Types of Posts on Facebook Birding Groups

I live in Pennsylvania right near the border of two other states (DE and NJ), and not a very far drive to another state (MD, in which I grew up and visit regularly), so to keep up on bird happenings, I have to keep an eye on four different states. Which means I belong to many Facebook groups for birding for each of those states, plus more regional groups (both larger and smaller). It gives me a good amount of exposure to what people post in these groups.

If you've ever been in a group like that, or actually on any group or message board or community or list-serv (from the olden days) then you run across the exact same problems. Nothing special to birding groups, but after awhile you see the patterns. You see the same types of posts over and over and the same discussions over and over again, and usually with the vigor of people who think that this is the first time any of this has happened.

It isn't.

In fact, the issues like this caused a split in the Maryland Birding group so that you have that group, a photography group, and a Maryland rare bird group. Yet still you get the same things.

So let's have some fun with this and make a list!

TYPES OF POSTS YOU ALWAYS SEE ON FACEBOOK BIRDING GROUPS:

-"This is a picture not from this state, but I thought you guys would enjoy it anyway."

-"Here is a picture of an incredibly common bird that would take 10 seconds to Google, but I still want ID help on."

-The blurry picture of a common species that inexplicably gets lots of likes and congratulatory comments.

-The comment about seeing American Robins in winter and how strange it is, despite them being year-round birds.

-"Everybody look! I just saw a Bald Eagle!"

-The new birder who just found out about the hobby and is referring to every common sighting as a "lifer."

-The hunter posting about hunting and getting offended when asked to stop.

-The "funny picture meme" that is vaguely bird related.

-The person posting pictures of them hand feeding wild birds and not understanding.

-The person who feels the need to have a long introductory paragraph post thanking everyone for letting them join the group and saying too much about themselves.

-The person who feels like they have a following so they feel like it is their obligation to post pictures every day, even on day where they aren't birding.

-The bird picture with no identification, no location, no context, no anything.

-Pictures of their pet parakeet.

-The "unable to view" picture post that is never corrected, but the poster leaves it up anyway.

-The inevitable discussion about posting owl locations.

-The staunchly defended misidentified bird.

-The twelve year old who thinks they know everything (yet does not).

-Pictures of foxes (it is always foxes).

-Person who has a blog and posts every single blog post onto the page.

-Pictures of found dead birds and asking (without any context) how it could have died.

-Interesting bird discussion or sightings of rare birds.

That last one is the rarest though.