What’s That Bird?
by Paul Roberts
Naturalists tell us there are 10,231 species of
birds around the world. Wouldn’t you like to be able
to recognize each of them instantly on sight? Maybe
not! That would be too hard a job. Fortunately, here on
Kiawah you are not likely to run into that many different
species. Europe, for example, is on a flyway that it shares
with Africa and it has a totally different set of birds than
North America. In North America we share a number of
species with South America, but many tropical birds do
not migrate this far north. Nevertheless, we do have more
than 300 species on the Checklist of the Birds of Kiawah
Island, South Carolina published by the Town of Kiawah
Island. (Download the checklist at www.wildlifeatkiawah.
com/linked/kiawahbirdchecklist2.pdf.) Being able to
recognize most of them is a realistic goal for the interested
bird lover.
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Identifying birds is a lot like the problems faced
by anti-aircraft gunners during the Second World War. For
them it was important to know which planes were friendly
and which were enemy aircraft. Classes on aircraft
identification used black and white silhouettes of each
different aircraft to familiarize trainees with the relative
size and shape of different planes. They used silhouettes
because it was difficult to identify color and markings on
a plane against the bright sky. The same problem exists
for identifying birds. They may not stay still for long and
many times the sighting is short or partially obscured.
Consequently, it is important to determine quickly the
size and shape so you can assign the bird in question to
a “family.” Once you have the family, you can consult a
guidebook and begin to refine your choice.