I recently had an email questioning a bird I logged on Cornell’s eBird.

The reviewer suggested the call I recorded was a Magnolia Warbler rather than the Red eyed Vireo I had listed. He explained that Magnolia Warblers can give a whiny call that sounds very similar to a vireo and also pointed out that Red eyed Vireos usually do not arrive in our coastal hammock habitat until late March.

It was a thoughtful message and I appreciated it. Good science improves when people question observations.

The recording was made on my phone and I later compared the call against several reference recordings before logging it. To my ear the tone still feels closer to Red eyed Vireo, but I also understand the reviewer’s point and shared the spectrogram so we could compare.

But the exchange made me smile because it reminded me of something that has happened many times in my life as a naturalist.

People often trust the calendar more than the bird.

Years ago in Costa Rica I found a Maguari Stork on a beach in Guanacaste. I was told it could not possibly be there because the species had not been recorded in the country for years. Yet there it was standing in front of us as clear as daylight.

When I first came to the United States I reported a singing Swainson’s Thrush in a park. I received a barrage of emails saying it was impossible because the bird “does not arrive until April and does not sing until May.”

So I went back the next day and recorded it.

More than a hundred birders eventually showed up to see it and many said the same thing while standing in front of the bird.

“It shouldn’t be here.”

Birds do not read field guides.

The world is changing. Climate patterns are shifting. Migration timing is moving. Yet sometimes birders still treat old data as though it is a rule book.

I value review and accuracy deeply. Mistakes happen and they should be corrected.

But one thing I have learned after a lifetime of listening to nature is this.

Never tell the bird it shouldn’t be there because of a book

www.thelisteningplanet.com