Computer-assisted Birding

I love the idea that a computer program could help you identify your birds. The only problem is, of course, that it doesn’t work.

I got a note this morning about a new online program, and decided to give it a try. Like all the others out there, this one is basically a key, leading the user through a series of usually dichotomous choices (”Bill: all-purpose or cone-shaped?”), each of which serves to eliminate possibilities until you arrive at an identification. 

I decided to ask the machine to help me identify the Townsend’s Solitaire Darlene and I had watched drinking at Catalina State Park late Monday afternoon. And I played it straight all the way, too, giving the program the “right” answers even when a truly puzzled birder might not have known, say, the length in inches of a study skin of the species.

And where did this marvel of technology lead me? To Varied Bunting, of course! Oh well.