Glad to be of help on this one,

>Hi Tweeters, would someone kindly explain to me what this word means
>in the birding sense? As in this sentence:
>
> "This trip will seek out all of the shrub steppe obligates of
>the area."
>
>Mary Klein

and at the same time, killing two birds with one stone (if you'll
pardon the barbaric expression), help out Michelle, who asked what
OBOL stands for:

>So, enlighten the rest of us dumbbells - what does it mean?
>

OBOL stands for Oregon Birders OnLine. Obligate is a variant spelling
of Obolgate, which refers to a most unfortunate recent scandal which
rocked the organization, but was, for the most part, successfully
kept under wraps -- until now. I hear that Geraldo has come out of
retirement to chase the story . . .

Hope this helps (;>)

David