The Birder's Guide To The Internet, 2017 Edition

1994. That was the year I officially became a birder. It was a good time to be a birder, but everything was much, much harder. You think birding is hard now? Well back then, you could get lost! You got around using actual paper maps! You didn't have field guides and bird songs in your cell phones...people didn't even have cell phones! The only computer that would answer to your voice commands was aboard the USS Enterprise. It sounds like the stone age, and while the world didn't look that much different from today, the tools we have at our fingertips now seem light years ahead. The myriad of online resources available to birders have, for some, changed everything.

As the #7 birder in the United States (as ranked by the Global Birder Ranking System), I feel like I should lift up the birding community. I will pick you up and carry you on my back, like a birding horse. Even with so many tools these days, we must still be honest with ourselves...birders need so much help. Many birders just don't know what is out there, don't know that they can answer a great many of their questions themselves if they are willing to spare a few minutes of their time. They need to be uplifted, and that is why I am here today. In that spirit, here is a list of some of my fav websites that can help you learn more about birds, and help you see more of them.

Compulsively checking Sialia over and over again will eventually pay off for you in a big way...that is how seeing this MEGUH Marsh Sandpiper was made possible.

Sialia/ABA Birding News - Listservs are nothing new, but are still absolutely crucial. Most grizzled veteran birders know that if you find a rare bird, you don't put it on Facebook first, you don't put it on eBird first, you slap that thing on the listerv ASAP. Do you live in an area where multiple listservs have coverage nearby? Want to see all the listservs in one place? Check Sialia (my preference) or ABA Birding News. I've seen a number of fantastic birds here in northern California simply because I compulsively check Sialia for breaking news of Meguhs.

Xeno-canto - A vast and totally free library of bird vocalizations that grows on the daily. Most of the material is downloadable. Ace. Something like this was inconceivable 20 years ago.

Birdingpal - Travelling someplace? Want to have someone basically act as your guide for a minimal cost? Check out Birdingpal! Or you can just hit up a birder for the info you are looking for. You can also use this site to hire "real" guides for a nonminimal cost.

The more users eBird gets, the better it gets as a tool for birders. Among the many services it provides, eBird is rapidly becoming a great resource for birders looking to know where to get in the field south of the border...for example, without it we would not have had crippling looks at Rufous-bellied Chachalaca in Lo de Marcos, Nayarit, Mexico.

eBird - eBird is imperfect, it is flawed, and it is still the best thing since sliced bread...and you know how important sliced bread is. You also know what eBird is and what eBird can do for you already, so I'll leave you to it. eBird.

Cloudbirders and Surfbirds - Trip reports, trip reports, trip reports. If you are planning a birding trip someplace, not only do you want to utilize the tried and true "birder's guide", you want trip reports to find new information on an area. These two sites are great resources. Note that trip reports by some tour companies (both included on these websites, and elsewhere) vary in the amount of details provided...some tour companies will provide a lot of detail on where they bird (very helpful), while others lamely will keep their hotspots "secret", and may not even mention where they stay. Weak.

Last year the nerds and I stayed at the fantastic Rancho Primavera in El Tuito (Jalisco, Mexico), where we could nonchalantly watch a Blue Mockingbird pig out at a feeding platform from the deck of our rental house. I never would have found out about the place if not for coming across it in a blog post.

Blogs - Talk about old-fashioned...yes, even blogs like this one can still be resources for the birder! What do you think this post is for? Since birding blogs can and do cover all things bird, we can potentially help you with identification issues, trip report material, you name it. One of my favorite blogs is the vastly underappreciated Birds of Passage; if you are considering birding anywhere from Mexico to Ecuador, you need to read up on their material. The Budget Birders have traveled a lot and provide a lot of helpful information as well. Of course, Earbirding has a lot of great content on bird vox. Obviously, there are too many good blogs out there to list; check out the sidebar on the left for more.

Migration forecasts - We don't use these much here on the west coast (though there is a Portland site) due to the nature of migration here (the nature of which is incredibly boring compared to many states...but California gets the best vague runts, so it evens out), but in a large part of the country this is something worth getting addicted to during spring and fall migration. Maybe some of you eastern birders take it for granted by now, but I think it is incredible that there are people who can forecast how good (or bad) the birding may be on a particular day in a particular area using traditional weather radar. If you would have told 1997 me that this would be a thing, you probably also could have convinced me that aliens were real and that I was going to be abducted. Hey, I was watching a lot of X-Files at the time. Anyways, Birdcast is a good place to start, but there are multiple region-specific sites.

Google Streetview, which can be toggled on and off using Google Maps or Google Earth, is fascinating. Here is where I used to live on Midway! Yes, those are albatross in the yard.

Google Earth and Google Maps - These are great tools for planning a birding trip or scouting an area without being on the ground. Do you know how amazing it is to bring up sharp satellite imagery on command? I would have killed for that ability for some of my early field work back in the day. Want to know where I saw my first Short-tailed Albatross? Well put these coordinates (28.199202°, -177.383157°) into Google Maps, turn on the satellite imagery, and you can see exactly where I was. I think it's brilliant. Anyways, Google Earth is free to download and you can do even more with it than Google Maps, so check it out if you have much of a map fetish. You probably already look at Google Maps on the regular and have the app installed on your phone, but for the few of you who don't, you are missing out.

Reserve America - Wanna camp? Don't know where to go? Then this is the site for you. Find campgrounds all across the country, reserve your site. Though not all campgrounds are listed here, it's a good place to start.

