Memorizing tips (3 Viewers)

[lostintwilight]

This may sound silly but how do you memorize species? Especially when you have similar ones like gulls and sparrows

 

[delia todd]

No, there's no silly questions here. For me it's one thing to know what the difference is between two species, but it's then remembering which is which LOL.

I'm sure there'll be a few coming along with some helpful hints.

 

[Stonefaction]

This may sound silly but how do you memorize species? Especially when you have similar ones like gulls and sparrows

How do you personally best remember the differences between any set of broadly similar things (colleagues/friends etc, different neighbourhood dogs/cats, different musicians etc). Whatever method works best for you can be adapted to work for birds. It took me ages to get my head around how to tell pipits apart, or the differences between Bar Tailed and Black Tailed Godwits, and which was which, and I'm still trying to get to grips with some of the larger gulls.

Practice works quite well, regardless - the more you see/hear the birds you're trying to memorise, the better. One day it all just falls into place - or you find a way that helps you make the mental connections you need. Watch videos on YouTube - they can add to your mental image of the bird in question (though not all of them are 100% accurate - possibly a good idea to check comments for mention of accuracy). Flick through a bird book and try to name the bird without looking at the caption first - the more times you see the picture, the more it sticks.

 

[delia todd]

How do you personally best remember the differences between any set of broadly similar things (colleagues/friends etc, different neighbourhood dogs/cats, different musicians etc). Whatever method works best for you can be adapted to work for birds. It took me ages to get my head around how to tell pipits apart, or the differences between Bar Tailed and Black Tailed Godwits, and which was which, and I'm still trying to get to grips with some of the larger gulls.

Practice works quite well, regardless - the more you see/hear the birds you're trying to memorise, the better. One day it all just falls into place - or you find a way that helps you make the mental connections you need. Watch videos on YouTube - they can add to your mental image of the bird in question (though not all of them are 100% accurate - possibly a good idea to check comments for mention of accuracy). Flick through a bird book and try to name the bird without looking at the caption first - the more times you see the picture, the more it sticks.

Yes, I used to look in the Gallery and try to name birds without looking at the titles. Also I'd read the ID thread and see if I could put a name to it before reading the comments.

One thing we have in the Gallery now (which wasn't available when I first joined - 20 years ago in December!) are a number of videos, these are all linked to the relevant Opus article. If there's a blue search bar there's at least one video to watch. The yellow bar is for the still images.

 

[Georgebirds]

As a fellow new and rather forgetful birder who struggles to memorise all the ones which look quite alike, I found this site a great help :

Nord University - Birdid - Quiz

quiz.natureid.no

Set it to UK and the largest number of photos to ID, then click my way through. Guess some, get told I'm wrong. Repeatedly, on the tricky/similar species. Laugh at myself every time I get the same wrong answers on the same few photographs. EVENTUALLY learn to recognise the photo it's telling me off about, my score goes up, and I find I've taught myself the exact things to look for to get it right. It's a fun time-waster game which isn't entirely a waste of time

 

[Gottzi]

Anyone else find that the bird names are not the UK names, Like Lapland Longspur and Parasitic Jaeger on Nord University?

 

[Andy Adcock]

Nothing beats experience and continuous use and practice, learn the birds you see most often, locally and then if you do field trips, broaden you knowledge base, based on where you're going. Small incremental additions to your knowledge base, will work best IMO.

I personally, wouldn't muddy the water as a beginer, by comparing your common species, with similar ones that you have little chance of seeing until, you have chance of seeing the two, together somewhere.

Also, if you're one of the lucky ones with 'the gift', learn the calls.