dear all ..
I have been birding for just under a year and the reason behind my passion mainly derived from photography as oppose to the attraction of birds in the first place .. having photographed a bunch of different speices, I find it interesting to find out more.
From a Novice's prospective, .. this forum is full of experts and it is embarassing to make a wrong ID and therefore it is just easier to put "Please Help with ID", than making a wrong and embrassing guess.
Now .. why guess? Different plumage conditions, first winter, mating etc, .. juv/male/female ..even using all reference books published by the HKBWS, none show all different states of the birds graphically. Another example, would be say the rosy pipit which was at LV towards end of last year, .. I doubt that most people can tell from the naked eye that the breast was at all pink in anyway! The point I wanted to make is that ID'ing a bird really isn't easy if you do not know what to look out for .. the color of the legs, the shape of whatever ...
I have since tried to make a guess as to what the bird maybe .. Chestnut Crowned Warbler? or Black-faced Bunting? And I get just as fustrated as people posting photos of very common birds and asking for ID, but we have all been through that stage before, maybe for some of you, when you were beginnings, there was no such thing as internet forums to make life easier for you but it is not our fault that we have these things to help us.
giveing some sort of clue and making us beginnings think always helps more than just ID'ing and then telling us to buy a guide book!