Airbnb - Staying in a house is better than staying in a motel. That house might even have some good birding on the property. I've used Airbnb on birding trips to Colorado, Maine and Puerto Rico so far with great success, and I'm sure I'll be using it on many future trips. Use Airbnb for birding, business, family vacays, wild sex parties, it's your call.

Not every birding site is created equal, however. You will notice that I omitted Facebook groups - this was done on purpose. Though you certainly can get helpful information in these groups, as a general rule some of the most frequent posters (be it in regional groups, gull ID, etc.) are self-proclaimed experts whose advice can be counterproductive at best. Indeed, if you are a legend in your own mind, then there is no better place to broadcast your "expertise". Google Images are also dangerous to work with, which BB&B has previously covered in Adventures In Birding Online. I also have mixed feelings about the always-improving Merlin app; while it could be (already is?) incredibly helpful for rank beginners, I could easily see it becoming a crutch. It also requires the observer to have a reasonably good camera, which is definitely not necessary to get into birding. At any rate, neither you or I want our primary contribution to the birding community to be "ID please" posts, know what I'm saying?

I'm sure I left something out. If you have any other recommendations, please share! I may be #7, but only #1 knows everything.

Ten Tips For Enduring The CBC With Felonious Jive

Have you ever had the honor of birding with Felonious Jive, The Great Ornithologist? I bird with him on the regular. Some say he's mellow...others, twice mellowed. He will chase rarities with reckless abandon and go after target birds like a bloodhound, but you love him all the more for it. He wants to see birds, after all, so who cares if someone else found them first? That's why he is The Great Ornithologist...he sees all the birds. Birders think they know birding, but after birding with Felonious...things may never be the same.

How that turns out depends on the time of year. Unlike myself, Felonious Jive is truly dedicated to Christmas Bird Counts (CBCs). I'm usually travelling during CBC season and would much rather do that than get stuck with some bullshit count sector, but Felonious Jive, The Great Ornithologist, is all about CBCs. He lives them. He breathes them. And considering the caliber of birding he brings to the table, he can make them or break them simply by deciding to show up or not. I've done several CBCs with Felonious now, since he is my partner here at BB&B. He runs the show during these bizarre events...I am merely a bystander. For anyone "lucky" enough to spend a CBC with Felonious, here are ten tips to help deal with a truly great ornithologist.

1. Felonious Jive is almost always drinking during Christmas Counts. It can seem disgusting at first. Sure the guy drinks a lot, but the way he puts away drinks during a CBC, you would think it was the Super Bowl or something. This is normal. Do not be alarmed. It does not impede his ability to find birds or identify them correctly. He may ask you to drive, however.

2. If he is not drinking, Felonious is probably on something else. Do not be surprised. He's probably popping pills. Once he was drinking all day and then took several pills of unknown origin. He said he needed them because we were owling.

3. If he offers you pills, be sure to know what he is giving you. If you're not familiar, he'll invariably tell you something like, "It's mellow. Everything is fine. Just take the damn thing. Oh a sapsucker just flew across the trail".

4. Expect to walk hella. Like 50 miles. Despite the fact that he doesn't really seem to be in any kind of admirable physical condition, he will be medicating and impervious to any discomfort beyond having to identify distant gulls or wishing that Empidonax from earlier in the day gave better looks. If you think it odd that Felonious will cover 50 miles within a day, on foot, within a count circle that has a 7 mile radius, you are right to think so.

5. Expect to spend 4 hours seawatching. Making time for staying in one place for so long on top of walking so many damn miles is seemingly impossible, but that is what happens.

6. Prepare for bad conversation. He may present many theories to you as if they are fact, but they are typically based on a poor grasp of science and a strong desire for attention. It's an ugly combination. He's usually not like this, but if he starts a CBC already hungover, then watch out.

7. If you are lucky enough to avoid his awful hangover blather, he will primarily communicate with you using quotes from Star Wars movies (Episodes IV, V, VI). If you do not like Star Wars, then heaven help you.

8. If you have a Stormtrooper suit, a Darth Vader suit, or even a Jedi robe, wear it. You will both find this very humorous.

9. Get stoked on cocaine. If Felonious isn't on pills, inevitably he ends up doing bumps off the top of his spotting scope at some point in the afternoon. Doing cocaine by oneself is a notoriously lonely activity, so he's going to insist on sharing. The rest of the day really flies by once he gets into that stuff.

10. Do not expect to savor any of this. Doing a Christmas Bird Count with Felonious Jive, The Great Ornithologist, is an emotionally trying and physically hellish experience that will likely leave you wanting to avoid him for the next year or so.

Greetings From The Listserv Hall Of Fame

For years I have been reading the reports on San Diego Birds and thought that there was much ado about nothing in so many cases. Doug Aguillard has repeatedly ranted about the existence of an elite inner circle and their comrades and I figured that he was just crazy and stirring the pot for the sake of stirring the pot. But this latest news about the Le Conte's Sparrow has me wondering if Doug wasn’t right and has secretly been enshrined into his formerly hated inner circle since he has remained silent since the news came out. This can only lead me to believe he saw the bird. From what I can tell from what was posted on the group and from email responses of those people who replied to my emails I find many things amiss in the local birding people. The same people that have so many others looking up to them just flipped each and every one of you off.

