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:

North American Warblers: Ranked, part 2

It snowed at least 8 inches here yesterday and it is pitch black by 5:30 p.m. This morning it warmed up enough to be about 35 degrees, so there is also a good deal of slush. I have to face it: the days of long, warm days are a ways away.

On these days of cold and drear, I dream of warblers.

Previously, I started my ranking of all the North American Wood Warblers, starting with the top 14 along with an explanation on their ranking. I won't go through all the rules for ranking (you can read the previous post for them), but obviously this is a subjective list, albeit the best damn subjective list ever made.

Today I go through the next segment of warblers, you know, those that were pretty good but not good enough to sit at the cool warblers' table in school. If you want to think of a theme for this post, it is: black and yellow.

Tribute to the Great Blue Heron

Through the mist I could just make out the silhouette of the bird. It was standing motionless, watching and listening to cacophony that is the early morning of the pond. The patience, the poise, the plumage were all marks of what I consider a truly great bird. As I moved closer, I could see it more clearly and it was The Great Blue Heron.

North American Warblers: Ranked, part 1

Birding is great because you see all sorts of birds, but deep down we know some are just better than others. No, we don't admit to others (maybe even not to ourselves), but some birds are lame while others are awesome. Willow Flycatcher? Boring. Scissor-tailed flycatcher? Awesome!

Now, the relative abundance and ease of seeing a bird greatly affect its awesomeness. If I found a Clay-colored Thrush in my yard I would be calling everyone I knew, despite the fact that it is sort of like an American Robin, but even more boringly blander. I was excited when I saw a Connecticut Warbler despite the fact that it was young and an incredibly boring and drab bird. It had a nice eye-ring though.

With that in mind, I have decided to take it upon myself to rank all the North American Wood Warblers. What were my criteria? First, they had to be regularly found in the USA/Canada region, even if only a small sliver of it. This leaves out the Gray-crowned Yellowthroat, Rufous-capped Warbler, and Golden-crowned Warbler, but the Tropical Parula, Colima Warbler, and the Golden-cheeked Warbler barely squeak by.

Second, the rankings are based mainly on adult male breeding plumage, though a considerably crappy winter male or female plumage may detract from its rankings. Also, song doesn't play a role in this, even though I may change my mind on a few warblers. This is more practical, because I'm not going to try to listen to all the western warblers that I haven't seen to evaluate their songs. For the most part, I'm going to stick on the showy male plumage.

Finally, this is all subjective except for the fact that I am totally correct in these rankings. Once this ranking is published, there is no going back and all you warblers that are vaguely patterned with yellow and black will have to deal with it forever. Either that or it is just my opinion. I like the first explanation better though.

The Official and Conclusive Ranking of North American Wood Warblers

Immaturely Funny Bird Genera

I’ve touched on immaturely funny bird names many times before, but there is an untapped goldmine of snickers and guffaws within the scientific names of birds. Today I will be focusing birds that have a funny genus. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of funny species names, but today we are just going to discuss genera.

Immaturely Funny Bird Names: Australian Edition

I've said this before: by far the most popular page on this blog is Immaturely Funny Bird Names. I did a sequel to it with Immaturely Funny Bird Names: European Edition which, while not quite as popular, is slowly gaining in popularity! And while here at The Year of Birds we are mainly a blog about birds, birding, science, and reading and stuff, I am not above pandering to the whims of the internet audience. So here we have another entry in the series:

The Most Immaturely Funny Bird Names: Australian Edition

Avian-Style Baby Names

In a previous life, I would write in my spare time about baby names. I had fun and would sporadically write missives that ranged from “funny” to “probably too bitterly sarcastic” concerning people’s ideas of ‘good’ names. Not your kids’ names, of course, because those are all good. I mean those other kids’ names. All of those suck.

Ok, not all names suck because names all have meaning. It is the ignorance or misapplication of that meaning that makes names suck. So, with that as my vaguely general guidelines for good and bad names, I present to you:

Popular Avian-Influenced Baby Names

Immaturely Funny Bird Names: European Edition

Here at The Year of Birds we write about many things: birds, birding, other birders, painful memories of our youth that we work through publicly as a form of therapy that somewhat relates to birds, and trips to go birding. But sometimes we get silly (especially me) and write things like The Most Immaturely Funny Named Bird.

Now, that post was mostly North America centric (with some obvious exceptions) and was just a one-off post that I wrote on the spur of the moment without much effort. Heck, the links to Wikipedia for every species mentioned was more work than the rest of it combined! But you want to know something about that post? It is our most popular post.

Seriously, it is the most popular thing written on this blog by a huge margin, and mostly people get to it through googling things like "funny bird names" (#3 result!). Wow, that is impressive, especially since we aren't even on the first page if you google "year of birds" despite owning the freaking domain name.

So, as we aren't the types to keep the people from what they want, I now introduce to you the second in the series of funny bird names:

The Most Immaturely Funny Named Birds: European Edition

Immaturely Funny Bird Names

Ok, after my last post involving Paul and the Snowy Owl, I am in a very...uhhh...less than mature mood. I need to get it all out of my system! This is my attempt.

The Most Immaturely Funny Named Birds! (I'll try not to be too redundant with names):

Schleich Theater: Recreating Paul's Snowy Owl Sighting

Oh, good evening, and welcome to Schleich Theater. I am your host, Damon's Oldest Son's Schleich Peregrine Falcon, but you can call me SPF (all my friends do). Today we are going to act out a reenactment of the famous "Snowy Owl Sighting" by Paul Frost. So won't you join me for a cup of tea and a bite to eat while we sit back and watch what I like to call "When the Frost Meets the Snow."

I must warn you, however, that while this play is based on real events, we have taken many artistic liberties to add a sense of drama and unfolding that are, perhaps, not terribly existent in birder stories. I assure you that even if things did not transpire exactly like they are acted out, they are still within the same spirit. Similarly, all dialog is assumed.

The Ongoing Adventures of My Oldest Son’s Schleich Peregrine Falcon, part 1

Much like the Peregrine Falcon that Damon saw at Cape May, this Schleich Peregrine Falcon soars through the sky looking for food.