#ornithologist

[discworldquotes]

It’s hard to be an ornithologist and walk through a wood when all around you the world is shouting: “Bugger off, this is my bush! Aargh, the nest thief! Have sex with me, I can make my chest big and red!”

Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

[thatpollguy]

Would you be able to identify a European robin if you saw one?

Yes

No

Voting ended onDec 9, 2025

[trolledu]

A Sociable Weaver Birds' Nest

[lichenaday]

I've wondered this for awhile, but how do you catch wild birds safely? I don't want to catch them, I just don't understand how others do without hurting them

A few methods I have personally used:

Mist nets. These are huge, thin nets that birds fly into and get tangled up it. You can either have these placed passively in bird flyways, or you can actively herd birds into them. Then you just gotta untangle them and you've got bird.

(the mist net at the bird observatory in Iceland collecting mist)

2. Nest trapping. When birds are nesting, they have a very strong drive to sit on their eggs. Depending on where they nest and their size, there are lots of different types of traps you can effectively use to capture birds on their nests. For ground nesting birds, these can be flip traps, drop traps, funnel traps, noose mats, etc. For cavity nesters, you can use trap doors or specialized nest boxes. Some birds refuse to leave their nests so much that you can use a net to catch them directly on their nest, or even just scoop em right off.

(angry mama blue tit refusing to leave her and telling me to fuck off)

3. Molt capture. Lots of larger birds will go through a catastrophic molt, meaning that they lose a bunch of feathers all at once, which prevents them from being able to fly, and so you can effectively herd them into a corral/helgoland trap.

(barnacle geese herded into a makeshift corral, ready for ringing)

4. Babies! Ringers often focus on ringing baby birds because they are easy to nab.

(meadow pipit chick hiding in the tall grass, and then nabbed)

I am sure there are other methods I am less familiar with, but those are all the methods I have used. No method is perfectly safe, but we try to mitigate those risks as much as possible, and we work within the standards set out by governing bodies and the scientific community.

[kness]

A barn owl pendant, porcelain and gold.

[sleepy-bebby]

[viejito-at-heart]

okay maybe I’m the dumb one for not knowing this bird existed but

Holy shit

YEAH THAT WREN IS GIANT ALRIGHT

its sheer size strikes fear into my heart. no wren needs to be that Fucken Large.

for context this is the size of the average wren you’ll encounter in North America

[stone-cold-groove]

Corvus brachyrhynchos. The American Crow - John J. Audubon.