First off, the Le Conte’s Sparrow could not be seen from any public thoroughfare so Terry must have been trespassing when he found it. Fair enough, most of us have been guilty of such a minor crime from time to time. Terry Hunefeld, Paul Lehman, Guy McCaskie, Peter Ginsburg, Sue Smith, Gary Nunn, Matt Sadowski , Doug Aguillard and even Tom Benson - from another county - all got a call about the bird on Friday and were able to see it. It is obvious that they all agreed to keep the matter secret as none of them called anyone outside of this secret society to share this news. Puppet Master McCaskie must have been expertly manipulating the strings once again and threatening loss of the secret handshake known only to the group for anyone who spread the word. As Paul Lehman shared in a post about his beloved girlfriend Barbara Carlson, there are people doing a big year that would have liked to see this bird. I can't find anyone who will say that either was there on Friday so I must assume that they didn't know about the bird. Paul couldn't even tell his girlfriend because it was such an important secret? 

In trying to cover their tracks they decided to allow some people to enter the golf course under the ruse that there was permission for one group of a limited number of people to have legal access. This was a bold lie as the group found out that there was no permission upon arriving on the scene. Any number of other people who routinely post to the list about what they find, people like Jay Keller, Mark Straton, Dave Povey, Chris Smith, BJ Stacey, Eric Kallen and Stan Walens all come to mind. Come on, Stan even has a worldwide known bench for birding named after him and no one thought about asking if he might want to see a county first bird. If they find a rare bird I bet all hell erupts if they decide not to share that information immediately. I don’t know of everyone who was there on Saturday but I have learned of some but it isn’t worth mentioning them since they should only be blamed for unassumingly trespassing after being lied to.

Didn’t this same thing happen earlier in the year with the Mongolian Plover and Sharp-tailed Sandpiper? Didn’t these same people try to keep that hidden until word – as it always does – leaked out? And how many other times has it happened? How can it be that Guy McCaskie and Paul Lehman always seem to get access to places that the general public is denied? It is amazing what one can find when the government is open. Searching a federal grant database I do not see either of them listed upon a grant but they are given access to Salt Works whenever they request it. How did they gain the special government powers that permit them to do so or are the local researchers complicit in the trespassing meaning they should lose their grants? Perhaps one of them will publicly profess how this can be legal. Silence should only to interpreted to mean they are guilty.

The absolute hypocrisy of Guy McCaskie and his acolytes is a sin to birders everywhere. They share amongst themselves and demand all be given by others. Sound like our current Congress perhaps? These same people have been doing this same thing for as long as they have been birding. San Diego birding is known across the country as being home to some of the best birders in the country but also as home to some of the most backstabbing birders at the same time. The only way to perhaps get them to change is to find your own birds and not tell any of them about it until it is gone. Give a dose of their own medicine to these self-appointed doctors in this drama. To those of you who do go birding I plead with you to ask people across the nation – not just San Diego and California – about these people. You will be amazed at how horrible they are thought of as people and how far the tales have traveled. 

So go find your birds and don’t share that information with any of these self centered egotistic snobs. If I had the power I would kick them off all the lists and phone trees that they belong to. I had birded for over 30 years all across the country until a car accident in 2001 left me unable to continue. I now find my birds by reading San Diego Birds and clicking on links to photos from the locals who share their photos. And, all the while, I only hope that one of those special birds will fly up to my window and bless me with just a few moments of its life. Perhaps being bedridden and looking out a window is better than having to look any of you in the eye.

Blessed Birding to ALL that share

Todd Ingess
La Jolla CA
San Diego County CA

Birding And Butthurt: Til Death Do Us Part

This is a Great Frigatebird. It knows not of the insignificant trials and tribulations that plague the average birder. We should view it with not only awe, but envy. Photographed at Midway Atoll.

Butthurt. We all know what this means, and if we don't, let me help you. It's a frustrating, immature and stupid thing to experience, and a frustrating, immature and stupid thing to be exposed to. I've experienced the 'hurt in all manner of social situations, and if you are one of the lucky birders who actually gets to experience a social situation occasionally, you certainly have too. It can be a funny thing to watch, usually when the butthurt is not directed at you though.

What has always amazed me is how prevalent butthurt is among birders. Birders can be so goddamn sensitive and entitled...it's a horrible combination. The apparent lack of emotional maturity displayed by all ages is staggering. And hey, I'll be the first one to admit that I am no exception. Yes, I too, your #7 U.S. birder, have descended into a dismal and embarrassing state of butthurt...but these days it doesn't happen very often. They say that time heals all wounds, but it is wisdom that heals all butthurt. Like the frigatebird rides the thermals to soar majestically high above the chaos of terrestrial life, I have elevated myself above the nerdy and chronically butthurt masses...and let me tell you, it's not very crowded up here.

Today, as a gut check for the birding community, I offer you the top 25* ways that birders get butthurt. Enjoy, or get really, um...sore about it. Your call.

