A recent (June 16, 2023) article in the New York Times described the loss of trust in science, which is rather odd because during the pandemic the trust in science went up. What is science? It is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based …
I get regular inquiries from high school and college students, and even older folks looking for a new career, wanting to know how to get into the field of ornithology. Without reiterating everything I have already posted in detail on Ornithology.com about careers, let me make some general points. Most everyone who aspires to be an …
Previously I described what it takes to do ornithological research, culminating in, hopefully, a published paper. Where would you publish this? There are a number of places, but peer-reviewed research is typically published in a format called a journal like The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Australian Field Ornithology, Journal of Avian Biology, Journal of Ornithology, …
Research in ornithology is not just a willy-nilly collection of observations while walking through the woods. How does one start a research project? First, you have to develop a hypothesis – a question you would like to answer. Let’s suppose you are curious about the prevalence of partial albinism (leucistic plumage) in House Sparrows. What …
I’m often asked what it takes to become an ornithologist. See my careers page. There really is no one path and there is no university that I know of that awards a degree in ornithology. I received a PhD in Zoology. What made me an ornithologist is an undergraduate course in ornithology, two long graduate …
A number of people write to me asking about the field of ornithology, from young grade-schoolers to retired businesspeople. Their interest in birds leads them to think they want to pursue the field of ornithology in some way. So let’s talk about that. What do ornithologists do? Well, an ornithologist studies birds, but there is …
