Ornithology

The Beautiful Bountiful world of Birds.

From Wikipedia:

Ornithology (from Greek: ὄρνις, ὄρνιθος, ornis, ornithos, “bird”; and λόγος, logos, “knowledge”) is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of birds. Several aspects of the study of ornithology differ from closely related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds. Most marked among these is the extent of field studies undertaken by amateur volunteers working within the parameters of strict scientific methodology.The science of ornithology has a long history and studies on birds aided the introduction and refinement of key concepts in evolution, behaviour and ecology such as those of species, speciation, instinct, learning, ecological niches, guilds, island biogeography, phylogeography and conservation. While early ornithology was principally concerned with descriptions and distributions of species, ornithologists today concern themselves with answering specific questions, often using birds as models to test hypotheses and predictions based on theory. A wide range of tools and techniques are used in ornithology and innovations are constantly made.
 
Adobe PDF files were uploaded for space reasons. Original Powerpoint presentations available upon request to Chapter.

 

Class Presentations

2008 and 2009 Class – Ornithology, Dr. Craig Farquhar

 

2013-14 Class, 1-24-14,  2016 Class 3-22-16, and 2018 Class 2-12-18, Tim Siegmund, Ornithology

2020 Class, February 6, Ornithology by Marsha May, former TPWD employee

Advanced Training
 
Ann Collins, Joyce Conner and Cindy Travis chapter AT on Birding,  3/14/19
Linda Lewis and Ann Collins “Birding 101 presentation“at Chapter meeting March 12, 2015.
 
Cindy Bolch, Joyce Conner and others “Bird Tales” at Senior living centers.  See Brazos Valley Blog telling all about it here.
 
Craig Hensley Sparrow workshop at State MN conference Oct 2013

Donna Lewis Wildscape Garden Video March 14

One of our Apple Tree Day Care education projects was on Owls, specifically on “owl puke”. You need to watch Jan Wise and others present this session.

November 12 2020 Chapter Meeting AT session on Hawks by Mary Ann Melton

September 8, 2022 Chapter Meeting AT, on Vultures by Debra Sorenson:

Virtual Birding Seminars, all now available online for your viewing pleasure

Good morning birders!

Well it took us longer than we hoped, but the recordings from the Virtual Birding Seminars are now edited, posted, and ready to view! You can find them here: https://wildlife.tamu.edu/birding/virtual-birding-seminars/. Just click “Watch the recording” next to the one you want to see. You will then be asked for a password, it is 052921, which is the date of our opening social for Birding the Border 2021!

Our final task is to send y’all the answers to the speaker questions from the seminars. After that, you will only receive emails from us if you indicated that you want to during the post-seminar surveys.

We hope you and your families are well.

Take care,
Emily & Maureen

Great Information from Others:

On behalf of the Lakeville Nature Conservancy near Lakeville MN, Lisa Garcia wanted to let the El Camino Real Chapter know that this Ornithology web page was a big help to their group! Received Dec. 21 2022.

“We’ve teamed up with our local library and for the next 5 weeks, our organization will be hosting an Environmental Education workshop! We’re teaching the community about a plethora of topics including understanding conservation practices, learning about renewable energies, creating pollinator and wildlife habitats, learning about composting, etc… Your webpage led us to some great information on birding and bird identification to incorporate into our seminars, so our group requested I reach out and thank you know how much you’ve helped us!”

“As a thank you, I wanted to share this ‘Make Your Own Plastic Bottle Bird Feeder’ guide one of youngsters (Nicole) from the workshop found:”  https://www.bottlestore.com/make-your-own-plastic-bottle-bird-feeder

“Not only is it a great way to recycle materials into something useful, but there’s so much information on there for bird watching, bird identification and ways to help the birds.” (From Don Travis: it really is an amazing and informational website.) Nicole was very excited to share it with you! She thought it would make a wonderful addition.”

