If you have any questions regarding Opus, please ask them on this thread.
What is Opus? Rasmus summed it up very nicely here
cheers,
Andy
What is Opus? Rasmus summed it up very nicely here
The Opus can be compared to an updated version of the earlier database. Each species of bird has a page, in some cases with photos and articles. The further it progress, the more species are likely to get a page with at least some info. So, if you need a bit of info about some species you can do a search, and if lucky... there'll be a page with some info on it. Need a bit of info about the Moluccan King Parrot? Here's the page:
http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Moluccan_King_Parrot
If the page for the specific species is blank, you have the possibility of clicking "edit", and adding any info you may have. So, why not just stick with the previous database? Well, it had some pretty clear limitations. Only a single photo could be uploaded per species (now there's the possibility of using more than one, e.g. if males and females differ), there was no real possibility if linking between species (e.g. if the text about species X mentions that it often eats species Y, you can now add a link. So if you're not quite certain about species Y, a single click will take you the page for it), only a single name could be used (e.g. "Dunnock" would give no results in the old database, as this species was listed under Hedge Accentor. Now a forward page will take you to the correct page, even if searching for Dunnock).
Furthermore, the new system also includes localities. Do you need to know a bit about e.g. Skomer in Wales? Well, here's a page:
http://www.birdforum.net/opus/Skomer_%28Wales%29
And, if you know more about that locality than what is mentiomed on above page, click "edit", and your info can be added. The platform used in the Opus is pretty flexible, so even more can be added in the future (e.g. pages explaining a bit about various body-parts in birds, such as tertials).
cheers,
Andy