Home | Travel & Leisure | Outdoors
Whether you are new to bird watching or an old hat, the terminology can be complex. Here is a primer on some basic terms as well as more sophisticated ones you should know. Abmigration is the movement of a bird from one breeding area to another by pairing in a flock with a bird from the new area. They then travel during the next season. Orientation refers to the navigation ability of birds. Some can orient to a particular direction during migration while others seem to be effected by the length of the day. Surprisingly, little is understood about how this happens. A Field mark refers to distinctive characteristics used by a birder to identify particular birds in the wild. Field marks can be coloring, shapes, size and so on. Paddling is a term that carries a different meaning than you might think. It does not refer to peddling through the water. Instead, it refers to stamping the ground to motivate food such as worms to pop up where they can be eaten. The brood is somewhat of a catch all term meaning either the young birds hatched from a clutch of eggs or the act of incubating eggs in the nest. It can also refer as a verb to the act of keeping chick warm. The act of mobbing is very interesting amongst birds. It refers to the little guys standing up to a big predator. Many smaller birds will unite to attack and drive away a larger predator. This act is particularly prevalent during nesting periods. The act of probing refers to bird conduct during feeding sessions. Birds will probe areas such as dead bark, mud and what have you to find food. The type of probing is dependent upon the particular bird and is a crude method for identification. Shearing is a flight specific activity to certain birds. It is the graceful act of dipping the edge of one wing into water and then slowly rotating to dipping the other tip while flying across the water. Not all nesting is the same. Cavity nesting refers to birds that make their nests in the cavities of trees and other structures. The placement of the nest high or near the grown can be a field marker of sorts. As you know, the legs of birds are odd. The tarsas is the element of the leg that is just below the leg and above the ankle. It is considered part of the ankle anatomy. Totipalmate is another way to identify a bird. The term refers to the webbing or lack thereof between the toes. Those birds with webbing have totipalmate. Non-totipalmate birds tend to have unconnected toes facing different directions. Twitchers do not refer to birds, but those of us that watch them. If you get head over heals about it, you can get very excited and even nervous about a new sighting. This is known as twitching and you are a twitcher! Nidifugous refers to a certain type of bird and the hatching process. Many chicks are born unable to take care of themselves. Nidifugous chicks are self-sufficient for the most part immediately after hatching. The most important thing about bird watching terms is to understand their place. They can help you understand what you are seeing, but should not divert you from the pure beauty of the sighting.
Article Source: http://www.a1-articledirectory.com
Preserve memories of your bird watching trips with bird waching journals at NomadJournals.com. Click here to get your own unique version of this article from the bird Articles Submissions Service
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
