Ornithology B/C

[paleonaps]

Unfortunately, you're probably right.

[googlyfrog]

I just saw two emus on the side of the road.

EDIT: What was the nats test like?????????????

Also, time to start talking about next year! This event would be perfect if they:

1. Allowed us binders
2. Shortened the list (just a little bit!)

I think the list's length keeps the event difficult enough because if it were any shorter, ID would be ridiculously easy.

And i agree that it would be great to have a binder but the field guide makes it more difficult and its unlikely that they would add a binder this year.

Well, a short list could be hard if they put more similar-looking birds on there. There were at most 2 or 3 birds at a time that look very similar this year, but if they shortened the list and had more similar looking birds, it would make the event a lot harder. Or a couple of birds that don't really have any distinguishing features, but that's almost impossible.

[FueL]

I just saw two emus on the side of the road.

EDIT: What was the nats test like?????????????

Also, time to start talking about next year! This event would be perfect if they:

1. Allowed us binders
2. Shortened the list (just a little bit!)

I think the list's length keeps the event difficult enough because if it were any shorter, ID would be ridiculously easy.

And i agree that it would be great to have a binder but the field guide makes it more difficult and its unlikely that they would add a binder this year.

Well, a short list could be hard if they put more similar-looking birds on there. There were at most 2 or 3 birds at a time that look very similar this year, but if they shortened the list and had more similar looking birds, it would make the event a lot harder. Or a couple of birds that don't really have any distinguishing features, but that's almost impossible.

Oh, we already have problems with the female look-alikes of all the species.

[amerikestrel]

I don't think they should shorten the list and give us binders. The problem is it's extremely difficult to know specific details about 185 species of birds, but this could be achieved with the help of binders. Or they could keep binders out and shorten the list slightly. The length of the ornithology list is so much longer than the fossil list, for example, and in fossils you can use binders. I think that this takes away from the quality of this event.

In reality though, I highly doubt that they will do either. I'd say there's a 5% chance of us getting binders. As for the list, they will almost certainly modify it a bit, but there probably won't be any major changes.

[junexia]

that is so true, and not only for the females, for the juveniles as well. i dont know if any came up on tests this year, but they probably did and happened to be the ones i couldnt identify. when people study for this event they just automatically go to identifying the males because theyre so distingushable, and many times the females are forgotten, which is really bad because they are honestly much much harder to remember, especially for ones that look nothing like the male, such as the red winged blackbird or the mallard. If they wanted to make this event harder they should just have lots of id of female birds or juveniles. Then we'd basically have to study twice as hard to learn all the different versions of each species of birds.

[SO4L]

I was expecting harder anatomy and physiology, more nest/egg ID, and harder vocalizations. The A&P questions were so elementary and the entire station system was chaotic.

[FueL]

Yes, and gull plumages are pretty difficult too, partly because pictures of every stage are so rare online. I'm happy they only had 3 gulls on the states/regionals list.

The most difficult part of ornithology isn't really the identification, mostly because they usually only give you males to identify, but the random facts about each bird that you only have two minutes to answer. Knowing those are the key to doing well at the event.

Edit: Yeah, there were a few nest questions at the state level but none about eggs, and there were only three vocalizations. Mostly the test was straightforward identification and then looking things up in your field guide.

[junexia]

what did you guys get as the last bird call on the nationals test?

i sort of agree with the a&p part, its just that i didnt look up a lot of the stuff that happened to be on the nationals test, like the labeling the parts of an egg. i had every other possible information on eggs, such as nests, clutch size, egg color and size, incubation, everything but the parts of an egg.

mostly i just think there was a lot of vocab words that were really out there and i didnt know. maybe not everyone felt this way because they knew all the definitions, but when i tried to look up bird vocab the internet just came up with basic ones, nothing like the words on the nationals test. does anyone know a good place to study hard bird vocabulary?

[sciencegeek100]

i got 7th in fossils and just thought that it was way to easy as a National test...

[sciencegeek100]

I just saw two emus on the side of the road.

EDIT: What was the nats test like?????????????

Also, time to start talking about next year! This event would be perfect if they:

1. Allowed us binders
2. Shortened the list (just a little bit!)

Well, a short list could be hard if they put more similar-looking birds on there. There were at most 2 or 3 birds at a time that look very similar this year, but if they shortened the list and had more similar looking birds, it would make the event a lot harder. Or a couple of birds that don't really have any distinguishing features, but that's almost impossible.

i think it is fine since in realty with nothing like some test events are, shows true knowledge and not who can fits tons of stuff on a paper and look it up really fast... I think if it was harder i would have got a medal. Untimed stations is nuts...