STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 26
Stocking Stuffer
A GUIDE TO HELP IDENTIFYING BIRDS
“ Baby Bird Identification : A North American Guide ” by Linda Tuttle-Adams is the most comprehensive book on the market and is an excellent resource .
Tuttle-Adams is a biologist , wildlife artist , and after her children were out of the nest , a wildlife rehabilitator . She created an identification chart by mouth color in 2009 for a rehab facility and published Baby Bird Identification in 2022 . She also has direct experience with the public , and her most notorious intake was a cliff swallow in a box atop a bologna sandwich sprinkled with birdseed . Since baby birds don ’ t emerge until fledging , rehabilitators see them at the unidentifiable stage , where physical clues must be gathered . It could take several days to piece together an identification .
The bird rescue community lives by the credo “ to do no harm ,” with handling guidelines for people , or as little as possible .
This guide is written for rehabilitators , biologists , ornithologists , veterinarians , and other professionals to help with the bird identification process .
The illustrated glossary makes it easier to identify mouth color , bills , shapes , and descriptions , leg and wing bones , placement of claws and talons , dorsal and ventral body parts , feather tracts and development , feather topography , and head markings .
You will learn precocial and altricial birds , their specific needs , and guide should show the species that most rehabilitators will encounter . There are many illustrations , photos , and paintings to help with taxonomy . By learning local birds and becoming familiar with the sample intake sheet , the prospects will be narrowed for identification via comparison , deductive reasoning , and process of elimination .
It is necessary to assess age and health , eventually reunite or foster young birds , and know that correct identification is necessary for proper husbandry , and housing enrichment needed to help reduce patient stress . Learned behavior via habituation to house like species with similar types of birds , develop proper imprinting so patient knows what it is , filial and sexual imprinting for proper companion cagemates , native versus non-native species , and rare or endangered species , with possible transfer to a permitted facility . Adequate records must be legally maintained . Anatomy narrows choice for identification , especially mouth color , gape flanges , gape size and shape , bill and nares , skin , scales on tarsi , feathers , plumage , molt from down to feathers , and head shape , as well as measuring body parts , estimate age , questions for the finder , and the examination .
Reader will become familiar with non-passerines and their characteristics , raptors , passerines , etc ., and plates and photos of young birds , so requirements like pigeon crop milk , goldfinch high seed diet , and the fact that not all passerines consume insects .
There are color charts , growth and development tables , behavioral descriptions from the early 1900s and how they still hold true today provided by Arthur Cleveland Bent .
This book is ideal with only one suggestion for a slightly more extensive word glossary and description , as new rehabbers are not familiar with all terminology .
Deb Hirt is a wild bird rehabilitator and professional
SwOk photographer living in Stillwater .
STORY BY : Deb Hirt Stillwater Oklahoma Magazine
PHOTO by DEB HIRT
These nesting Scissortailed Flycatchers will grow up and move to their natural habitat of open shrubby country with scattered trees in the south-central states of Texas , Oklahoma , Kansas , western portions of Louisiana , Arkansas , and Missouri west to far eastern New Mexico and northeastern Mexico .
STILLWATER OKLAHOMA MAGAZINE / 26