I think a mention of American birding codes is in
order. First, they were not invented by Al Gore ;)
nor were they invented for the internet. They were
originally devised by the Bird Banding (ringing) Lab
as a way of making paperwork easier. Other groups
have adpoted them for data entry (AviSys for example)
while other groups use a 6-letter code (Cornell Lab or
Ornithology, at least in the past).
Typically, the use of four-letter codes is frowned
upon even in America for public communication on the
internet (on lists like birdchat or cobirds for
example). That doesn't mean that people don't
ocassionally use them, especially if they are
explained in the message first. They are a handy way
of rapidly entering bird data but they do hamper
communication (as John, who has been on birdchat
before, points out).
The derivation of the codes is fairly simple but I
won't bore you with it here unless someone really
wants to know.
Jeff Price
Boulder, CO
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