On Mar 21, 2011, at 1:45 PM, Stewart Wechsler wrote:

> [Genus] helps with recognizing closest relatives. For example when I talk about White throated, White-crowned, Golden Crowned and Harris's Sparrows, I may mention that they are all in the Zonotrichia genus. Knowing this helps with the gestalt in recognizing that you have one member of the group.

Exactly.

Sibley's "family album pictures" do great job of illustrating this connection for when Stewart isn't available. For example, see Sparrow (Emberizidae) family on p472-473 in the Big Sibley or p402-403 in Western Sibley. Or the Gulls. Or the Sandpipers (he keeps correct relative scale too). Or the Ducks.

One can see the commonalities within the family and then the similarities and differences between the genera. That helps next time you see a less familiar bird: "That's sort of like a Chipping Sparrow ... hmmm, lets try the other Spizella sparrows".

The other hint I got some years back was: "when you come across a new bird that you've IDed for the first time take time to read the family summary in the guide then have a look at the other birds in the same genus in the guide."

That puts the new bird in context. Not just as a new tick but as a new group of birds that now might be slightly easier to recognize.

Sibley and NatGeo guides do this well as they have good family summaries.

I think it's a requirement of a modern field guide to help the birder who makes an effort with "the Latin" to make the taxonomic (and systematic) connections between the individual species.
--
Kevin Purcell (Capitol Hill, Seattle, WA)
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