Ethno-ornithology

The Art of Falconry (De Arte Venandi cum Avibus) by Frederick II is a treatise on ornithology, which was regarded as an art and as a noble sport at its time. The manuscript has been copied several times in form of two-volume and six-volume versions.

This essay focuses on the image of Frederick II and His Falcon from a two-volume codex, which was dedicated by Frederick to his son Manfred while briefly surveying the contributions of Frederick II to the Gothic scholarship.

The Toba people from the west of the province of Formosa (Argentina) inhabit a geographical area belonging to the semi-arid Chaco region. A group of about 2,000, they consider themselves different from other Toba groups. However, they are closely related to those ‘other Toba’ and to other members of the guaycurú linguistic family (mocoví, pilagá, caduvéo and the extinct abipón, payaguá and mbayá). Traditionally, the subsistence activities of the Toba have been based on hunting, fishing, gathering and a very precarious basic agriculture, still carried out in those villages most distant from urban centres. The beginning of the twentieth century marked the onset of a cultural change process due to the increasing influence of white people in their area. In spite of this transformation, some features of their traditional lifestyle persist, as well as the full use of their native language. This work presents the results of an ethno-ornithological investigation aimed mainly at knowing how the Toba name, perceive, conceive, use and relate to birds in their natural environment. This subject is part of a broader ethno-biologic research carried out since 1983, which includes other nature-related topics. The methodological principle used was to apply the ethno scientific methods, with their dual perspective: the emic approach (the actor’s view) and the etic approach (the analysis performed by the researcher through technical and interpretative resources). The investigation plan was carried out through field work consisting of interviews, participant observation and biological material collection, among other techniques. For the specific subject of birds, these also included bird watching and observation of skins, photographs and pictures of the local ornithofauna. The information obtained was subsequently organized, analyzed and interpreted in the researcher’s cabinet, where the biological material collected was identified as well. Results are presented in two sections: I) An outline of the diverse cultural and social spheres in which the bird’s specific roles are situated; and II) A species directory which details all the information gathered for each entity. The species directory comprises 169 native and naturalized taxons, 7 domesticated exotic species and 20 ornithological entities that couldn’t be identified. Birds have been of great importance in the life of the Toba people because of their usage, representations and meanings. Their singing and behavior, as well as their feathers, eggs, bones and meat, among other features, had – and still have – ample implications for the life of this people. The list of chapters is as follows: 1) Preface, 2) Acknowledgements, 3) Introduction, 4) Materials and Methodology, 5) The Toba and their Natural Environment, 6) Birds in the Life of the Toba, 7) Representation of Birds, 8) Usage of Birds, 9) Birds and Subsistence, 10) Material Culture,  11) Other Roles of Birds or their Parts, 12) Nomenclature for Bird Morphology, 13) Vernacular Names and Classificatory Systems, 14) Bird Directory, 15) The Toba’s Knowledge about Birds, 16) Bibliography, 17) Index of Toba and Scientific Names; 18) Index of Scientific and Vernacular Spanish Names.

Este trabajo se basa en la experiencia de las mujeres productoras de aves de traspatio en los Valles Centrales, Oaxaca: el conocimiento tradicional, el uso y manejo que dan a las aves, estableciendo las características de la alimentación, las instalaciones, la sanidad, la selección inducida y la producción de huevo. Se determinaron los nombres de las partes anatómicas, tanto externas como internas. Se encontró un 63% de gallinas criollas en las parvadas. En promedio, 69% de las mujeres cría sus propios reemplazos, algunas con auxilio de guajolotas encargadas de la incubación. Existe un uso ceremonial de las gallinas criollas en la medicina tradicional, en especial las de color negro. El riesgo de dilución genética de las aves criollas es considerable, por lo que su estudio, conservación y fomento se vuelven prioritarios.

Abstract: the crux of this essay is that birdsong—something generally thought of a pleasing and enjoyable—can function, in certain contexts, as an indexical sign of the presence of evil in the world. I narratively contrast notions of the unknown as eerie with the uncanny at home, while simultaneously extending the notion of home to the world though ethnographic examples from fieldwork with Warlpiri people in central Australia. I explore the links between sounds and the uncanny, putting forward that what constitutes the uncanny is culturally specific, and highlight this point through contextualising and contrasting the central Australian case with examples from elsewhere:  the Middle Ages, colonial Australia, Horror movies, and so on.

