[cobirds] Birding bias

Hi COBirders,

This morning I found myself scanning a local reservoir where some loons have been reported. It was a beautiful scene with the newly frosted mountains reflected on the still surface of the water, and the gloriously warm sun rising to my left.

Almost immediately I found a loon diving in the NE corner, slightly backlit, but clearly a Common Loon, with its large bill and somewhat knobby forehead. A nice sighting, but I was looking for its rarer cousin, a Pacific Loon reported yesterday. I found two more Common Loons, and then a smaller loon popped up that I assumed was the Pacific. But I lost it fumbling around with digiscoping gear.

About 20 minutes later I found a smaller loon that wasn't too far away, providing plenty of time to study. What I did was tick off all the reasons that it wasn't a Common Loon, so it must be the Pacific, right? Down it went on my ebird list. Not long after some other birders showed up, and I saved them the time of scanning by pointing out the "Pacific."

Only later did I see the report of a Red-throated Loon from the same location. Mild panic rising, I asked the observer if there were both Pacific and Red-throated present, but even as I texted I suspected that I'd blown the ID, and worse, infected others with the same case of "birding bias," that bad habit associated with chasing other people's sightings where we simply see what we're looking for rather than carefully analyzing what we're looking at.

I thought I'd share this story as a way of apologizing to those who I pointed out the "Pacific" to, but also because it's something I'm sure many can relate to. Misidentifying birds is something I've gotten good at over the years, and I don't think there's any shame in goofing an ID. But of course it sucks to have had the opportunity to correctly ID a good bird that was right there in my scope. 

It's a reminder to be vigilant. 

Good birding everyone!

Best,

Peter Burke

Boulder, CO

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