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

Advanced Training
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, Purple Martin Nesting, January 14, 2016

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.

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.

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:

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