1. When an eBird reviewer questions your observation
2. When anyone questions your observation
3. When someone surpasses your personal list for a select region
4. When someone surpasses your personal year list record for a select region
5. When other birders suppress information about a rarity
6. When a beginner/photographer is advised to buy a field guide
7. When you miss seeing a bird on a pelagic trip
8. When someone flushes a rarity that you are watching (this is highly forgivable though)
9. When Birder X finds out Birder Y is appointed as a leader on a pelagic trip and Birder X thinks they are the better birder and should be a leader instead
10. When the Bird Police reject a record you submitted
11. When everyone thinks a rare bird is escaped/ship assisted and you don't
12. When you are looking at a bird and someone gets in your way
13. When you are photographing a bird and someone gets in your way
14. When you bait a raptor and people get pissed at you
15. When you want to get in and bird a place but they are not open yet
16. When you don't get enough attention on a guided trip
17. When birders complain about using playback and you use it all the time
18. When experienced birders discuss problems with birding/birders and you think they are being elitist
19. When everyone is using eBird, you don't and you feel left out and confused
20. When someone has a rare bird in their yard and they won't let you see it
21. When someone spots a rare bird before you do
22. When you are debating something about birding with someone who uses science to back their views and you know nothing about science
23. When you are leading a trip and someone apparently better at bird ID than you disagrees with your identification of a particular bird
24. When you come across birders who surprisingly seem to be integrated in to the rest of society
25. When someone you don't know on the internet proudly proclaims that he is the #7 U.S. birder, and you suspect your Global Birder Ranking System rank is considerably lower

Of course, there are hundreds of other ways birders can get butthurt! Feel free to add to the list in the comments. Remember, next time you feel your blood boiling over some petty bullshit, chill the fuck back. No one cares. Drink a beer or three, and come ride the mellow thermals with me and the frigatebirds.

Yours truly,

Seagull Steve
#7 U.S. Birder

* = This isn't in order, so don't let that bother you. Everything is going to be ok.

Adventures In Birding Online: The Truth Is Out There...But Not Always.

This is a Least Sandpiper...but I could just post this as a Long-toed Stint, and most birders would be none the wiser. Kind of a bummer, huh? Photographed at Elsie Roemer Bird Sanctuary, Alameda, CA.

I am the Global Birder Ranking System's #7 U.S. birder. That means I am a great birder and an anointed expert*...there's no point in being modest. Being a leading light of the birding community, my gaze knows no bounds. And that is how I noticed that Dave Irons, an Oregon Bird Policeman, recently wrote to a listserv, "When unknown folks present themselves as authorities on the Internet, you really need to be cautious."

He is absolutely right.

Birding is hard. It is known. Finding birds is hard. Seeing birds is hard. Identifying birds is the hardest of all. And so, in the age of the internets, let us examine one particular aspect of bird identification...the Google image search!

That's right...not only do we have field guides, reference books, eBird and apps, we have the entire fucking internet at our disposal to use as a tool for bird identification.  If you have a bird you are trying to identify and it doesn't quite match your typical sources, you can just say "fuck it" and go cruise the interwebs to find even more pictures of species x and species y. It's really a fantastic thing. Ever wonder what Slaty-backed Gulls look like in Japan? Boom! I would say that covers it pretty well. Do you get stoked on American Dipper pictures? You do?! Well, try googling it, and you will see hella dipper pics. Amazing stuff, really.

So it's that easy, huh? Well...no. If something is too good to be true, then it is not a true thing. It is a lie, a dirty falsehood, just like all the misidentified Philadelphia Vireo photos that litter Flickr. Having just read these groundbreaking words, you might find yourself feeling filthy on the inside, and I don't blame you.

You will notice that the gull link above goes to a site operated the Ujiharas, esteemed experts on gulls who even put a gull book out. And you will note that dippers are singular birds...easy to identify, and lacking any relatives on the continent.

Well, what happens if I look for random Veery pictures?  I only have to scan through a few pics from an image search before I come across this bird, which clearly is not a Veery. Hmm...what about Willow Flycatchers? Wait, what the hell is that?  Well...Northern Goshawk? Yikes. I'm not sure if any of the photographers here are necessarily presenting themselves as authorities on their subjects (lets hope not), but whenever they say THIS bird is THAT species, that's a pretty authoritative act, I reckon.

Ok, why don't we call this bird a hatch year Western X Flame-colored Tanager, put it online, and call it a day? That's what this is, obviously, and who is going to stop me? I kid, my friends, I only jest...this is a Western Tanager, but it is a scary thing that I could just make some fanciful claim and lay it out there. It happens every day. If shit like this keeps you up at night, remember...you are not alone. Photographed at Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA.

So, there are two factors at work here with these blatant misidentifications. For one, there are a lot of birders with cameras out there who are just not highly skilled. They make identification mistakes on the regular. Go to someplace like South Padre Island and watch the inaccurate carnage unfold. Secondly, there are a lot of bird photographers out there (who are not birders) who are even worse at bird identification, and a lot of those folks are dying for you to see their images. That's really all there is to it. When surfing the web for bird porn, caution is warranted. Unless you know the source and know you have a highly discerning eye, be very careful about the birds you look up. This is where reputation is huge...trust the folks you already trust! I can peruse the Ujihara gull site and be pretty confident they are not fucking up, despite their difficult subjects, but blindly searching the web for Vega Gull images is a daunting task.

So next time you are having an ID discussion in your favorite birding Facebook group, be careful when referencing online images from people you don't know or trust. You might get burned, and things may never, ever, be the same again.

* = I do misidentify birds, and there probably is one...or two...or three, somewhere in BB&B's sprawling past. I'm not saying Trust No One, but as a modern birder, never turn off your bullshit detector, and you'll be just fine. 

The Fall of the Bird Police: Death by EBird?

The Crescent City Common Scoter, a jaw-dropping rarity and first North American record. Do I have it an eBird checklist?  Yes.  Did I send a report to the Bird Police?  No.  Are these things connected?  Read on.

