Dear Tweeters,

At the risk of nettling those who don't like four-letter codes (and I do so savour taking that risk!) I would say that it isn't that hard to decypher these abbreviations. Besides, their use saves keystrokes. When you spend a lot of time typing, such economy translates to another day free from repetetive stress injury.

Now, I admit that I play word games, and work with languages, and have done a bit of banding--so maybe these codes come easier to me than for others--but I don't think it would be terribly taxing for any lettered birder to figure out that AMRO is American Robin, TTWO is Three-toed Woodpecker, etcetera. With just a little practice, these codes are easily learned.

Of course, most of us will never band a bird. I probably will never band another. Even so, these codes are not just a way of showing off one's knowledge of bird-ringing parlance.

The main reason I think it is good to learn banding codes is their value in recording data in the field. Serious birders--those who wish to learn more and improve their expertise--write field notes. They sketch what they see, and record information on plumage, behaviour, and so forth. It takes too long to write "Eurasian Wigeon" or "Semipalmated Plover" in a field notebook, if you are hurriedly writing down details about feathers, not knowing how long the bird will be in view.

Even when you are just recording how many Song Sparrows you found at the local blackberry patch, it speeds things up if you write SOSP. That gives you more time to get your nose out of the notebook and point it at something with feathers.

While I grouse about what I might perceive as a certain indolence on the part of many birders, I would add that I find it incomprehensible that so many also suffer from Linnaeophobia--the horror of learning binomials. A bit of practice is all it takes to achieve a level of scientific literacy, sufficient to recognize that Passer domesticus means House Sparrow.

By the way, I saw a possible AMKE in my yard today, along with a TUVU, two WCSP, a PISI, several AMRO, HOSP, and AMGO, and a number of BASW.

There, now, that wasn't so hard, now was it?

Good birding!



Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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