Ornithology B/C

[Celeste]

Where did you see an emu? I didn't think they were native to Pennsylvania.

They're native to Australia. But some people in the U.S. have them on farms. I'm not entirely positive why, but people do farm emus! That's probably how amerikestrel saw them. Unless there's a bunch of emus on the loose in Pennsylvania! (Which would be kind of funny, but also freaky. Invasive species! )

[amerikestrel]

Where did you see an emu? I didn't think they were native to Pennsylvania.

They're native to Australia. But some people in the U.S. have them on farms. I'm not entirely positive why, but people do farm emus! That's probably how amerikestrel saw them. Unless there's a bunch of emus on the loose in Pennsylvania! (Which would be kind of funny, but also freaky. Invasive species! )

Yup, they were being kept in a fenced in area by the side of the road, near someone's house. I think I saw some other birds too, like a swan.

Edit: How to start an emu farm

[paleonaps]

I was kidding about being native to Pennsylvania.I knew they were from Australia.
I didn't think about farming them, however. I wonder what they taste like.......

[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!)

Junexia and I thought that the nats test was way harder than the states test (PA). We thought they were being really specific at nats and it seemed like it was impossible that we could've known something so specific, but we managed 29th...

[ahsettle23]

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.

[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.