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This article previously appeared in the May/June 2014 publication of Birding magazine, a publication of the American Birding Association. http://aba.org Join the American Birding Association If you have a strong interest in birding and the environment we highly recommend joining the ABA. As an ABA member, you'll be part of a network of passionate birders, and you will be helping to advance the ABA's education and conservation initiatives. The members of the ABA are of all levels of experience who can help you solve identification puzzles, or give you directions to species you've long hoped to see. They'll show you cool new ways to share your own birding experience and perspective. Membership in the ABA gives you targeted, effective ways to give back to the community that has given us all so much. You can learn more about the ABA at http://aba.org. If you would like to become a member, visit http://aba.org/join. TOOLS OF THE TRADE The Quest for a Bird Identification Key Diana Doyle • St. augustine, Florida • [email protected] n the January/February 2014 Birding (“What’s descending, dichotomous, yes–no That Bird Song? Ask the Gizmo!” pp. 58– questions. I61), I wrote about the possibility of an app I have a copy of Thomas Rob- that might identify a bird by sound. What about erts’ two-volume classic, Birds of an app that can help identify a bird by sight? Minnesota (1932). If I start with The quest for a “key”—a series of questions a perching bird, then 38 if-then- leading to an identification—is not a contem- go-here questions might narrow it porary, technology-driven goal. Early field down to a wren. Then a four-page guides, such as those by Coues and Chapman, series of plumage steps deter- largely consisted of keys. (See Steven Siegel’s identification keys were a mainstay of early mines whether it’s a Short-billed bird guides, such as this excerpt from T. S. article, “How Chester’s Charts Beat Coues’s Marsh Wren, Prairie Marsh Wren, roberts’ 1932 Birds of Minnesota. Tedious and Keys: Century-old Books That Set Birding complicated, they worked well on specimens. or Long-billed Marsh Wren; or a Free,” Birding, June 2004, pp. 294–299.) To- Bewick’s Wren, Carolina Wren, day, in digital field guides, we’re seeing a renaissance of a key- Winter Wren, House Wren, or Parkman’s House Wren. based approach to bird ID. Roberts developed his key in connection with his career as As an ABA member and proud binocular-toting birder, you’ve a teacher, refining the key with his pupils using trays of speci- surely fielded many identification queries and been asked for mens. But therein lies a problem: Roberts’ key assumes a (dead) recommendations to help beginners solve their own riddles. bird in the hand. Accuracy is high because questions pivot on So let’s take a look at the evolution of identification keys, from such characters as the length of the tarsus. print guides through the “smart searches” of field guide apps. Frank Chapman’s Handbook of Birds of Eastern North America (1895) also included an identification key, but it emphasized Before Field Guides: Keys colors and patterns that could be seen in the field. In fact, color Is it a Blue-headed Vireo or a Northern Parula? Handbooks to became such a central criterion that his subsequent book was birds from the late 19th century relied on keys for bird identi- titled Color Key to North American Birds (1903). As we’ll see fication. Still used as customized worksheets by some banders below, color remains a prominent—yet problematic—choice in for aging and sexing, the most common format is a series of most app-based keys. Ralph Hoffmann’s Guide to the Birds of New England and East- ern New York (1904) also used color as his key’s central organiz- it’s january in new Hampshire, and a beginning birder ing attribute, innovating by adding habitat and season. More has just spotted a “medium-sized brown bird with than 100 years later, location—with a modern GPS twist— yellow on the tail.” in the old days, our reappears in the search engine of apps such as Mitch Waite’s hypothetical beginner had to flip Guide to Birds of America, iBird Ultimate, and Cornell Lab of through a field guide and match the bird in the field to a pic- Ornithology’s Merlin Bird ID. ture in the book. Today, it can be done with an app loaded Now It’s Smart Search and Filter onto a smartphone. This install- As paper field guides morph into field guide apps, of course they ment of “Tools of the Trade” add new media with audio, photos, and even pushpins of recent looks at several recently devel- sightings. Field guide