BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="pshute" data-source="post: 1753875" data-attributes="member: 59235">I agree with all this.  And one problem with just looking it up on the spot is that once you've decided what it is, what happens if you have doubts later, e.g. you realise the bird in the book is twice the size of what you saw?  You have absolutely no record of what you saw, other than you thought it looked like the picture on page x.I start by estimating the bird's length - that will narrow it down a lot later.  Then start at the bill and work down to the tail.If you take a complete description of what you see before you look in the book, you'll remember them better later. Go to the trouble of drawing it, and annotate the drawing, even if it looks silly.As you learn more birds, you'll have to do this less and less, but you'll be able to do it when you come across something rare.  If you find something rare, and have no notes, you're likely to find no one will believe you.</blockquote>