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Interesting Facts
Nearly everyone enjoys birds: the beauty of their forms and colouring, the vivacity
of their movements, the buoyancy of their flight and the sweetness of their song.
It is precisely on this account that as a pursuit for the out-of-doors, bird watching
stands in a class by itself. Its strong point is that it can be indulged in with
pleasure and profit not only by the man who studies birds scientifically, but also
by one possessing no specialised knowledge. The latter, moreover, is enabled to
share his profit with the scientist who for certain aspects of bird study has to
depend entirely upon data collected by the intelligent watcher.
-Salim Ali
It is amazing what tricks the imagination can play with undisciplined observation.
A person who, for example, notices a male Paradise Flycatcher for the first time
and is struck by its exquisite tail-ribbons fluttering in the breeze, will, as likely
as not, and in all good faith, clothe his bird in multi-coloured hues of green and
blue and yellow and red when describing it to you. The only real clue he furnishes
is the ribbon tail. Some days later you have an opportunity of pointing out a Paradise
Flycatcher to your enquirer with a suitable suggestion, whereupon you promptly learn
that this indeed was the object of his ecstasy!
Yet it is equally amazing what small effort is needed to discipline oneself to observe
accurately. After a comparatively short period of intelligent bird watching one
can often become so proficient that the mere glimpse of a bird as it flits across
from one bush to another-some distinctive flash of colour, a peculiar twitch of
the tail- is enough to suggest its identity fairly reliably. If it is an unfamiliar
species this fleeting impression will often suffice to puzzle it out with the aid
of a bird book afterwards.
-Salim Ali
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