ID in brief
Why jumping to conclusions is a problem when identifying birds at a glance.
I was recently reminded of an old family story: the time when we stopped to look at a male Hen Harrier flying across a moor, which turned out to be a Grey Heron, which, when it stopped moving, actually turned out to be a sheep.
Identification is a curious mix of prior knowledge, anticipation, reflexes and intuition, combined with the checks and balances required to guard against mistakes.
Jumping to conclusions is the biggest problem, but if a bird is flying by, never to return – on a seawatch, for example – there is no time to lose.
Expertise is often about identifying birds at a distance or at a glance, rather than scrutinising something at close range. It is also about being aware of the likelihoods and probabilities – as well as the remote possibilities that can usually be discounted.
Invest in a good identification book. A complete beginner will need a simple, fairly basic guide; try Britain’s Birds: an Identification
Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland (available from the Bookshop for £16.99: bit. ly/3rHSc7d). If possible, get a knowledgeable friend, socially distanced maybe, but someone who can offer advice. Then do some homework, enjoy it and try to put it into practice. Experience is the greatest teacher.
A Hen Harrier, by the way, will look very pale against the dark heather of a bleak moor, with black wing-tips; so too will a Grey Heron in some lights.
But they both tend to fly, which sheep, on the whole, do not.
But from a moving car, given a brief glimpse and a dose of over-optimism, you can see the problem. Rob Hume