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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]
 
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

 How does the community handle "bird liars"? Like if a person says they saw a bird and you think that it's a made up lie... like how could this person get so lucky to see all these rare birds and stuff something is fishy etc. etc.?

* # ¿ Aug 20, 2013 21:03
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# ¿ May 3, 2024 02:40
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

BeastOfExmoor posted:


For birds that are not rare enough to hit the committee, it's just kind of peer pressure. I am currently doing a "big year" in the county I live in and so am paying attention to every siting reported on eBird. One person in particular has had some incredibly questionable sightings and it really annoyed me. I actually have a personal list of birds who says he saw that I'm almost certain he didn't. Turns out others have had similar experiences.

The one thing you have to understand is that your credibility is everything in the birding community. People with reputations for misidentifying birds, even rarely, eventually become "the boy who cried wolf" and people no longer pay much attention to them after a while. Since the only glory you get in birding is the respect of your peers, there's very little to gain by making things up.

Hmm... ok. Thanks but not interested then.

* # ¿ Aug 21, 2013 01:28
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

BetterLekNextTime posted:


Wayne Gretzky- it's not an entirely a who-knows-who network thing at least in areas where there are a lot of birders. If an unusual bird gets reported, the word gets out quickly and more often than not at least one other birder gets to see it as well. If there's a pattern where someone's odd sightings never get seen by others, or the person is not very helpful in reporting them quickly or with clear location information, it does raise alarm bells. People only have to deal with their own confidence if it's their own listing, but when the sightings are reported on public lists it's good to have some checks what gets reported.

How many good normal sightings do you think I would have to have before someone would believe me if I said I saw some really crazy poo poo ?

* # ¿ Aug 21, 2013 02:03
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

 Do you get any money for being the first person to see the rare bird? Sponsorships or stuff like that or awards?

* # ¿ Aug 21, 2013 18:36
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

razz posted:

I've never heard of anything like that.

Your main reward is bragging rights. I've already had a couple people congratulate me on the Olive-sided Flycatcher, and people I haven't ever met know about my breeding Common Poorwill record. Honestly though I don't even care about bragging rights, I just like finding things :)

Besides, where would that money come from?

Maybe all of the bird people pay money into a pot, or else maybe a binocular company wants to use the bird man in an advertisement and have his picture in the store... that's what I was thinking any way.

When you see the bird, does it matter what they are doing? Is it for example extra good to see an owl eating, or two different birds loving each other? Like in hockey cards which I collect there's the regular cards and the "special versions" of the same card that are even more rare and special.

* # ¿ Aug 21, 2013 20:56
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

BetterLekNextTime posted:

seeing a male inflate himself and display on the lek is pretty special

Can you please explain what this is?

* # ¿ Aug 21, 2013 21:45
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

BetterLekNextTime posted:


IMG_2175 - Version 2 on Flickr


IMG_7483 - Version 2 on Flickr


Snowy Sage-grouse on Flickr

"Normal" posture

grouse&dandylions 080 on Flickr


A few kinds of birds, including some grouse, move air from their respiratory system into their mouth and down into their esophagus to inflate it like a balloon. It makes a big resonating chamber- we don't know all the details about what it does to the sound but it should be helping the males pass louder low frequency sounds into the environment. These sounds bring females into the display grounds and females may also choose males to mate with based on aspects of the sound. There is also a visual component that goes along with it for the grouse, but not some other birds (pigeons, bitterns).

Video here.

(this the bird I'm studying now)

The birds grow boobs?

* # ¿ Aug 22, 2013 00:43
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# ¿ May 3, 2024 02:40
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The Golden Man
Aug 4, 2007

 How come you like the birds' he-ooters so much? Just cool looking? I notice your "e-name" also references them.

* # ¿ Aug 22, 2013 02:01
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Pet Island > Ask us about birding! [not the pet birds thread]