Earlier this month, frequent Bird Policeman for the California Bird Records Committee (CBRC) and beloved birding legend Kimball Garrett wrote the following email to the local L.A. listserv:

L. A. Birders, 

In corresponding with CBRC Secretary Tom Benson, I learned that he has received documentation for the Thick-billed Kingbird in Horsethief Canyon Park in San Dimas this past winter ONLY from a single observer on 22 November 2014. Yet eBird records indicate that the bird was found on 15 November and seen by dozens to at least 3 January 2015. Many eBird submissions during that period were accompanied by photographs and/or descriptions. 

Similarly, the Worm-eating Warbler at The Village Green, seen by approximately 23,687 people, was documented for the CBRC by only three submitters. Yet there were about 125 eBird entries, many with good photos and other documentation. 

This is (yet) another plea for observers to submit documentation for CBRC review species to the committee for review, even if you know that many other observers also saw the bird. First, you might be surprised by how little documentation the CBRC receives even for long-staying mega-rarities. Second, your added documentation can provide crucial information about changes in appearance (e.g. through molt) and behavior of rarities, and can provided important information on phenology by helping to pin down the date spans over which they are present. Finally, and most importantly, the CBRC maintains a thorough and permanent archive of rare bird records for California, and your submissions become part of that archive. Photos on photo-sharing sites (such as Flickr) that are linked to eBird submissions may not be there in a decade, or a year, or even next week. 

Yes, the eBird folks are working on a more permanent way of archiving documentation photos, video and audio, and the ways in which records committees, North American Birds editors, and eBird users interact will clearly evolve over time. But at present the laudable emphasis in the birding community on eBird has unfortunately translated to a vast reduction in direct submissions to the CBRC. 

Well...what do you think?  Kimball is certainly not condemning eBird in any way, but is eBird really behind the drop in record submissions to California's Bird Police?  Is there a direct correlation between the rise in eBird use and the decline of reporting to the Bird Police?  Being the nation's #7 birder, as ranked by the Global Birder Ranking System, this issue is of great interest to me.  Some thoughts:

- While eBird is not a permanent place for documenting bird records, it is ostensibly pretty close. EBird is not going anywhere anytime soon.  If you put something in eBird, it is going to stay there for as long eBird is around, which will probably be for a very long time.  That said, like any website, it is vulnerable to hacking.  Can you imagine what would happen if a disgruntled birder (and there are a lot of those) acquired some hacking skills? Or, much more likely, if Flickr got hacked?  Yeesh. Observers can delete their checklists at any time. Photographers can delete their photos at any time. We must give the Bird Police some attention.  But am I ever going to be deleting/hiding my eBird records and my photos?  Nope.

San Francisco's long-staying Rustic Bunting was seen by hordes of birders, I suspect well over 1,000.  I wondered how many folks submitted documentation to the CBRC, so I checked.  The answer is ten (10).  I wonder how many birders even thought about submitting documentation to the CBRC...  

- An eBird reviewer may make the incorrect decision of negating an observation of a very rare bird; eBird reviewers, after all, often do not have the credentials of your average Bird Police Officer and they are only one birder.  Conversely, there is no doubt that misidentified rarities slip through the cracks and make their way into eBird.  When an eBird reviewer thinks they personally have found a rarity, you can be sure that they will get it into eBird, whether it was correctly identified or not.  All birders are fallible. Princess Leia's classic line comes to mind: "I am not a committee!".

- A huge proportion of the birding community do not care about submitting documentation to the Bird Police, regardless of experience, age and skill.  There are a multitude of reasons for this, and it has nothing to do with eBird.  I'm not dissing the Bird Police here, just stating fact.

- I've been birding for over 20 years now, and I am comfortable saying that there are more birders now than ever before...which means there are more new birders than ever before.  Shouldn't that automatically translate to more love for the Bird Police?  Well, no.  Newer birders generally do not concern themselves with submitting records to the Bird Police.  They often lack the skills and the confidence to submit records, and it probably does not seem like a high priority for them if they are still struggling finding and seeing comparatively common birds.  And if they associate with other birders who don't submit documentation either, then they won't be doing it any time soon; it's just not in their culture, so to speak.

This is one of two (2) Rusty Blackbirds I have ever seen, both of which fall under the jurisdiction of the CBRC.  I've yet to see one where they actually belong, though I have a chance next month!  Photographed in Santa Cruz County, CA.

- One thing that eBird is great for, in terms of rarities, is documenting exactly how long a rarity is being seen at a particular site.  The Bird Police, as far as I know, has no good mechanism for this; they just hope birders will keep on submitting records for an (usually) already well-documented bird. I suspect it is a common situation in which a records committee will receive a small number of records of an individual Vague Runt that may actually be seen over a span of weeks or months.  Do the Bird Police completely ignore the data that is readily available on eBird about the dates the bird was really being seen for?  I suspect it depends on which department (er, state) we are talking about.

- I will readily admit that I was one of those birders who eBirded the Thick-billed Kingbird mentioned above, but did not send a record to the Bird Police.  For posterity, here is my description: "Heard only by Dan Maxwell and myself.  Originally heard from a great distance in the housing tract west of the park making short, 2 or 3 note calls that I was not familiar with that sounded similar to a Cassin's Kingbird. Eventually the bird came considerably closer, and once clearly and loudly uttered a single series of distinct and varied calls that Western (extremely unlikely to be present here during this season), Tropical and Cassin's Kingbirds are incapable of making; Thick-billed Kingbird has much more variability (and sometimes, melody?) in their vocalizations than any of these species, which we clearly could discern.  Identification was confirmed by checking recorded vocalizations on site. We lingered in the area but we never heard the bird again."

