Old Time Birder Keeps Talking About Structure

Utah-- Young birder Scott McPherson, 23, has been going to local birding outings regularly for a year and has collected quite a bird list for Utah and a few in other states. Recently he went with the local Audubon group to see shore bird, proud of his newish spotting scope. he bought it used on eBay but bought the tripod at a sports store.

On that outing, area expert Hal was not along, but his words about "structure" were on Scott's mind that day. Scott had taken some pictures through his scope with an iPhone attachment and had claimed one was a Western Sandpiper. Hal said no, "structure wrong."

Hal is not a talkative guy but his bird ID skills are 100% correct. If he does not know what the bird is, he says nothing. He does not say "it's either this or that." On the outing with the wrong ID, there had also been some dowithchers. Another Audubon member had taken the pictures. He was explaining to Scott the two dowitchers and that one of them has the structure "like it had swallowed a baseball." It also seems to tip over with its weight. From all this Scott has gathered that structure is overall shape, wing length, head or neck shape or the bill shape. The bill has to be compared to the head shape and any blunt or sharp shape noted, or "drooping", which refers to some slight bend down. A few birds may have a bending up as well.