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10 comments:
Maybe they could have Cyberthrush explain that they found a bird that no one was looking for that was believed extinct, in South East Asia somewhere. (Or maybe it was in the Amazon. Or the Congo. Probably not France. Or the U.S. Regardless, the Ivory-bill probably IS actually there, right by that airport, scaling it's little heart away, oblivious to the silly arguments of we humans.)
Sweatt-Esick says there's a growing feeling that the auburn team may have sighted a pileated woodpecker, which looks very similar to the endangered bird.
Ouch, that's got to hurt Hillcrow. Are the Feds finally becoming Skeptics?
"the auburn team may have sighted a pileated woodpecker"
Or it might not have been a woodpecker at all. Many of the sightings are not definitive for Picidae, and some were likely of male Anhinga or Wood Duck.
"the auburn team may have sighted a pileated woodpecker"
So, are they all strawberry blondes? From the photos, I'd have thought some are brunnette. Still, the Feds don't throw hair colors around willy-nilly, so they must have checked.
Listen, most of these guys are real ornithologists.
Wouldn't they know the difference between a damn anhinga and wood duck versus an ivory-billed woodpecker? Hill himself had one sighting last year where he was quoted as being "100% certain" it was an IBWO.
How freaking incompetent do you think these people are??
"How freaking incompetent do you think these people are??"
Quite. I think Dr. Hill is an intelligent, sincere fellow, but I believe he's made an enormous mistake.
I don't care how good anyone thinks they are, you need a good long look at close range and you need multiple field marks to be "100% certain" you've seen an IBWO.
I remind you, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology mistook a branch stub for an Ivory-billed woodpecker. Top experts have also mistaken gunshots for double knocks. If you don't think these top experts can make breath-taking blunders, I suggest you "get real."
"How freaking incompetent do you think these people are??"
The evidence speaks for itself. Just look at the tree cavities page. A majority of these were not even made by woodpecker.
Wouldn't they know the difference between a damn anhinga and wood duck versus an ivory-billed woodpecker?
Ask anybody who is an expert on bird identification. Mistakes happen ... often. It is why people who understand the pitfalls of bird ID don't accept 2 second glimpses at 100% certain.
Get a group of top birders together over drinks and you'll hear plenty of misidentification stories. And they can all tell you about people who have good skills, but whose judgment isn't always the best.
After reading the details of the sightings that Hill views as credible, I don't think his judgment is the best.
"Listen, most of these guys are real ornithologists."
Hill is certainly a real ornithologist but is not reknowned as a field ornithologist. Tyler is better known as a "top birder" than as a real ornithologist, and the other member of the team with many sightings, Kyle, is apparently niether a real ornithologist nor a well regarded birder.
"Wouldn't they know the difference between a damn anhinga and wood duck versus an ivory-billed woodpecker?"
The field notes associated with several sightings are insufficient to establish a certain identification as Picidae and are consistent with Anhinga. Several of the sightings were brief glimpses and only flight style, general shape, and general color were mentioned. Diagnostic characters of Picidae were not noted in many if not most sightings. Which ones included clear, prolonged views of the bill and feet? Note that "damn anhingas" have long sort-or-ivory bills and a black with white wing patches, and that the key field mark "white trailing edge" is conspicuous in Wood Ducks. The habitat of the Auburn searches is perfect for these aquatic birds.
"Hill himself had one sighting last year where he was quoted as being "100% certain" it was an IBWO."
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Hill's own brief, poor sightings were marginal, and that he regarded them as merely supplemental to the supposedly better, but very poorly documented sightings by Tyler and Kyle.
"How freaking incompetent do you think these people are??"
From Peckergate (caps mine): "If thousands of people can be shown a few seconds of blurry video of a Pileated Woodpecker and be convinced that it's an Ivory-billed Woodpecker, then THE SKY'S THE LIMIT." Steve N.G. Howell
It is now generally accepted that IBWO TBs were incompetent enough to misidentify Plantae (branch stub) as Animalia (IBWO) in Science. They were also incompetent enough to misidentify sounds made my inanimate objects (gunshots) as IBWOs and to misidentify Blue Jay kents as IBWO.
Like many other posters, I do not question Hill's ornithological expertise, but his uncritical acceptance of ineptly documented IBWO sightings by young members of his team showed breathtakingly poor judgement.
Based on personal experience with extant Neotropical Campephilus I know that characterizations of typical behavior for this genus by the CLO and Auburn groups are highly incorrect. I prefer to assume that they are misleading the public as a result of incompetence and poor judgement rather than a deliberate attempt to mislead.
Listen, most of these guys are real ornithologists.
Get real, this is the crux of the problem, and one of the reasons that this story continues to perpetuate itself; the non-birding world doesn't understand how birding expertise is delineated. The advanced birder didn't get advanced in a classroom. He learned it in the field. The trained ornitholigist studies taxonomics and systematics, not field ID skills. There are a few "laboratory" folks who ARE good birders, but they learned it elsewhere, not in the classroom, and were likely birders before entering college.
So, what we have are a few "professionals", mainly young ornithology/biology grad students, who have sighted the IBWOs.
The "amateurs", including names like Ned Brinkley, Jeff Gordon, David Sibley, Marshall Iliff, Andy Farnsworth etc. and many more, have been part of the search teams as well, but....they didn't see IBWOs. You do the math.
How freaking incompetent do you think these people are??
The difference between incompetence and competence: competence has it's limits.
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