Tuesday, April 16, 2013

How To Be... an Ornithologist

What do you call a bird doctor?
A quack.

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Most of my interest in bi... um, no, wait a minute, virtually all of my interest in birds comes from the fact that they are the direct descendants of the dinosaurs. However, it's not enough to make me want to study them. Mostly because they are just about the stupids animals, as a class, in existence. With the exception of fish, which make birds look brilliant. And don't start on me about how smart birds are, because they're just not. This isn't my opinion. On the animal intelligence scale, birds are way down there. Waaay down there. Right above fish.

I suppose that doesn't say much for the intelligence of dinosaurs. Oh, well...

Even stupid animals are deserving of study.

Ornithology is actually very important in its relation to climate studies. The health of bird populations, which is fairly easy to detect within an ecosystem, is indicative of the health of the ecosystem itself. So, although birds are dumb, they're important. And I could take this moment to go off on an ecological rant, but I won't. Just know that I could.
Yeah, that sums it up.


How does one become an ornithologist?

Well, most of the sources I looked at started with "Have a love for birds." That sounds pretty reasonable, but I don't think that's necessarily accurate. One of my wife's college roommates was deathly afraid of birds. No, I don't know if it was related to
Whatever the reason, she started taking classes about birds and learning about birds and ended up an ornithologist, so a love of birds might be a helpful thing, but it's certainly not a prerequisite.

Schooling is also not exactly a prerequisite, but it certainly helps in getting hired on at places. Audubon, a pioneer in ornithology, was mostly self-taught through direct observation. Of course, that was nearly 200 years ago. A more certain course is to get a degree in zoology or something similar and go from there. You can get work with just an undergraduate degree, but, of course, the more schooling you have, the better your chances. It really depends upon how exclusively you want to work with our fine, feathered friends. Really, ornithology only requires that you study birds. You could have one of many related careers (geneticist, ecologist, wildlife biologist) and be classified as an ornithologist, also.


  1. I thought birds were a lot smarter. Love that poster.

  2. Nice post. I do love birds but I think I'd lose that love quickly if they became a job. Hobbies are good.

  3. Yea, the stupid birds who eat road kill and barely get outta the way when a hulking SUV is driving toward them can't be the brightest bulb in the chandelier.

  4. Not to mention that most of them are nervous little critters.

  5. I wonder if dinosaurs were as delicious as birds.

    Moody Writing

  6. I love birds, didn't always, but do now. Son in law paints birds and does a wonderful job. He isn't an ornithologist, but knows more about them than anyone I know. We have some of his paintings and lots of his prints scattered around the house. Check the link on my blog. Not sure birds are as dumb a you say.


  7. Birds are creepy. I was scarred by Hitchcock.

  8. I think we mostly have stupid birds in the states A except for crows I guess - but they're full of evil too.

    My neighbor had a... Um, Maccaw??? Like a giant parrot. It's 2 and a half feet from head to tail and its probably better at remembering people's names than I am. What if Dino's called out your name as they ate you? Like taunting their prey. Unpleasant.

  9. My personal favorite example of how dumb birds can be, turkeys. They can drown themselves... in rain. It takes a special critter to do that. Great post.
    We Are Adventure

  10. I love birds. But my mom is terrified of them--when she was a girl, a bird landed on her head, wrapped its talons in her hair and wouldn't let go. (Maybe it thought her hair was a lovely blond nest.) In any case, it took several people to pull it off. Yuck.

  11. Where I worked as a naturalist at one of our state parks we had onsite ornithologists. The Colorado Bird Observatory did research there, studying songbird migration between the US and Central America. We got to catch birds in nets for banding, which was really kind of cool...not for the bird maybe, but for me it was fascinating. Learned a lot. The guy who started the CBO had a masters in something, just don't remember what. Probably wildlife biology or zoology.

  12. I hope a lot of people do have a love for birds--or at least one Bird.

    And, no, I do not go to an ornithologist when I need to go to the doctor.

    Arlee Bird
    An A to Z Co-Host
    Tossing It Out

  13. No mention of the Cornell school for Ornithology? This appears in my book, Oculus. It's the go-to institution for all things NPR.