apps also integrate “digital identification oped apps that offer promise keys”—now labeled as search, smart search, advanced search, for birders getting started with bird id. Cedar Waxwing. Belknap or filter. You get asked questions like: What state or province County, New Hampshire; January are you in? What is the predominant color? Is the bird the size 2013. Photo by © Garth McElroy. of a sparrow or robin? Does it have wing bars? How does it fly? Continued on page 54 52 Birding • may/june 2014 TOOLS OF THE TRADE Continued from page 52 In the new language of iden- In iBird Pro’s Search, I select Min- tification keys, we talk about nesota and the shape as “perching- attributes (such as color, size, or like” (141 species), then size as 5 to habitat), for which we choose 9 inches (98 species). Habitat is next, one or more values (gray, yellow; with choices of coast, desert, forest, smaller than a sparrow; desert). grassland, urban, and so on. I don’t If the key works correctly with see suburban yard or park as an op- these values, then Verdin, say, tion, so I skip this attribute—although makes the final cut. urban likely encompasses suburban. I turn to color, opt for “prominent TIP: Don’t assume that the brown,” yielding four matched spe- more you enter (i.e., the bet- cies: American Pipit, Carolina Wren, ter you observed the bird), the national geographic Birds digital keys can include House Finch, and Veery. Oops, my better the final answer. With includes six “filters” that anything from vocalizations mistake. Had I selected “Color Prima- these digital keys, selecting work as an identifica- to color to behavioral traits ry” as brown and “Color Secondary” as tion key, with remaining such as flight style, as dem- values for too many attributes yellow, then Cedar Waxwing appears contenders shown in the onstrated here from the makes it more likely to end left-hand slider bar. One audubon Birds search. in a list of 11 matched birds. up with “No matches found.” option focuses only on accidentals. TIP: Keys are very sensitive, so be sure to understand the It Was Brown choices. iBird Pro contains excellent pop-up screens ex- It’s easiest to illustrate these digital keys with a real-life query. plaining each attribute. Don’t assume that something as You’ve probably experienced the neighborly greeting, “Hello! “simple” as color is straightforward! Are you a birder? I saw a...” In this instance, it was March in Minnesota and a “medium-sized brown bird with yellow on National Geographic’s digital key is called Filters, consist- the tail.” The enthusiastic beginning birder would like to know ing of filters by color, size, habitat, month, region, and abun- what she saw. Let’s ask some of the major field guide apps, in- dance. I select brown, sized between a sparrow and robin, cluding Audubon Birds, iBird Pro, National Geographic Birds, and urban/residential, producing a slider-bar of 84 thumbnail Peterson Birds, Sibley eGuide, and Waite’s Guide to Birds of head shots, including Cedar Waxwing. America. (For an overview of most of these apps, see my arti- Similarly, Peterson’s Search-Parameter dropped me to 23 cle, “eGuide Me: Birding Without Paper Field Guides,” Birding, matched species, including Cedar Waxwing, when I select September 2012, pp. 54–59.) Minnesota, March, perching birds, and residential areas. In Audubon Birds Advanced Search, I scroll to select the state and Sibley eGuide’s Smart Search is less structured. I start with month, then the shape among 14 choices, such as gull-like, tree- “Show only common birds” and “Exclude saltwater birds.” I clinging, or, for this example, perching then have a single scroll bird. “Search” then lists 18 matching The search in Peterson Birds uniquely wheel with a mix of at- species. As it turns out, Cedar Wax- includes nests and eggs, shown here tributes, including “Aer- wing (the mystery bird) doesn’t make identifying an off-the-ground nest ialist” or “Tree-climbing” lined with Spanish moss. the cut, although its range map shows or “Hooked bill” or the species as year-round in Minnesota. “Slender bill.” What if I see a tree-climbing bird TIP: Proceed stepwise. Every attri- with a slender bill, such bute eliminates many species. Advise as a Black-and-White beginners to start with one immu- Warbler? Sorry, choose table attribute, then scan the short one. So I’ll punt with list to see if anything looks right. “All land birds” and se- Then add a second attribute and re- lect size instead, at 8 examine the list, repeating until the inches (oriole), which key shows the likely match.

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