Birds

It took some time for me to decide how to organize and present my collection of bird images. There are a lot of birds, and I aim to add many more over time. I didn’t want too many groups, but I still have a lot. I settled on grouping them by Order. A few groups currently do not have many images, but this was a good balance. One exception was with Perching Birds. There are so many families of them that I have included them with in amongst the Orders of other birds.

I learned a few things about the taxonomy of birds in the process. For instance, Falcons are not in the same Order as other birds of prey like Hawks, Eagles, and Osprey. I could get hopelessly lost in the taxonomy of birds or any animal, for that matter. I’m sure I’ve made a few mistakes that my eagle-eye biologist friends will see. Please let me know if you see any.

The variety and complexity of birds make them endlessly fascinating to photograph and observe. A twitcher is someone who collects sitings of birds. There are many twitchers, and I can’t pretend to be one. My “life list” is short and won’t ever get near the length of a true twitcher.

Many organizations support bird preservation. The Audubon Society is a respected bird conservation organization in the United States. BirdLife International is based in the United Kingdom. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has created two invaluable apps for birders, eBird and Merlin.