That's it.  That's all I've got.  I would never in a million years send this to the Bird Police had I not known that a Thick-billed Kingbird was present on site, and I feel that follow-up reports should bear the depth worthy of accepting the record as if it were a first-time sighting...or at least have a decent photo/recording of the bird.  I am 100% sure we heard the Thick-billed Kingbird, but let's face it, my description sucks!  Would it really get accepted? Does it belong in the annals of Bird Police History? I think that when you yourself would strongly consider rejecting your own record (and I am #7!), that is a valid reason for not offering your observation to the Bird Police.

- I think there is a very strong case for claiming that birders will use eBird instead of notifying birders of notable species via listserv or RBA or North American Birds, you won't get any argument from me there.  I'm guilty of that myself, though I don't consider myself a chronic offender.

- Birders are generally unaware that when hundreds or thousands of people see a review bird, almost no one is submitting documentation to the Bird Police.  Kimball was right to bring this up; it is not a widely-known fact.  Even some Bird Police will neglect to submit documentation of committee birds that someone else found, and they know full well about this problem.

This is the famous Monterey Arctic Loon, which wintered near the Municipal Wharf and was relatively easy to see, unlike the other members of its species I've seen in the Aleutian Islands. Querying the CBRC database, I found out that the first Arctic Loon I chased (unsuccessfully) years ago ended up being rejected by the committee...good to know, and I'm glad that information is available online.  Bird Police departments everywhere should do their best to maintain an active online presence; I think it's good for all of us.

So the real question is this: how often do birders submit their sightings to eBird as a direct substitute for submitting documentation to the Bird Police?  Despite appearances, I believe this happens relatively rarely. When I enter a record of a committee bird into eBird, that does not mean that I would have sent the CBRC documentation had I not been an eBird user, and I think that the same applies for thousands of other birders.  I do not make the conscious decision to submit a photo or description of a review to bird an eBird checklist as a direct substitute for sending it to the Bird Police. Personally speaking, when I don't submit documentation of a review species, but know that I should, it's almost always because I know that other Bird Police officers have seen the bird. Part of their sworn duties as Bird Police are to submit documentation of review species they see, amirite?  As Kimball said, I suppose one should never assume that a rarity is being packaged up, sealed, and sent to the Bird Police's evidence room for safe keeping.  All birders, even the Bird Police, are fallible, and all but the most demented of us have tendencies of laziness.

EBird has brought countless rarities and birds of interest to the public sphere that likely would never have seen the light of day otherwise.  As others have pointed out, there are a lot of birders who utilize eBird who do not contribute to listservs or RBAs at all, let alone bend the knee to the Bird Police.  By now, many thousands of birders owe something to eBird, whether they are active users or not.  The Bird Police are going to have to start incorporating eBird data sooner or later; it is truly the elephant in the Bird Police Station. Exactly how this unfolds will be fun to watch.

Thank you for all your hard work officers, for keeping us safe from the stringers and the sketchy birders.  And thank you, eBird, for being god's gift to birders...you seem to be winning the popularity contest.  If you are one of those people who do pledge allegiance to the Bird Police, at least once in a while, we would like to hear your take on all of this, and obviously if you are a Sworn Officer of the Birding Law, we need to hear from you.  Despite appearances, your birders need you...now, more than ever.

The Human Birdwatcher Project Presents: It's My Job To Keep Birding Elite, or Esquire's Birder Gets Bizarre

Many of you have read it already, but I think Esquire's recent post on birdwatching is worth some of BB&B's time. Entitled "Uh-oh. Birdwatching Is About To Become Cool. (And it's too bad)", it lets us know right away that we are going to disagree with a lot of the content of the post.

As any loyal BB&B reader knows, birding is not cool. I don't want to be redundant on this subject, but birding resides deeply in the realm of the weird and nerdy. Do cool people bird? Yes, I can get on board with that. Does the activity of birding have any potential to instill any degree of coolness into someone? Absolutley not. I'm fine with that and have accepted it long ago...I'm not concerned about birding being cool or becoming cool because it's just not in the cards. Just look at all the birders out there....you have met them. You know what I'm talking about. We are a frightening lot. The evidence is overwhelming...arguing that birding is not weird is akin to denying climate change. Arguing that birding is becoming hip is about as persuasive as trying to convince someone that the earth is flat.

A fraction of you are lucky enough to have friends outside the world of birding and biology, and with this rare and critical frame of reference lies the potential to actually understand how bizarre birders are as a whole. A number of people have told me that I am the only "cool" birder they have ever met...an accusation I categorically deny. Sure I have nonbirding friends, some weird tattoos, can party, and have an interest in something besides birding, but for those of you who have never met me....I'm super lame. Really, being me is an immersion in embarrassment...just ask my girlfriend. I watch birds all the time, write a uberdorky bird blog, relish obscure Star Wars quotes, am constantly wishing I was watching a new Game of Thrones episode, love profoundly unpopular music (not the unpopular-but-hip stuff), and have no immunity to those awkward moments that plague most birders relentlessly.

Every once in a while, I can't shake that unmistakable feeling...the feeling that somewhere, somehow, a Philadelphia Vireo is watching me. And when I am lucky enough to actually find the bastard, I rejoice. I live for moments like these. But nowhere in this sequence of events does coolness (or lack thereof) enter the equation, and that's how it should be. South Padre Island, TX.

