Hello Tweets,

A while back the list agreed to capitalize all bird names that appeared in
narratives of trip reports, so that they would stand out and allow readers
to scan quickly for species they might be interested in. For example:
"...and across the fence in the pasture were a few BROWN-HEADED COWBIRDS
mixed in with large numbers of BREWER'S and RED-WINGED BLACKBIRDS. A
flooded field another 0.5 miles along the lane, on the left, had several
GREATER YELLOWLEGS and a SOLITARY SANDPIPER." For a while everyone
adopted this fine idea but we seem to have fallen away from it to some
extent, so I thought it would be good to bring it up again.

Also, for this who give their sightings in list form, it would be
enormously helpful to present them in AOU check-list order rather than--as
some posters apparently do--in the order seen. There appears to be no
benefit in capitalizing names on a list, however.

Thanks for considering these suggestions. Comments welcome!

Hal Opperman
Medina, Washington
mailto:halop at accessone.com