#1 - to enable recognition of an individual bird
Having just returned from a few days in Victoria I inflict on you further reflections on the above theme (prompted by a particular incident to be disclosed later, if I get that far). Last Wednesday afternoon in the Chiltern forest I came across this chap, no doubt one of last year’s releases. Evidently its recognition is important to someone. Of course you don’t always need a photo. An observer can walk through a colony of Regent Honeyeaters saying to their note-taker – or audio recording device – “and next we have old white over metal and green over red - er, hang on, that might be green over orange ….”. The point about a photo is that it is further evidence in the event the verbal record is doubted for some reason, perhaps uncertainty - or colour-blindness - of the observer. This means, I suppose, that EVERY photo, being evidence of something, is of some use, but, to be frank about it, only a small percentage will be of real use, in practice.
