[Larry Lade]

Please: Put a Location in text of your Post when seeking I.D.

Please include the date of the sighting if you submit a photo (or give a description) of a bird.

These can be very valuable aids in determining the identity of the bird.

Please do not post photos of eggs or captive birds for identification

[JANJ]

Very good Larry, I was just about to post the words myself.
JanJ

[hil5]

If you could also put the country/region of your sighting in the SUBJECT of the message that would be helpful.

[Keith Reeder]

And - given that not everyone on here is from the US - something a bit more explicit than a two-letter abbreviation of a state: "CT" and "VT" mean nothing to many of us.

[autrac]

Originally Posted by Keith Reeder

And - given that not everyone on here is from the US - something a bit more explicit than a two-letter abbreviation of a state: "CT" and "VT" mean nothing to many of us.

Keith, vrey good point, but please don't think we're being intentionally rude or arrogant--it's just that the postal service has us very, very well trained!

posted from MI..chigan!

[AlexC]

Originally Posted by Keith Reeder

And - given that not everyone on here is from the US - something a bit more explicit than a two-letter abbreviation of a state: "CT" and "VT" mean nothing to many of us.

This goes both ways, Keith - if you're from the UK, or anywhere else for that matter, keep in mind that some of us don't know where "Derby," "Norfolk," or "Whereevershire" is - give us a country and/or region (e.g. Fife, Central/Southern Scotland, UK). I'd be more than willing to do the same here in the US (e.g. Southern Connecticut, North Eastern US).

[JANJ]

Right Alex, fair enough!

JanJ

[Keith Reeder]

Yep, can't say fairer than that, Alex.

[mjobling]

Originally Posted by overworkedirish

This goes both ways, Keith - if you're from the UK, or anywhere else for that matter, keep in mind that some of us don't know where "Derby," "Norfolk," or "Whereevershire" is - give us a country and/or region (e.g. Fife, Central/Southern Scotland, UK). I'd be more than willing to do the same here in the US (e.g. Southern Connecticut, North Eastern US).

Not sure I can agree with that one. The titles would just get too unwieldy. I think the county or region name should suffice, maybe followed by UK.

I've learned the rough location of all the US states, and can easily look up those I'm unsure of. I've personally no objection to the state abbreviations either, as they're pretty easy to work out.

Surely those who are interested in UK birds could be assumed to have a little knowledge of UK geography. Also, if you're not familiar with the location of a British town, http://maps.google.co.uk is your quick and easy friend.

The main reason I want to see the locations in the titles is that I only want to look at the posts for countries I'm familiar with. I know absolutely nothing about the birds of the far east, for example, so will not have anything to contribute to an "ID Required" post from there.

[paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by overworkedirish

.... if you're from the UK, or anywhere else for that matter, keep in mind that some of us don't know where "Derby," "Norfolk," or "Whereevershire" is - give us a country and/or region (e.g. Fife, Central/Southern Scotland, UK).

I suspect most UK people would have a better idea of where Borfolk is than Fife! Point taken though

[Brian Stone]

Originally Posted by mjobling

The main reason I want to see the locations in the titles is that I only want to look at the posts for countries I'm familiar with. I know absolutely nothing about the birds of the far east, for example, so will not have anything to contribute to an "ID Required" post from there.

Some western european birds occur in the far east as well and an unusual one there needing ID might just be familiar to you. I remember a birder originally from around here but living in some far flung place had to send back pictures of a Carrion Crow for confirmation. It was a first for whereever he was. The rarity desciption form made exciting reading:- Bill: black; head: black; etc.

[jcwings]

I know you can edit after you reply to a post, but is it possible to edit a title? This way the originator of the post can add specifics.

[teamsaint]

Originally Posted by paul mabbott

I suspect most UK people would have a better idea of where Borfolk is than Fife! Point taken though

Where's Borfolk then?

[paul mabbott]

Whoops! How do we allow for typos in our locations?

[Tannin]

Originally Posted by Keith Reeder

And - given that not everyone on here is from the US - something a bit more explicit than a two-letter abbreviation of a state: "CT" and "VT" mean nothing to many of us.

