This section of the site is devoted to providing some
benchmark images that hopefully will help the viewer
improve their ability to estimate numbers of birds in
different situations.
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Each linked page below takes you to a photo of a flock or group of birds:- |
- Look at the image for an appropriate amount of time (depending on the simulated field circumstances), and come up with your estimate of how many birds are invloved. |
- Try to avoid the temptation to actually count the birds in the image - you won't learn anything that way! |
- Click on the image to see a copy on which I have counted the birds (with colored dots - shown in this new image), using a magnified version of the image where necessary to ensure as much accuracy as possible. Click on the image again to revert back to the uncounted version. |
- Note that on the larger counts
I may be off by a few birds, due to obscured birds and
the limitations of the rendered image; keep in mind that
the larger the number, the less important it is to have
an absolutely precise figure.
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| - each row has a shared theme (roughly); each column from left to right presents a tougher/different challenge on that theme. |
- GOOD LUCK! |
| part of a flock of thermaling pelicans | Woodstorks overhead. | a flock of thermaling Anhingas |
| a small flock of Mountain Plovers in a field - hard to pick out the birds | a large group of sandpipers on sod farm field | a group of mixed shorebirds - estimate them separately |
| small group of thermaling hawks | a group of hawks gliding | large group of thermaling hawks |
| a tight flock of geese lift off | part of a tight flock of white geese flying | a very large flock of flying white-cheeked geese |
| a tight group of geese walking | geese and whistling ducks lift off; estimate them separately | a large seabird feeding swarm from a jetty |
| a distant group of ducks on water | a group of resting Redheads | large flock of Redheads flying past, low |
| gulls sitting on the water | closely-packed gulls standing on landfill pad | gulls loafing on a flat pad - estimate by species |
| gulls feeding at a landfill | mixed gulls & terns; only estimate the foreground birds | a huge flying mass of gulls! |
| Alcids on a cliff | counting boobies - at last it's legit... | skimmers landing among gulls; estimate just the skimmers |
| part of a flock of longspurs coming in to land | Purple Martins preparing to roost for the night | a large flock of flying redpolls against the sky |
| part of a
mega-flock of icterids in a winter gathering |
part of a huge flock of Sooty Shearwaters milling offshore | |
| roosting Monarch butterflies | loafing sea lions | |