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Ornithologist

Studies birds — their behavior, migration, evolution, and conservation.

Did you know?

Arctic terns from Iceland and Greenland fly about 71,000 km a year between the Arctic and Antarctic, the longest known migration of any animal.

How subjects help

• Biology: Recognise birds by their feathers and songs and study how they build nests and raise chicks.
• Environmental Science: Find out why a bird species is declining, such as from lost wetlands or pesticides.
• Geography: Map the migration routes that birds fly each year across continents and oceans.
• Statistics: Turn yearly bird counts into trends that show which species need protecting.

A famous name

John James Audubon: Studied and painted North American birds for his book The Birds of America (1827–1838).

Try it yourself: Do a garden bird count

1. Settle somewhere you can see outside and sit quietly. Write down the start time.
2. Only count birds that land, not ones flying over. For each kind of bird, write the biggest number you see at the same moment.
3. If you saw four sparrows together, then later two, record 4, not 6, so you do not count the same birds twice.
4. After 15 minutes, list your totals. Which bird was most common? Try again at a different time of day and compare. (The real survey asks for a whole hour.)

Ornithologists combine counts from hundreds of thousands of volunteers to track which bird species are rising or falling across the country, year after year.

Adapted from RSPB: Big Garden Birdwatch FAQs.

Also try: Clean an oily feather.

Known for it in

UK, USA, Australia, Costa Rica, South Africa

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