Perception and assumption, inference and assertion, perspective and intention, language and expression -- they all muddle what we think we know about wildlife and confuse what we think is being communicated in conversational information exchanges with other people.

Winter Bird Class

This year's winter bird class -- Survey of Colorado Birds -- at Jax Mercantile, 950 E. Eisenhower Blvd., Loveland, will present detailed information selected to encourage, support and enhance various birding interests and levels. Class sessions run 6-7:45 p.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 28 through March 4. Cost is $8 per session or $45 if all sessions are paid at once. For reservations call 218-1915 afternoons or evenings.

Four trick questions make my point.

Name the first bird ever documented in Colorado.

Name four parrots found in Colorado.

Name three birds that have nested in Colorado yet do not appear on any state bird list.

Name the bird that was named after the first person to collect in Colorado a bird as a scientific specimen.

Two details complicate the first answer: Colorado did not exist as a geographic entity at the time the bird was documented, and the bird was documented on a map not in a book or a report. The bird? Sandhill crane.

Four details confuse the second answer: one species is extinct so cannot be found, three species are not called "parrots" and only one has found a mate and nested here. And technically, captive parrots in Colorado are here and can be "found." The parrots? Carolina parakeet, budgerigar, cockatiel and monk parakeet, the nester.

One glaring detail overrides all else with the third answer: You must assume that the question means nesting in the wild because many household pet birds, zoo birds, poultry birds and aviculture birds nest in Colorado. Three birds other than the monk parakeet? Common peafowl, mute swan and bar-headed goose.

The trick to question four has two tricks of its own: Colorado didn't exist until 41 years after Thomas Say passed through on the Long Expedition -- trick one. Martha Maxwell displayed mounted bird specimens in Boulder in 1868, and Charles Edward Howard Aiken began collecting and mounting birds in 1871. But neither collected birds as specimens for science -- trick two. Pending further argument, Joel Asaph Allen would get credit for collections made in 1872, but no bird in Colorado is named for him -- trick three. The bird? Say's phoebe.

How we use language to express our thoughts and to interpret information ultimately defines the context that becomes the scrapbook of our minds, that keeper of the memories of our experiences with birds. To keep the memories organized and retrievable, you need a good context for your mental scrapbook.

This year's winter bird class addresses birding and birdwatching context in a two-part format. One explores the progression of bird discovery in Colorado, and the other surveys all the birds known to have occurred in Colorado with special emphasis given to those with special stories behind them, stories like peafowl from India nesting in Colorado.

That's not what most of us would expect when we head afield for a day of birding!
