Learning How to Identify Birds by Impression Methods and Techniques for Identifying Birds by Impression

About this book

This is not a bird guide, nor does it study specific aspects such as the behaviour or the ecology of a group of birds. Instead, this is a practical book, designed and written for birdwatchers which outlines a method to identifying birds the author calls "birding by impression", which is also known as jizz amongst birdwatchers. This normally involves identification using a bird's plumage, requiring many years of practice.

David Sibley, when talking about jizz, said "bird identification is based in most cases on a kind of subjective impression caused by the way the bird moves, as well as by the succession of instantaneous appearances from different angles; and as the bird moves the head, flies and rotates, it allows you to see sequences of different shapes and angles. All this combines and creates a unique impression of a bird that, in fact, cannot be separated from the set and explained with words. When you observe a bird in the field, you do not stop to analyse it to say "it has this, that and that, so it must be an example of such a species." It is something much more natural and instinctive. After much practice, one looks at the bird and feels as if small switches were activated in the brain. It is what it seems. You know what is it at first glance"

This book provides tools to acquire the needed dexterity to identify familiar birds at a glance, even in adverse conditions of visibility, with the aim of mastering this technique in a short period of time. Rather than focusing on individual details, the method relies on the simulatenous observation of the bird's morphology, behaviour, ecology, and plumage, what the author calls "holistic variables". The learning curve consists of a series of repeated iterations of learning a descriptive language provided in this book that describes each of these traits, going into the field and applying this vocabulary to observed birds, and, once back home, assessing the results. To this end the book contains exercises. The aim is to create a subconscious impression of a bird and its environment that allows birdwatchers to rapidly identify species.

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