This paper is a literature review of the use of birds in the
Indigenous material culture of the Lower Murray River region in
temperate South Australia, as observed in the early years of British
colonisation. This record is augmented with additional data from
fieldwork in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was found that
Aboriginal people in this region made artefacts incorporating
avian materials based upon their perceived physical and cultural
properties. Analysis of material culture with respect to birds contributes
to the understanding of Aboriginal use and perception of
the Australian landscape.

En esta contribución se aborda, desde la perspectiva de la Astronomía Cultural, el estudio de las representaciones celestes de Rhea americana, presentes entre indígenas e inmigrantes europeos y sus descendientes radicados en colonias agrícolas en el norte de la provincia de Santa Fe, sur del Chaco argentino. A través de la puesta en diálogo de los resultados de nuestro trabajo de campo entre los mencionados colonos inmigrantes y sus descendientes, con los resultados de trabajos previos de otros autores en sociedades guaycurúes, principalmente tobas y mocovíes, se explora el rol cultural de Rhea americana y  las distintas formas en las que este ave es representada en el paisaje celeste. En especial se exponen las diversas relaciones entre estas representaciones y distintos aspectos de la vida social de los grupos estudiados. A partir del análisis de algunas de estas asociaciones se busca evidenciar las lógicas subyacentes a las mismas. En particular se logra mostrar que no solamente estos grupos culturales han compartido representaciones celestes de  R. americana y las ideas asociadas a estas, sino también conocimientos sobre su ciclo biológico y su comportamiento en relación a los humanos. Con este trabajo se espera aportar a la interpretación de los modos en que los colonos europeos y sus descendientes interactuaron con el nuevo entorno natural y socio-cultural, y a la comprensión del rol de R. americana en los procesos de interacción étnica en la región chaqueña argentina.

A large amount of birds are harvested from the natural environment for the pet market. This trade is a conservation issue and an economic income for many people. Though bird trade is common in Latin America there are few published studies. Therefore, we reviewed available literature to understand the background of this topic and to identify future relevant research topics. We collected, summarized and discussed literature about bird use as pets in Latin America, with a detailed approach in Mexico. We searched by keywords in web search engines and constructed a database of 159 documents. Brazil was identified as one of the main countries with research on birds use. Most of the papers focused on parrots (35%) and were conducted at a local geographical level (71%). Less than half of the papers (39%) are focused on the general use of birds, 54% on the use as pets and 7% on other uses. In Mexico, 73% of the information is “gray literature”, mainly congress abstracts. This literature revi...

Birds as Food: Anthropological and Cross Disciplinary Perspectives is a collection of essays by anthropologists and contributors from other disciplines. Traditions of using birds as food exist in almost all human societies past and present. Over a hundred different species around the world are mentioned in this volume. The contributions are supported with full colour illustrations of birds whether alive or in culinary preparations.<br>Birds as Food: Anthropological and Cross-disciplinary PerspectivesEd. Frédéric Duhart and Helen MacbethICAF (UK)Enfield, United Kingdom2018ix + 328 p.Serie: ICAF Alimenta Populorum series, Volume IISBN 978-0-9500513-0-7<br>

La palabra guajolote, de origen náhuatl, es muy utilizada en el castellano de México; proviene de Xólotl, dios prehispánico hermano de Quetzalcoatl con capacidad de transmutarse. Actualmente la palabra guajolote puede tener connotación positiva o negativa dependiendo del contexto, ya sea para describir a las aves, destacar características de personas y en la cultura culinaria tradicional.

Se caracteriza y describe a las gallinas criollas en tres localidades de los Valles Centrales de Oaxaca. Se realizaron recorridos, entrevistas y talleres participativos; se evaluaron características morfológicas cualitativas y cuantitativas: color de plumaje, tipos de cresta, color de la piel, color de tarsos, ancho de pechuga, largo de quilla y largo de tarso. El inventario avícola mostró que 63% de la parvada son gallinas criollas, el resto son guajolotes y gallinas comerciales. El 100% del plumaje de las gallinas criollas fue normal sedoso, observándose además plumaje rizado y cuello pelón; el color dominante de las plumas fue el negro, el tipo de cresta dominante fue la sencilla (65%), el color de tarso dominante fue el amarillo, encontrando además tarsos oscuros y negros; el peso promedio en gallinas a la postura fue de 2 kg y en gallos hasta 3 kg.