The author of the post seems to think that these birdercentric movies that are coming out (The Big Year and A Birder's Guide to Everything) have a shot at actually going to make birding cool. I just can't make the connection. It's not like The Big Year was directed by Wes Anderson, the Coen Brothers, or Christopher Guest. Sure The Big Year has made birding more popular (which does not at all translate to being "trendy" or "cool"), but it's not like hundreds of thousands of people were recruited into our nerdy ranks.

Speaking of numbers, the author infers that 50 million people go birdwatching every year, which we all know is a myth. That's well above the annual attendance for all NFL and MLB games combined, which is absurd. If that 50 million number were true, about one in six Americans would go birdwatching regularly...can you imagine that? Everyone would know a birder. Can we all get past this ridiculous number that keeps appearing in the media? The true number of casual birdwatchers and birders is likely a tiny sliver of this figure.

These people are birders. They are birding. I'm not kidding...they paid good money to do this. This is what birding looks like. Matching khaki? Hella cool. Fetal position? Fucking ace. Public crotch-burrowing? Uber hip. Photo of cool birders cooly birding by Matt Brady.

Let us skip ahead to my favorite part of the article: "I have met some of these aggressive, fist-pumping birders — frat boys with binoculars — and my God they piss me off. Last year, while I was birding in Florida, walking down a beach where piping plovers nested, I ran into a quartet of them chugging beer as they birded. They were fantastically knowledgeable about the local ecology, I might add.

Are they the future? I'm more worried about the kind of birder found in A Birder's Guide to Everything, the emo type."

I don't even know where to start.....this is truly golden. It almost sounds like a joke, but I just don't think it is. I hear birders complain about hipsters often enough (which I think frequently speaks to a long-distance yet emotionally abusive relationship with the concept of "coolness"), but being paranoid about EMO birders???? Here I am worried about how rising sea levels will eventually decimate low-lying seabird colonies, and this dude is still thinking about emo. And if birding needs anything, it is MORE BEER, not less. I have been birding for almost 20 years, including through college, and I have never observed this rare and elusive frat boy birder. Are there raging birders? Yes. There is a difference. Anyone can rage...in fact, I highly recommend it. And lastly...the number of Piping Plovers that nest in Florida is 0 (zero).

In the end, this dude is entitled to his opinion, and he does hint at some notions that I can get behind. I too think birding is weird and quirky, and I hate birding places that are packed to the gills with other birders. Dealing with too many birders at once can be a drag...I don't even know how the twitchers across the pond put up with it. But I just can't relate to the idea that more of us are a bad thing, for so many reasons that I'm not even going to bother getting into that.

Friends, we hope you enjoyed this post, which has been brought to you by The Human Birdwatcher Project ("Birders Are People Too!"). Stay tuned for information on the next birder flick coming down the pipe, which we recently learned has been given the working title, "A Birder's Guide To Your Mom." Expect many new birders in the near future.

The Pain Goes Away, But The Wound Stays Forever

"It's a rush that a lot of people will tell you is higher than any drug they've ever tried or even heard about, and maybe better than sex...which is a weird theory and often raises unsettling personal questions, but it is a theory nonetheless, and on some days I've even believed it myself.

But not really, and days like that are so rare that I usually can't even remember them...But when I do, it is like a nail in my eye. The pain goes away, but the wound stays forever. The scar never quite heals over - and whenever it seems like it's going to, I pick at it. I have some scars that go back 33 years, and I still remember how they happened, just like it was yesterday."

Who said that? It seems like something The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive would birth out of his twisted mind...some babbling screed about what it is like to be a depraved bird addict. And if he did say that, he would be right...perhaps we are all picking at our own scabs.

This Xantus's Hummingbird was photographed in Todos Santos, Baja California Sur. Expect total coverage of this trip in the near future. And now that I look into it...it was Dr. Hunter S. Thompson who should be credited with that quote, speaking of being a guilty political junkie. But an addict is an addict...cold sweats, shaking and vomiting seem to be the normal withdrawal symptoms of any birder who is deprived of birding for too long.

Perhaps this comes off too strongly for you. You can't be sick with bird fever. Maybe it's all a joke. Don't believe me? Just try it. Stop birding. You will find yourself enshrouded in your own personal darkness, trying to remember what it was like to bask in the light of a good bird. The last thing you want is to find yourself reaching out to #7 for help in your most desperate hour...once you've crossed the Rubicon, not even I can help you.

HBP Presents: The Handicaps Of Birding

Birding, as a pastime, has been consistently a big (and apparently growing) hobby in the United States for some time now. A lot of people do it. If you have ever chased a truly rare bird, you know what I mean....there are a lot of us. WE ARE EVERYWHERE. There is even a major motion picture about us. Because we, as a group, spend so much money, birders are a force to be reckoned with. The amount of cash that gets dropped every year on optics/cameras/books/fuel/airplane tickets/camping/motels/guided trips/pelagic trips/food/park admissions and, most embarrassingly, birder clothes, must be staggering. Really, we should be forming our own political think-tank and sending our own lobbyists to Capitol Hill...birders, by and large, are not poor people. But I digress....