    Interesting fact about many birds: their ears are asymmetrical appearing at about 2 o'clock and 7 o'clock respectively under their crown of feathers.

    Don't you think it would be weird to have ears in different places?

  14. Sheena: No, not really. Bird lovers talk about how smart they are, but, mostly, the smartest birds are still dumber than the dumbest mammals.
    Birds tend to be smarter than reptiles.

    TAS: Man, they poop everywhere!

    JKIR,F!: We hit a bird once. That was weird.

    Alex: They are. Like chihuahuas.

    mooderino: I bet they were better. I'm waiting for that "Sound of Thunder" technology.

    Jo: Well, it's not really me saying it, as such. On the animal ranking of intelligence, birds are down near the bottom. I didn't put them there.

    S.L.: They are kinda creepy. Especially the way they walk.
    Except for the Goodfeathers; I love them.

    Rusty: Yeah, macaws are smart. For a bird. Possibly the smartest bird. But that's not saying much all in all.

    Elliot: Well, wild turkeys aren't that bad; we've just domesticated all the intelligence out of them, which wasn't a lot to begin with, so you get left with birds that can't figure out rain.

    Connie: That's, um, kind of funny... don't tell her I said that.

    L.G.: Birds are a big deal, right now, because of all of the declining populations. There's a lot of emphasis on figuring out how to reverse the trend and figuring out why whole flocks of thousands of birds will just drop dead.

    Lee: Okay, you get best comment of the day, probably the week, maybe all of a-to-z. I laughed pretty hard at that comment.

    Micahel: I did not know that about their ears. Is that true for all birds? >resists urge, for the moment, to go do research<

  15. Maybe you should go for a BIG YEAR. :)
    I prefer birds outdoors where they belong. I never understood having a creature that can fly as a pet.
    There is a species of bird in Africa--forgot the name--but it tricks meerkats by warning them a large predator is coming, then once they scatter it swoops down and takes their food. It does it over and over. So funny to watch, and makes that bird seem rather smart. Or maybe its the meerkats that are rather dumb??

  16. No wonder Woodpeckers don't have better sense that to knock their heads against solid objects. Even fish don't do that.

    Is there a word for fear of birds--ornithophobia or something?

  17. Pk: An instinctual behavior isn't the same as intelligence. The bird isn't making the choice to trick the meerkats; it's just programmed to do so.
    I'm, um, unsure what you mean by "big year."

    C. Lee: That's it exactly.

  18. I've actually heard of them from reading National Geographic. They have a pretty interesting job, in many respects.

    #atozchallenge, Kristen's blog: kristenhead.blogspot.com

  19. Kristen: If you like birds, I'm sure that's true.

  20. I too love birds...and unfortunately my cats seem to live them a little too much ;)

  21. Trisha: My cat has gifted us a few. Mostly defeathered.

  22. Oh don't make me believe that dinosaurs were stupid! I LOVE dinosaurs...and birds. But you're right: birds aren't that smart!

    I'm glad I wandered over! Elliot B mentioned you in a post today.

    Great post! Enjoy the rest of the challenge. Nice to "meet" you!


  23. Penguins are efficient killers, so at least one bird species has something going for them. Plus it's cool to eat fried chicken and pretend it's a dinosaur.

  24. Jen: Nice to meet you, too.
    If you go back to my introductory post, you'll find out about me and dinosaurs.

    Jeanne: We have wild turkeys around here, and I swear they're like weird 'raptors.

  25. There are experts out there that are entirely self taught. Some are contracted by State resource departments like fish and game or wildlife depts. *shrug

    I like birds for their songs and colors. Like flying flowers. :-) I like to know which are at my feeders and some I recognize by their voices. I haven't made a big study of them.

    Just above fish, huh?

  26. Sia: They are certainly pretty.

    Well, okay, reptiles are probably in between fish and birds.

  27. Unfortunately, I watched the Alfred Hitchcock movie when I was a youngster and well, I shouldn't admit this but you know where I am going with this right? Yeah, not a fan of birds, especially crows, ugh. LOL
    Lucy Lucy's Reality

  28. Lucy: I've known so many people scarred by that movie.