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From STEMettes member Hailey (age 11), an avid birder, she liked our Ornithology page with all it’s references and offered this link on Bald Eagles that she likes as an additional reference:

  • https://wizardpins.com/blogs/education/all-about-bald-eagles
  • What is STEMettes? “We’re showing that Girls do Science too, and trying to inspire the next generation of females into Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) fields by showing them the amazing women already in STEM via a series of panel events, hackathons and exhibitions. Join Us!” See the Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Stemettes
  • From the email from Roger Jarvis, with the Bay Minette STEMettes: “Sadly our STEMettes are unable to meet in person due to the pandemic and I know the kiddos are pretty bored being stuck inside. This summer we’ve been (virtually) discussing the classification of living things like trees, flowers, & insects. We’ve been keeping our own journals for observations too which is super fun. One of our members Hailey (11) had the idea that we should talk about the identifying birds- she’s been birding before so she’s our resident expert! Your list of resources there gave us some good info to get started so we wanted to reach out and say thanks 🙂“

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From Boy Scout “Sean”, working on his Bird Study Merit Badge, he suggested a website with many great links on the aspect of “Birding”.

“Birds” at Master Naturalist Meeting, August 2017, by Joyce Conner

Build your own birdhouse! Great instructions and links to many sites with plans. Online article here by Owl house by Mike Mitchel owl box
 
Funky Nests in Funky Places – where’s yours?   Visit Funky Nests in Funky Places, on the Cornell web site. Enter their annual contest to post your “funky bird nest” photo, video or whatever.

Become a Bird Song Hero.  From the amazing folks at Cornell Lab comes a new educational tool called Bird Song Hero.  It’s a visual online web application that shows the audio wavelength patterns of bird calls along with the actual sound and photos with names.  It is amazing how this will help give you a visual memory tool to help identify those somewhat similar bird songs.  Give it a try!  See how far you can go in their tests.

Migratory Bird Songs.  From the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources comes the Bird Song Chart.  Click on a bird and hear the song.

Cornell Labs new free Merlin smartphone app. Merlin asks you a few questions and narrow downs the possible species based on what you see and hear. iPhone now, Android June 2014.  Over 1800 images and 800 audio recordings to date.

iBird is another very comprehensive birding application, for iPhones, iPads, Androids, Kindles and Windows 8.  See an introductory video here. Then go to ibird.com for more.  Various versions from free to $20 or more.

Purple Martin goodies: A website from a Purple Martin expert, “Chuck”. And an article from there on a really good snake guard for Martin poles, PDF File.  And This presentation, designed and created by the Purple Martin Conservation Association, is an effective way to educate people about Purple Martins and what it means to be a Purple Martin landlord. The presentation includes (but is not limited to) martin history, martin management techniques and conservation projects. Beautiful photos enhance the information. https://www.purplemartin.org/shop/product/ppt/pmca-slide-show/  Buy a copy for $5.00 for your own use and to present it to others. All Rights Reserved so can’t publish to open websites.

 
Books, Web Sites and other references of Interest

A list of websites describing predators of Hummingbirds, provided by Carrie McLaughlin http://www.hiltonpond.org/ThisWeek070901.html
http://www.rubythroat.org/QuestionsPredators01.html
http://nnbirdwing.blogspot.com/2009/09/dragonfly-takes-down-ruby-throated.html
http://birdsbybent.com/ch11-20/hummingb.html#Enemies
http://moumn.org/loon/?family=Hummingbirds  (posted under RT Hummer/1977)

Birds of the Oaks & Prairies and Osage Plains of Texas, A Field Guide Checklist

A list of 471 species of birds that inhabit or cross our local area, with a legend describing rare to abundant during the 12 months of the year. Published by Brush Freeman, Texas Parks and Wildlife.  Birds of the Oaks and Prairies of Texas a field checklist PDF file
From Shawn Walton’s Weekly Blog / Column in Rockdale and Cameron Newspapers: