30 Birds

28/ Taxonomic Birding

Sometimes you can add a bird to your list while you are sleeping. This is not a feat of somnambulating, but a feat of taxonomy. Those busy people who hover over the Class Aves like hummingbirds at a trumpet flower -- the avian taxonomists -- are continually revising their notions of where each particular species ends and the next one begins. They do this based on their research into things like breeding behavior, vocalization, DNA.