Robert Godfrey’s 1941 publication drawing on schoolboys’ essays, in Xhosa, Bird-Lore of the Eastern Cape Province described two species of birds as herding stock by whistling to them. These were the umcelu (wagtail species of the Motacilla genus) and intengu (fork-tailed drongos, Dicrurus adsimilis). It is possible to take this extraordinary claim about herding birds seriously. The birds have reputations throughout eastern and southern Africa for interactions with both people and stock. Vernacular and ecological knowledge provides a context for these claims: the honeyguide (Indicator indicator) and sentry birds – for example, the go-away bird (Corythaixoides leucogaster) – are widely recognized in Africa as effective interspecies communicators. Ecological studies of ‘heterospecific alarm calls’ have confirmed that birds and mammals communicate with each other. Research suggests, however, that if drongos and wagtails do whistle to herds and flocks, they seek advantages other than the safety of stock. Experimental research on this interspecies network would reveal more about participation by and affordances to stock, birds, and insects. But, what the boys say about their engagement with this network can be taken seriously. Social worlds theory, with its emphasis on collaboration without consensus and imperfect translations, supports a discussion of networks of interspecies communication.

RESUMEN.-Los refranes transmiten conocimiento basado en la experiencia y están condicionados por el ámbito natural, geográfico, económico y temperamental de grupos sociales. De acuerdo a distintas fuentes, se evaluó la presencia de aves en refranes populares de Chile, junto con sus moralejas respectivas. Para cada refrán, analizamos el nivel taxonómico referido, el origen de la especie y el atributo de las aves a los que hacía referencia. Se encontraron 89 refranes de carácter ornitológico. Un 52,1% hizo mención directa a especies, seguido por la mención a la Clase Aves (25%). De las menciones a especies, un 64% se refirió a aves nativas y un 36% a exóticas. La perdiz chilena (Nothoprocta perdicaria) (N=5) y el chuncho (Glaucidium nana) (N=4) fueron las especies nativas con el mayor número de registros, seguidas por el peuco (Parabuteo unicinctus), águila (Geranoaetus melanoleucus), tordo (Curaeus curaeus) y zorzal (Turdus falcklandii). La gallina (Gallus gallus) (N=12) fue la especie exótica con mayor número de menciones. Seis refranes fueron multi-específicos al comprender a más de una especie. El comportamiento (26,1%) y tipo de alimentación (18%) fueron los atributos de las aves con mayor frecuencia relativa de ocurrencia, sugiriendo la influencia de éstos en el proceso creativo de un refrán. En los refranes registrados se integran la cotidianeidad e imaginación, junto con conocimientos de la historia natural de las aves. La presencia de las aves en refranes y en la experiencia humana es una expresión del "paisaje de encuentro entre humanos y aves", el que relaciona distintas expresiones en la herencia común del patrimonio biocultural. PALABRAS CLAVE.-Etno-ornitología, paisaje, patrimonio biocultural, proverbio.

The article is derived from a decade of qualitative investigation in urban and rural areas of Honduras focused on landscapes of human-avian interaction. It outlines a methodological framework for ethnoornithological inquiry based on the systematic analysis of both intentional and accidental relationships
between people and birds, and marked by a series of indicators of such relationships. It discusses a model for human-bird interaction based on utilitarian, symbolic, and empathic values, and outlines a set of social and land-use differentiations of human-bird relationships that influence this model. The utility of this approach is applied to a discussion of ethnoornithology’s role in conservation, and the concept of the conservation dialogue between local and outside actors is presented as a possible way forward.

Valorizando las relaciones entre la gente y las aves: Experiencias y lecciones de Honduras.
– El articulo se basa en una década de investigación cualitativa en áreas urbanas y rurales de Honduras enfocada en los paisajes de interacción entre humanos y aves. Contornea un marco metodológico para la investigación etnoornitológica basada en el análisis sistemático de relaciones intencionales y accidentales entre la gente y los pájaros, y marcada por una serie de indicadores de tales relaciones. Discute un modelo para la interacción humano-pájaro basada en valores utilitarios, simbólicos, y empáticos, y contornea un sistema de diferenciaciones sociales y de usos de la tierra de las relaciones humano-pájaro que influencian este modelo. La utilidad de este acercamiento se aplica a una discusión del papel de la etnoornitología
en la conservación, y el concepto del “diálogo conservacionista” entre la gente local y los agentes del exterior se presenta como una posible manera de seguir adelante.

The deeper motives of bird-watchers have rarely been subjected to geographicalinquiry. Birders are sometimes dismissed as hobbyists bent on compensating for feelings of inadequacy and lack of control in their personal lives. In this article, utilizing textual refer-ences as well as experiences from my own participant-observer status as geographer-cum-birder and bird-tour leader, I construct a geographically oriented approach to understandingthe fascinations of bird-watching. I detail ethnographically the annual Christmas Bird Countand a bird walk in the Honduran rain forest. Then, drawing from the nest-as-home meta-phors of Gaston Bachelard and the “becoming-bird” relationships suggested by Gilles Deleuzeand Félix Guattari, I position birding as extraordinarily intimate exploration of place, rein-forced by anticipation, repetition, experience of beauty, and the culminating encounter of human self, bird or bird spectacle, and landscape.

