Brian Kimberling wrote an interesting op-ed piece for the New York Times this weekend questioning, “What do the Birders Know?” Brian has a new novel, Snapper, that will be released on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 in the USA.
He relates birding or bird watching to a form of prayer of thanksgiving for being alive at a certain time and place. I get this. When Jay and Jim moved to Panama years ago to begin building Tranquilo Bay, they were aware of the birds, but they didn’t know them. Over time we all have come to appreciate the birds. Over time we have all come to count on their company. Over time, we all say our own prayers of thanksgiving for the birds that live with us or come to visit us on occasion.
5.8 million birdwatchers in the United States is a big number. It is a bit higher than the number of residents in Wisconsin. It is roughly two times the number of people in the country of Panama. As we open our eyes and ears to the birds and the birding community it is interesting to see how many of these people are participating in some form of citizen scientist project. Here in Panama the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute has teamed up with iNaturalist.org as its database for citizen scientist related data. This website also has an app for both iPhones and Android phones that allows you to post in the field. We have hired an intern to help us get all the information we have collected over the years about birds and other animals supported by iNaturalist into their database over the summer.
Hopefully with information provided by citizen scientists we can learn what is happening to the bird population in Panama. Kimberling points out that the Audobon Society has estimated that nearly 60% of the 305 species found in North America in the winter are shifting northward. Until we have a body of information regarding our bird population in all of Panama, we cannot determine if we are seeing a change in behavior. The information regarding the bird population is better documented in more populated areas and or areas that have been birded within Panama for longer periods of time. Panama’s Western Caribbean Slope is relatively new territory.
There are birds that are bio-indicators that help us to determine the condition of a particular ecosystem. Raptors do not appear by accident. Watching what the specific ecosystem’s key bird does can help us learn about our back yard and possibly something about the world. It is interesting to tie back to how birds have been used throughout history as an indicator of what is to come. Modern science confirms this is absolutely true.
Rare are the instances when one can help science and complete a prayer of thanksgiving at the same time. They do exist. Keeping a bird list and putting the information into a citizen scientist database is one way of doing so. It is a new practice for all of us, but one each of us can easily support.