On the contrary, Keith. The citizens of no other country in the world are so .. um ... well, let's just say so ... as to imagine that two meaningless letters such as "CT" or "VA" make any sense to the rest of the world. In fact, this makes it easy to recognise posts from the US: they have two meaningless capital letters in them which, being meaningless, mean "somewhere in the US", which means that they are not meaningless after all, if you get my meaning.

[scary-canary]

Originally Posted by Larry Lade

Please: Put a Location in the Title of your Post when seeking I.D.

Please include the date of the sighting if you submit a photo (or give a description) of a bird.

These can be very valuable aids in determining the identity of the bird.

But don't they automatically direct the reader to suggest certain birds, when not knowing where they were taken can generate better answers initially

[ladyofthelandfill]

The photo was taken friday august 24th 2007 in Purdy, Washington.

[ladyofthelandfill]

picture taken August 23.007
taken in Purdy, Washington. Washington State as in the northwestern most state in the united states. (not including Alaska)
Purdy is a small town on the south eastern shore of the olympic penninsula.
north of Olympia. my question seems to have spurred a debate over the geographic knowlege of our users. lol

[Larry Lade]

When seeking an identification of a bird please include location (country, etc.) and date of your sighting.

This will aid responders in their suggestions as to the ID of the bird.

Thank You!

[blerf]

Isn't it an idea to also include the scientific name of the identified birds?
I for example come from Holland and I'm not familiar with any English bird names. The scientific names would help a lot (well...ofcourse there's always google...but still..)

-blerf-

[paul mabbott]

Originally Posted by blerf

Isn't it an idea to also include the scientific name of the identified birds?
I for example come from Holland and I'm not familiar with any English bird names. The scientific names would help a lot (well...ofcourse there's always google...but still..)

-blerf-

I would certainly agree with that. However, there are problems with changes in nomenclature (the one that springs to mind are the splitting of the genus Parus into lots of different genera - most of which contain only one species. )

Is there an international list of all bird species with attached vernacular names?

[J. Moore]

Originally Posted by blerf

Isn't it an idea to also include the scientific name of the identified birds?
I for example come from Holland and I'm not familiar with any English bird names. The scientific names would help a lot (well...ofcourse there's always google...but still..)

-blerf-

I understand your problem, but would respectfully disagree for the following reasons:

-- Requiring everyone to look up and type a scientific name every time they want to write about a bird would be quite burdensome

-- common English names are standardized by the AOU (for American birds/names) and, I assume, by the BOU (for British birds/names). If you need to find the scientific equivalent of an English name, and have not invested in an English-language bird guide, it is very easy to do on the Internet. For example, the AOU has a website with a single page listing over 2000 species with the scientific name and the official American name here:

http://www.aou.org/checklist/index.php3

-- this is an English language-only forum (see the forum rules), so I do not think it's unreasonable to expect others to become familiar with English names. (Even as an American birder I have to "translate" several of the British names, and to help do so simply have a European bird guide close to hand).

-- This is a forum for birders rather than ornithologists, and, at least arguably, one of the things that has promoted birding as a hobby is the standardization of common names, which eliminates the need to refer to more difficult scientific names (and very few birders I now have more than a handful of these memorized).

My two cents,
Jim

[Howard King]

You could always ask to get the forum template altered - heading box split into TWO - one for country - next for tittle - each box labeled accordingly. It could even be that a drop down country list is available for selection however it should also then be a requirement for both boxes to have something in them before a post is accepted.

On the post front and bird names personally I Don't care if the name is latin American English or even dutch as long as its not twitterish such as mipit, typhoo tea etc etc

[Robert / Seattle]

Originally Posted by autrac

Keith, vrey good point, but please don't think we're being intentionally rude or arrogant--it's just that the postal service has us very, very well trained!

posted from MI..chigan!

Hmm, and I thought it was

MI..nnesota, or was it
MI..ssissippi, or
MI..ssouri ?

Did I miss any?

Robert in WA..shington (the State, not the City!).

[fugl]

Wow, a fascinating thread but it needs a snappier title--how about "Night of the Anal-Retentives"?