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Creating a Bird ID Card - Advice Please (1 Viewer)

GeorginaEgypt

GeorginaEgypt

Well-known member
Egypt
I have tried to create an ID card for easy to spot birds at El Gouna Park, a nature area whose main purpose is filtering the run off water from the nearby desalination plant.

It is a popular place for families at weekends, but I feel there is little regard for nature and wildlife.

The main visitors are Egyptian so it would need to be translated into Arabic, and the rest of the community is multinational.

I have added ten birds that would be easy to spot at the park, and the idea is it would be printed back to back A4 in colour.

Do you think it would be suitable for everyone or should I simplify it for small children and keep this for older children?

Any advice would be gratefully appreciated on the design, text, photos, etc.

Bird Identification Guide - El Gouna Park Page 1.jpg

Bird Identification Guide - El Gouna Park Page 2.jpg

If it is hard to read then maybe this link will help:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1CgSpDUxIpvdlHdLMkIg-Z5vmDayx-bKM
 
Gosh!! That's another great project you've started Georgina.

I'm not too sure you need to produce cards for small children, though possibly nursery schools could be interested. Do they bring children out in groups like this to a park? Otherwise, I'd think very young children would be accompanied by their parents, who would help them?

BTW I've never heard the Hooded Crow being called Black Hooded Crow, and searching Avibase and Googling doesn't give me that name either. Maybe it's only in use in Egypt?

Good luck my friend.
 
Excellent.

Keeping it simple, I guess there are a multitude of other ways it could be done.

I'd probably swap the word 'clue' for 'hint' but that might just be me?
Rather than a tick and an x, I would probably have 'Seen' and then a space underneath (or a dotted outline of a tick) for them to put their own tick in.
The European name for corvus cornix is 'Hooded Crow'
I'd kinda change the wording 'plain leaf warbler' for something else as that is also a species.

Are you planning on 2 different versions, or both languages on the same one? (depending on visitor numbers) have the words in arabic slightly larger, and then again but smaller for english?

Don't dumb it down for smaller children - this should be fine imo. You have room for a second illustration if you wanted ... or make the original slighty larger possibly.
 
Thank you delia and dantheman, that was my mistake writing black hooded crow!

Someone else mentioned changing the word clue too. Hint is good.

Noted about the plain leaf warbler.

Definitely two different versions for English and Arabic.

The idea came about from a new private school here in El Gouna. They asked me to prepare a presentation about the kestrels that nest opposite my apartment. I have a PowerPoint and video ready. It was the school that mentioned going to El Gouna Park and creating an ID card to raise awareness for all the other birds. The school is for non-Arabic speaking children.

I thought I could leave some copies in Arabic at the Park too.
 
There's definitely some scope for thinking up some questions to challenge and encourage older children (primary and up) to observe and educate themselves - eg how many in the whole park, are they in family groups, what do you think they are eating etc etc as a kind of basic citizen science and being aware of nature and ecosystems. (Not necessarily on the cards themselves though!)

Nice one.
 
dantheman said:
There's definitely some scope for thinking up some questions to challenge and encourage older children (primary and up) to observe and educate themselves.
Click to expand...

Yes, good point. I have zero experience with kids. I'm good with cats!! :cat:

My British friend here used to head a big school in Cairo. She has given me some good tips too. :eek!:

I will share the updated document with the birding group in Egypt to get their advice on the Arabic version. I showed it to the manager at the Fish Farm yesterday, although his English and my Arabic are extremely basic. His face lit up. The park was so crowded as it is school holidays. The poor resident geese were being chased around. I am hoping an Wild Bird ID card might distract them!!

At least this Western Reef Egret (Egretta gularis) was happy, thought it was going for a swim:

Little Egret 26th January 2020.jpg
 
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Looking good ...

How does it work moving the tick box to the far right (and maybe moving the text slightly closer to the pic that you originally had)?


Not going to spell-check your arabic ( ;) ). I kinda wonder if the info and hint in Little Egret are the wrong way around (compared to some of the others), and same for Grey Heron - and maybe the wingspan info is out of keeping with other bits too (don't know what replace with, maybe a description to compare with LEgret above).

Lengths are always tricky too - often they come from sources where a limp bird is laid out and doesn't really relate to real life. Guess it gives an indication though.

It does look great though.
 
dantheman said:
How does it work moving the tick box to the far right

I kinda wonder if the info and hint in Little Egret are the wrong way around and same for Grey Heron
Click to expand...

Thanks dantheman. All good suggestions and I will try them out.

I was on the Facebook page for Birding Egypt last night and they helped with all the Arabic text and new photos.

I need to change again the Little Egret photo because it has not printed clearly.

And I think the grey heron would be better standing rather than in flight.

I laminated Poster style copies to let the El Gouna Park manager see today.

Arefa and bird IDs.jpg
 
GeorginaEgypt said:
Thanks dantheman. All good suggestions and I will try them out.

I was on the Facebook page for Birding Egypt last night and they helped with all the Arabic text and new photos.

I need to change again the Little Egret photo because it has not printed clearly.

And I think the grey heron would be better standing rather than in flight.

