers. A decent DSLR and a gigantic telephoto lens is expensive gear, but really nothing compared to say golf or just about any sport with special equipment. I took this photo in 2005. My colleague who is much more into birding has scopes and a tripod with him, and we saw this common European cuckoo perched on a fence. I took out the eyepiece of the scope, put in the lens of my very basic point-and-shoot (Nikon CoolPix 7900) and took a pic. 
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Aug 31, 2013 16:32
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BetterLekNextTime posted:For capitalization, birds are one of the few critters that gets their english common names capitalized. So a Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) can be capitalized, but a generic jay is not, nor is a blue jay (meaning a jay that's blue) which would also be lower case. I can add to this how to write scientific names properly, it's not too complicated. A species name has three parts: Genus, specific name and author. The scientific name of the Bald Eagle is Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766). Haliaeetus is a genus of eagles, leucocephalus indicates which species in the genus it is, and (Linnaeus, 1766) is a literary reference to who and when the species was described scientifically. In non-scientific text, the author is generally omitted. Only tricky part is that the parenthesis means that the species was originally described as belonging to another genus, in this case the genus Falco. In a scientific name like Haliaeetus leucocephalus, the genus should always be capitalized, and the specific name is always written in lower case. Usually, scientific names are italicized in printed text. If a name is used repeatedly in a text, it is written out completely the first time it appears and is subsequently shortened like this: H. leucocephalus.
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Oct 13, 2013 17:34
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ExecuDork posted:I've been thinking of upgrading from my National Geographic Birds of North America Third Edition, that looks pretty nice. Ideally I'd like something with a more rigid cover, my book has been getting beat up lately - I tend to toss it into the back of the car and sooner or later my 500mm rolls onto it or my tripod or a water bottle or... I don't like the Gannet. They wet their own nests  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCM2nEBE0RY
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Dec 10, 2013 11:55
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