While there are a lot of us, when you compare the number of hardcore birders to the number of nonbirders out there, it suddenly doesn't seem like we have a such a strong foothold in society. Over the years, I have frequently heard birders asking why there are not more of us. Sure there are a lot of birders out there (it's estimated that 18 million Americans took trips specifically to watch birds in 2001), but if I were to walk down San Francisco's Mission Street this afternoon and pass by 500 people, the chances that I would walk by a single person who gave such a big shit about birds as me would be miniscule.

I have always thought the reasons why there aren't more birders have been glaringly obvious, but since this question gets asked so frequently, The Human Birdwatcher Project ("Birders Are People Too!") decided to get involved. This topic has probably been touched on elsewhere in the Birdosphere (maybe on the ABA blog?), but here are my 2 cents....don't forget, you are dealing with Number 7 here.

There are exceptions to every rule here of course, but here you go:

1 - Birding is inherently nerdy. It's just not that cool. If you think otherwise, you are wrong and suffer from acute terminal denial. When an activity is blatantly geeky and way off the mainstream, that will automatically limit who will be interested. A lot of people really, really want to be perceived as cool, and they have no urge to participate in something as bizarre as birdwatching.

2 - The racial composition of birders is predominantly white. I go years at a time without seeing black birders, and there aren't many more latinos either. This makes non-whites considerably less likely to ever be exposed to a birder, let alone try it themselves. It's all about your peers, know what I'm saying?

3 - Birding is NOT youth oriented (see number one). Most big cultural/subcultural trends are started and popularized by relatively young people. The 18-24 age range have the lowest birder turnout of any age bracket, according to one study. Without a bigger youth component, birding can go only so far.

4 - It seems like the birders/birdwatchers I come across are represented by an even sex ratio...but the majority of the so-called "birding elite" seem to consist of males. This probably does not make the birding scene/community as interesting to women, although I don't think it turns them off from the activity itself.

This Burrowing Owl, photographed at California's Salton Sea, probably seems more like a Boring Owl to the American public.

5 - Americans, as a whole, are woefully ignorant of and uninterested in the environment (which probably makes a lot of Republican lawmakers happy). This apathy about the life around us makes it less likely for people to take up birding.

6 - As I mentioned above, most birders are not poor. It can cost a lot of money to do the things birders do. People thinking about getting into the hobby may not have $100 lying around to spend on a book and some cheap binoculars, or to afford the gas it takes to get out of the city to a prime birding destination.

After we bagged a Marin Tufted Duck with spotting scopes, TPAD Dan bagged a coot with his bare hands. It's the best of both worlds. Ok it was already dead but I needed a witty caption.

7 - Aside from looking for plants, mushrooms and herps, I would say that one of the most similar "sports" to birding is hunting. Hunting involves being in nature, birds, looking for specific species, and (in this case, literally) bagging birds. Aside from the obvious fact that you are taking the life of whatever you are looking for, I would say the biggest difference between birding with binoculars and birding with shotguns is the machismo factor. While there certainly is a machismo factor to birding (which usually comes off as pathetic), that is certainly not something that draws people in. With hunting, there is a lot of machismo...driving trucks, shootin' at stuff, killing shit. This machismo factor can appeal to both genders, which is ostensibly confusing but undeniably true. Now don't get me wrong....I am really, really happy birding isn't a machismo-oriented thing, but I think the relative lack of it contributes to people unwilling to try it.

8 - People who dwell in big urban areas probably do not have nature and wildlife on the brain very much. A lot of people I know (nonbirders) seem to think about pigeons and gulls once in a while and not much else. Of course there is a lot more wildlife/birdlife that can be found in our big cities, but nonbirders typically aren't even aware of that. How can you be interested in birds when you don't believe you can go someplace nearby and see some?

9 - Not only is birdwatching inherently nerdy, birders themselves don't really help create a very good image for our pastime. I have a lot of weird fucking people in my life, and a scary proportion of them are birders.

Your run-of-the-mill Common Raven is probably more intelligent than your cat, dog, and toddler combined. But everything has a weakness...this bird's was dog food. Fort Funston, San Francisco, CA. 

10 - A widely perceived notion in the public (this includes some birders too) is that animals are dumb, not much more than stupid little machines that run on a high-octane blend of hormones and instinct. We live in a very anthropocentric culture, which major religions have played a big role in. People need to be able to relate to something in order to really be interested, and when people don't think of themselves as animals and assume we are the only species capable of intelligence and emotion, it is understandable that wildlife just doesn't seem important or interesting. Many of us who spend a lot of time with birds and wildlife believe otherwise (and there is a lot of science to support this), but without that experience it would be easier to believe the worst.

This Willet, to the untrained eye, looks like approximately 125 other bird species. Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge, MT.

11 - Birding is hard. It's really hard. For a beginner, it must seem daunting, especially when looking through a book and he or she is sorting through sandpipers, sparrows, flycatchers, gulls, etc. This can make people think the starting point is more difficult and less enjoyable than it actually is.

If you want to learn more about birders in the United States, you can read this dated but quality analysis done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service right here. Hopefully FWS, or someone else (ahem, American Birding Association), will have the means and willpower to something like this again soon. There's a lot of interesting statistics in there, if you've got a minute.

Some of these obstacles to birder recruitment will never change, but there are some things we can do. The Great Ornithologist Felonious Jive even wrote a piece on the subject, A Birder's Guide To Indoctrination. Take it to heart, and our cult pastime will continue to grow.

Of course, as long as there are good-looking birds around, there will be people who want to look at them. Luckily for us, the birds themselves are much better birding ambassadors than birders are. Black Tern, photographed somewhere in rural North Dakota.