I laminated Poster style copies to let the El Gouna Park manager see today.
Click to expand...

Cool. Thought the images were good, but maybe, yes ... Really you want multiple photos - flight and standing, the different sexes etc, but as soon as you go there it starts complicating. Simple is nice ...
 
Mmmm.... must say I rather agree with Dan re the sizing. I generally find that the least useful guide for ID.

Over here I'd tell someone that the Grey Heron is the only large black, white and grey wader (do you have anything else over there that would fit that description?)

The Osprey, it might be nice to say that they hover over water to search for fish.

Chiffchaff... add listen for the monotonous "Chiff chaff... chiff.... chaff" call;)

Great work here Georgina.
 
delia todd said:
Mmmm.... must say I rather agree with Dan re the sizing. I generally find that the least useful guide for ID.

Over here I'd tell someone that the Grey Heron is the only large black, white and grey wader (or do you have anything else over there that would fit that description?)

The Osprey, it might be nice to say that they hover over water to search for fish.

Chiffchaff... add listen for the monotonous "Chiff chaff... chiff.... chaff" call;)
Click to expand...

It's not monotonous ... it's distinctive ... ;)

If writing I would say wading bird, not wader for such.
 
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On 24th February I gave a talk and showed a video to a group of 5-10 year old children about the kestrels that nest opposite my balcony every year.

We then took the Wild Bird ID Cards to El Gouna Park for the bird spotting.

The kids were just superstars. Complete enthusiasm, and so excited to spot the birds. Even the adults taking each of the groups were excited and spotted one which was not yet on the cards (striated heron).

I did this as a Rotary Club of Red Sea - El Gouna environmental project so I can share it with all the other clubs in Egypt. We are all volunteers serving our communities.

Here is the link to photos of the day:
https://www.facebook.com/pg/Rotary-Club-Of-Red-Sea-El-Gouna-960594167288323/photos/?tab=album&album_id=3281104938570556&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARAy_3vf7NvSJNaR8uUEvakk0J529ijrRtC0i7kfUUBIS4FaTPBO1nonAEJuHk4PIk0_VfQDkRG-d6auecNcUsfvbHt1e6irROCRnBOKjTfZRzfJTzpyRPZphTjjxJsnf_9XwAhrKVn3P4Brs_Ep9QiUYbCWmB-vpZ9e_SRbJm2orPktKP_6aoV4edApAPhyatSUZzK4eM5zZlY5jeuqyt20Benz-_6w5BMh-Ni5zSb8Iec0po8XxuVF2iIIpUYneDed9_uLyGGEAe9kNORaRdHzdMKCFolmW2KSLgDg2s5wygSaLj1VANBgBz9dnqy4f1VET9BjqK2O3lLsTehCi7sOw4Sgv9A_qPVMRTd0a6JVpFogNBz6Ib8ppaH1X1NyTZoF7aTfPS22nG5Fj4FgDkdWb4wSyWvNhZ7HhgYuS7FDVaBmGf6F8RxDMRM2v1ChYZLK1iLZSSM28iWBsKux&__tn__=-UC-R
 
Update due to the Coronavirus restrictions!

Every year, the El Gouna Community arrange an Earth Week with an agenda full of activities to raise awareness for the environment.

On the agenda was a bird spotting day at El Gouna Park with Nature Conservation Egypt. Due to the restrictions and advice for everyone to stay at home, I have added pages 5 and 6 to cover Shore Birds and the Migration.

If anyone could help me by checking this information it would be so appreciated.

Bird Identification Guide - Shore Birds - Page 5.jpg

Bird Identification Guide for El Gouna - Migration - Page 6.jpg

The complete document with 6 pages as a PDF can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1XRrVgLatLRlpa4TYulmVsqemhokMOEhV
 
Dear Delia - update as requested.

Just the one successful school trip with the bird ID cards. The aim is to raise awareness for everyone about the bird life and it is definitely working.

The El Gouna Earth Week was all online and at home and the bird spotting day on the Thursday was successful. I shared many links during the day and the file for the bird ID cards is at the stationary shop if anyone wants to print them.

The migration this year has been wonderful. I keep a record in the El Gouna hotspot on eBird:
https://ebird.org/hotspot/L4302422

And exciting news from the kestrel nest opposite my balcony!!!! Two chicks hatched this morning!!
 
Many thanks for the update Georgina. And I'm so glad you're having some success with the cards.

How exciting it must have been to see the chicks hatch. Good luck to the wee ones as they grow.
 
I have decided to share a Bird ID Guide for all the birds I have spotted and photographed in El Gouna. It has been one year since I started out on a mission to learn all the names of the birds, and I am up to around 80 species. This has left me completely confused so the number one use of this guide is to help me!

They are all my photographs, just to prove the sighting here, and also to help me with the time and year, habitat and location. Some photos are good and others not. I will update with better photographs when the opportunity arises and also be continually on the look out for new species to add.

There are 466 species of birds recorded in Egypt in total. Around 156 for El Gouna on eBird so I have a long way to go.

Here is the link to view the PDF guide. Any comments more than welcome please:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mZMpx7B3x3fVG74_dSAYb-UBedLTkw2F/view?usp=sharing
 
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