Re: Coding bird names

Marcia Watson-Whitmyre (mww@UDel.Edu)
Thu, 15 Apr 1999 14:05:06 -0400


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I've been reading the 4-letter code discussion with interest.  It's funny how these
little things spark the interest of so many Ospreyers (remember the singing bird
clocks discussion?)  Leslie Fisher's original lament, which others seconded, is that
she has no trouble quickly writing down the codes, but she does have trouble
decoding to go back to the full bird name.  I have this problem, too, and I think at
least part of it is that there is no clue in the 4 letters whether they have been
extracted from a bird name with one, two, or three or more words.  For my own notes,
I'm going to try to use a variation of  the standard code, with a capital letter in
the code for all capital letters in the full name of the bird, and lower case for
the others.  Thus, Bobolink would be Bobo, Carolina Chickadee would be CaCh,
Black-throated Blue Warbler would be BtBW, Blue-headed Vireo would be BhVi.   Or, I
may throw in a hyphen where needed:  B-hVi.  This at least gives a clue as to how
many words are in the full  name.  Let me hasten to add that I am adopting this for
personal use only - I am not a bander and I am not suggesting a revolution in the
formal banding codes!   I would be interested to know if anyone else wants to try
this and if it works for them. Or, does anyone have some other personal system that
works?

I have a sinking feeling that this may lead to a discussion of capitalization rules
for bird names.
Marcia Watson-Whitmyre
Cecil County

Kathy Klimkiewicz wrote:

>      Blue-headed Vireo is BHVI. SOVI is for only those birds in BBL files
>      that cannot be easily data converted to the new species designations.
>
>      Cheers,
>      Kathy Klimkiewicz
>      Laurel MD
>
> ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
> Subject: Re: Coding bird names
> Author:  mdosprey@ARI.Net at NBS-Internet-Gateway
> Date:    4/12/99 7:11 PM
>
>
>                That is because bird banding codes are based on earlier known
> common names so that birds banded in years gone by are not confused with birds
> banded recently.  Perhaps The Tufted Titmouse was previously known as the
> Eastern Tufted Titmouse (it could at any rate be separated from the
> Black-crested Race).  Bird banding codes for Baltimore Oriole should now make
> sense (again), but the Blue-headed Vireo's banding code is SOVI.  Go figure.
>
>  ===========================================================================
>
>
>                On 4/12/99 8:48 AM Ellen Paul said
>
> >Now, even that can be a problem because while there are official common
> >names, not everyone uses them or knows them. You would need to know that
> >what we commonly call a Titmouse or a Tufted Titmouse is actually an
> >Eastern Tufted Titmouse.  ETTI.
>
> That is news to me. According to the A.O.U. Checklist of North American
> Birds, seventh edition, there are the following Titmice:
>
> Bridled Titmouse
> Oak Titmouse
> Juniper Titmouse
> Tufted Titmouse
>
> While there are two groups of the last (Tufted Titmouse and Black-crested
> Titmouse), the former is not named "Eastern" according to the AOU.
>
>
> Elliot Kirschbaum
> Baltimore, MD USA
> mailto:ekirschb@bcpl.net
>
>
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