At the heart of the interplay between names and knowledge is the relative salience of different taxa. Hunn (1999) described four, semi-overlapping kinds of salience: phenotypic, perceptual, cultural, and ecological. While the first three are well documented, ecological salience remains largely hypothetical in the literature. In this paper, I test Hunn’s concept of ecological salience by reference to 3186 recorded English folk-names of British birds. The numbers of names recorded across 57 species represented in this study range from two (Nightingale [Luscinia megarhynchos]) to 180 (Grey Heron [Ardea cinerea]). A significant positive correlation is demonstrated between the number of recorded folk-names for a species and a measure of ubiquity in the nineteenth century. Using original bird census data collected by the author for other purposes in the 1990s in farmland and woodland in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, I demonstrate an overall correlation across Linnaean species between the number of names, number of monolexic names, and three measures of specific relative abundance and distribution. The percentage of names for a species that are monolexic, which is an indicator of familiarity, also correlated with the relative abundance of species in farmland, but this relationship was driven entirely by species with little recorded folklore. For those taxa with documented significance to nineteenth century and earlier English folk culture, which tend to carry more names than predicted by ecological ubiquity alone, there was no relationship between the extent of monolexis and the relative abundance of a species. The study suggests that ecological salience was a significant driver in bird naming in pre-industrial English folk culture, that more frequently encountered species were more likely to develop an associated folklore, but that an effect of acquired cultural salience operated as a driver of overall specific salience, potentially masking the effects of ecological salience.

The study of folk names can tell us a huge amount about historic relationships between people and nature. The thousands of English folk names recorded for British bird species show impressive creativity but, more than that, they can be used to track changes in distribution and abundance, and offer a hint of how birds were perceived by people in the past. Andy Gosler provides an introduction to some of the wonderful English folk names for birds, and explains what we can learn from these.

Birds as Food: Anthropological and Cross Disciplinary Perspectives is a collection of essays by anthropologists and contributors from other disciplines. Traditions of using birds as food exist in almost all human societies past and present. Over a hundred different species around the world are mentioned in this volume. The contributions are supported with full colour illustrations of birds whether alive or in culinary preparations.<br>Birds as Food: Anthropological and Cross-disciplinary PerspectivesEd. Frédéric Duhart and Helen MacbethICAF (UK)Enfield, United Kingdom2018ix + 328 p.Serie: ICAF Alimenta Populorum series, Volume IISBN 978-0-9500513-0-7<br>

Results of ethno-zoological investigations carried out in Borana from 2005 - 2007 show that Borana people use traditionally accepted premises for the classification of wildlife in their area. Information was gathered using focus group discussions in six sites in Borana zone of Oromiya Region. The focus group discussions were conducted with the help of informants whose age ranged  from 40 - 94. The Borana are nomadic Oromo speaking Cushtic people of semi-arid southern Ethiopia. Part of their population is found in Northern Kenya as well.  They have factual relationship with nature and natural systems. They possess a unique way of  discerning the natural world especially with regards to wild animal taxonomy. Borana believe that Waqaa (God the creator) first brought life to men and domestic animals. They believe that wild animals are an off set of domestic animals. Each domestic animal has a counterpart in the wild. They use a mixture of biological and utilitarian processes to identify wild animals. Biological approaches include morphological, diet  and habitat categories.  Human beings are also classified  using this system. Their scheme of classifying animals is unique among Ethiopian communities.

20 The Bull of the Bog: Bittern Conservation Practice in a Western Bio-cultural Setting Maan Barua and Paul Jepson The Great Bittern (Botaurus stellaris) is a species of conservation concern in the UK and is a flagship for the conservation of wetland habitats in the country. ...

