Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of science that deals with the study of birds.

Some describe the term as a derivative of ancient Greek, where ornis means bird and logos means explanation. Others attribute the term to Latin, where ornithologia means the scientific study of birds.

Ornithology differs from other scientific disciplines because the subject—i.e., birds—is highly visible, and birds are aesthetically appealing to many people. As a result, there are many amateurs working within the parameters of scientific bird study who refer to themselves as ornithologists.

The study of birds has contributed tremendous bodies of information to the sciences of ecology, evolution, distribution, behavior, and other studies. Several major ecological principles have emerged from ornithological studies.

Any type of research relating to birds, such as a study of bird habitats or migration patterns, is considered an aspect of the field of ornithology. The most popular areas of the field are bird watching and bird identification.

Brief History

The first use of the word ornithology was made in 1676, but observations of birds by humans can be traced back to the Stone Age, where drawings on stones and walls showed definite interest in birds. Birds were important as a food source, and bones of more than eighty species have been found in excavations of early Stone Age settlements. Remains of seabirds and water birds from prehistoric times have also been found in shell mounds on the island of Oronsay off the coast of Scotland.

John Ray, an English naturalist and philosopher, was the first to describe ornithology as a combination of natural history (field ornithology) and systematics in the late 1600s. Systematic ornithology focused on the naming and classification of birds, and later on, their geographical distribution.

Before this time, interest in birds centered largely on folklore and their symbolic significance. The Ornithology of Francis Willughby, written in 1678, took the study of birds out of legends and myths and focused it more on biology, anatomy, physiology, paleontology, and behavior.

Willughby confirmed Ray’s classification of birds as two separate threads—nomenclature and natural history. In 1753, Carl Linnaeus published Systema Naturae, which set down a system of classification for all organisms that is referred to as Linnaean taxonomy. The system used for birds was based on their physiological similarities.

The classification and naming of birds dominated ornithology in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and were the main interest of the ornithological unions that were founded in the 1800s. The two areas of focus were combined into one in the 1920s in central Europe and in 1940s in the UK and the United States.

In the mid to late 1800s, Charles Darwin introduced the concepts of natural and sexual selection. These proved important in the twentieth century, when evolutionary thinking and the concept of individual selection became more widely accepted in the scientific communities. His theories helped the modern discipline of ornithology take shape. Following WWII, the availability of higher education helped increase the number of professional ornithologists and provided advanced knowledge of avian natural history and evolution.

Overview

What makes ornithology so enjoyable to some people is the plethora of different sounds and songs provided by birds. With modern technology, tunes and resonances of over 4,500 birds from more than 220 different countries around the world have been documented online according to their particular species. They can be heard on a number of different Internet sites.

Bird watching, or birding as a sport, has gained in popularity over time. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has determined that bird watching is the fastest-growing outdoor activity in America, with millions of Americans reporting that they enjoy gazing at the beauty of birds and appreciating their strength of flight. Birding is an activity that can be done from the convenience of one’s backyard, by groups or individuals, at any time of the day and in any season.

The concept of studying the world of birds was similar to stamp collecting and consisted mostly of gathering data individually on a private basis until the early twentieth century, when British banker and zoologist Lord Lionel Walter Rothschild expanded the playing field. He enlisted a group of enthusiastic bird watchers to obtain specimens from all parts of the world for his private collection, which eventually numbered more than 300,000 bird features and which he displayed publically on many occasions. The collection was subsequently moved to the British Museum, later known as the Natural History Museum at Tring.

Years of research and documentation of hundreds of thousands of birds, their descriptions and specific groupings followed, helping ornithologists answer a myriad of questions about their subjects. A wide range of tools and techniques were developed to be used in ornithology both out in the field and inside the lab.

Like most other scientific mediums, ornithology has expanded its scope over the years, and although the number of professional ornithologists has diminished, the scientific discipline has branched out into many different areas.

Marine ornithology focuses on birds that are native to global oceans and other waters. Marine Ornithology is also the title of an international journal of seabird research and conservation that the Pacific Seabird Group publishes on behalf of a group of seabird groups from Africa, Australia, Asia, Holland, Japan, and the UK. It was founded by John Cooper and the African Seabird group in 1976 and originally named Cormorant.

The Association of Field Ornithologist (AFO) was founded in 1922 as the New England Bird Banding Association and is currently one of the world’s major societies of professional and amateur ornithologists. The AFO is dedicated to the scientific study and distribution of information about birds in their natural habitats. It encourages participation in research by amateurs and emphasizes conservation biology of birds. Conservation biology is the scientific study of biodiversity and nature, with the goal of protecting species from extinction.

The North American Ornithological Conference (NAOC), the American Ornithology Union (AOU), and the Cooper Ornithological Society (COS) are the main organizations representing ornithology societies and resources in the United States. They meet several times throughout the year in different locations and work to promote understanding, appreciation, and conservation of bird species and populations.

Bibliography

"Gateway to the American Ornithological Union." American Ornithological Union. American Ornithological Union, n.d., Web. 15 June 2016.

Barnett, Adrian. "Flights of Fancy: An Enchanting History of Ornithology." New Scientist. New Scientist, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 June 2016.

Birkhead, T.R, and Charmantier, I. "History of Ornithology." Wiley.Els Citable Reviews in the Life Sciences, Dec. 2009. Web.10 June 2016.

Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. "Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild." Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc., 2016. Web. 15 June 2016.

Marine Ornithology: An International Journal of Seabird Research and Conservation. Pacific Research Group, 2016. Web. 10 June 2016.

"Authoritative Information about Wild Birds from a Professional Ornithologist." Ornithology: The Science of Birds, 2016. Ornithology.com Web. 15 June 2016.

"North American Ornithological Conference, 2016." The American Ornithologists’ Union and Cooper Ornithological Society, 2016. Web. 10 June 2016.

"Association of Field Ornithologists." Association of Field Ornithologists, 2016. Web.10 June 2016.