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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Pariah" data-source="post: 1722541" data-attributes="member: 23126">"Bleedin obvious" is a very relative concept.It may be obvious to all birders in europe who have ever seen a robin, a christmas card or gone through pre-school that a robin has an obvious red breast...but does a birder from papua new guinea know that this is a near unmistakeable feature in a european context? Could he wonder what is supposed to be at the end of that "phantom" caption line?...could it be meant to say something else? or give vital superlatives or adjectives or combinative colorations that we birders feel the need to apply to features so often, e.g.  orangey red? or matt red as opposed to deep red or glossy red.Clarity of meaning is often better than assumption.Remember, this is a field guide. A non birding alien from five galaxies away should be able to pick it up and start using it without any preformed notions and concepts in play.....assuming he speaks english that is....Owen</blockquote>