The great experts in bird identification necessarily have to be ornithologists with a lot of experience in the field, whether doing scientific research, monitoring for the management or conservation of species, bird ringing, as professional guides or for the sheer pleasure of learning as much as possible in this field. All of them must have in common a great ability to notice, and retain, the size, the proportions, the colors, the small details of the plumage, the small (or sometimes big) changes due to age or season, etc.
Among these experts there are those who have deserved special recognition for their ability to skillfully translate this knowledge into an illustration and become admired (and popular) for being the authors of the field guides that most ornithologists use every day, in the field, in our desire to be better in this art.
David Allen Sibley, the author of the drawings and texts of the famous “North American Bird Guide”, will come to the Delta Birding Festival to talk to us about why we make mistakes in identification, why sometimes we do not see the diagnostic trait or we are not able to relate details that allow us to guess or rule out the species we are observing.
If one of the best illustrators in the world come to explain his thoughts on this matter, is a unique opportunity to continue learning and improving, whatever our level in bird identification is.