A twitcher is a type of bird-watcher “who seeks to add as many species as possible to their life list, often without detailed or long-term observation of individual birds.” Frequently touted as ancient Egypt’s biggest bird fan, the tomb of Baqet III (c. 2000 BCE) at Beni Hassan in Middle Egypt includes many magnificent avian depictions, as well as the names of those birds depicted. The motivation behind such a unique series of images is usually described as Baqet’s desire to amass a list of rare and wonderful flying creatures he had seen throughout his life or time in office, or those birds which inhabited the areas under his jurisdiction. However, he was unlikely to have been was just a simple lover of birds. Indeed, a detailed examination shows an intimate knowledge of them, their morphology, and their behaviour, and thus their inclusion was more likely related to possessing ornithological knowledge of economic importance. In this paper I will examine just a few of these bird illustrations by applying the digital image enhancement tool DStretch, to the now degraded wall scenes using new hi-resolution photographs collected by Macquarie University as part of the Beni Hassan project. The results suggest that their depiction was not purely due to scientific curiosity, but rather they were included with the intention of aiding the tomb owner in the afterlife. Providing a veritable encyclopaedia of birds and their names – some hapax legomenon, others well known from Egyptian history – Baqet’s tomb offers a unique and wonderful perspective on the ancient relationship between the Egyptian culture and birds of various species. With it, we are given the opportunity for a new and closer look at these beautiful creatures and the Egyptian official who felt it necessary to take them with him to the afterlife.

En la cuenca del río Róbalo, en la costa norte de la isla Navarino, emergen ríos, arroyos y humedales que constituyen un verdadero imán para las aves, seres humanos y otros seres vivos que habitan la Reserva de Biosfera Cabo de Hornos (RBCH), donde encuentran un sustento vital . La contigüidad entre diferentes tipos de hábitats (bosques, turberas, estepas alto-andinas, lagunas y ríos, canal Beagle, entre otros) que conforman el mosaico de ecosistemas de esta cuenca, permite a los residentes y a sus visitantes, experimentar un sinfín de sensaciones tras cada encuentro directo con sus co-habitantes humanos y no humanos (sensu . Por ejemplo, en la caminata de un día por esta cuenca, podemos "encontrarnos" con las añosas lengas (Nothofagus pumilio) deciduas y los estoicos coigües de Magallanes (N. betuloides) siempreverdes de los bosques subantárticos. En la costa, los coloridos líquenes sobre las rocas nos indican la línea de alta marea, bajo la cual habitan choritos, lapas, mauchos y otros seres que residen en aquella delicada zona que forma la productiva interfaz marino-terrestre. En todos estos hábitats también es común encontrarnos con familias disfrutando de una tarde soleada y, crecientemente, con grupos de observadores de aves. En la recurrencia de estas experiencias, vamos entretejiendo una convivencia y cultivando una ética con una comunidad que excede el ámbito humano y alberga también a las aves y otros seres con los cuales co-habitamos estos singulares hábitats. 1 El sonido de las plumas de las alas de un cóndor (Vultur gryphus) que acompaña nuestros pasos por las cumbres de las montañas, el sorpresivo hallazgo de un nido de caiquén (Chloephaga picta) que advertimos al espantar sin querer a la madre que miméticamente empollaba entre los matorrales, la zambullida de un martín pescador (Megaceryle torquata) que confiadamente ante nuestra cercanía se lanza en picada desde la rama de un árbol sumergiéndose a la captura de un pejerrey que nadaba en un estuario, son algunos ejemplos de encuentros con aves que quedan para siempre en la memoria. Gracias al buen estado de conservación de los hábitats en el extremo austral de América, en lugares de la RBCH tales como Puerto Williams y sus alrededores, estos encuentros con una diversidad de aves de distintos colores, tamaños y voces son comunes y recurrentes. Esto se relaciona con una característica singular de esta región: las aves conforman el grupo de vertebrados más abundante, diverso y conspicuo (Venegas & Sielfield 1998.

At the heart of the interplay between names and knowledge is the relative salience of different taxa. Hunn (1999) described four, semi-overlapping, kinds of salience: phenotypic, perceptual, cultural and ecological. Whilst the first three are well documented, Ecological Salience remains largely hypothetical in the literature. In this paper I test Hunn's concept of Ecological Salience by reference to 3,186 recorded English folk-names of British birds. The numbers of names recorded across 57 species represented in this study range from two (Nightingale) to 180 (Grey Heron). A significant positive correlation is demonstrated between the number of recorded folk names for a species and a measure of ubiquity in the 19 th Century. Using original bird census data collected by the author for other purposes in the 1990s in farmland and woodland in Oxfordshire, United Kingdom, I demonstrate an overall correlation across Linnaean species between the number of names, number of monolexic names, and three measures of specific relative abundance and distribution. The percentage of names for a species that are monolexic, which is an indicator of familiarity, also correlated with the relative abundance of species in farmland, but this relationship was driven entirely by species with little recorded folklore. For those taxa with documented significance to 19th century