Shortly after the emergence of the first ornithological society, founded in the USA in 1885, the Audubon Society, the first predecessor of the new generation of determiners appeared. It was aimed at a non-specialist audience, in particular at women and the younger ones – the descriptions were detailed, but in accessible, unpretentious and sometimes even lyrical language and mostly concerned the more common and popular birds. Those that an amateur unarmed with knowledge would meet on the window, in his yard or on the outskirts of the city. The described species are only 70, and the illustrated ones are even fewer. The author is a lady – Florence Merriam. Armed with small binoculars and a notebook, she tries to recognize the birds she sees on the outskirts of San Diego. This turns out to be no easy task. Provoked by her own troubles, and by many young people in her environment who encountered difficulties in identifying birds in the field, Florence Merriam decided that an easily portable and easy-to-read book would be a great help. Thus, in 1889, her work was published. “Birds through Binoculars”, which is the result of these notes, combined with her earlier descriptions, published in “Audubon’s Magazine” in 1886. As she herself says in the preface, the book is by no means a scientific treatise, but rather an aid for young people who, in their desire to get to know the birds around them, encounter incredible difficulties when they are alone and there is no specialist nearby to whom they can turn. Only a small part of these young people she met in college had the opportunity to become ornithologists or at least to learn the terminology in order to have greater access to scientific materials on the subject. In addition to its attempt to appeal to a younger and non-specialized audience, the book has another advantage – it encourages the identification of birds in the wild without having to kill them, as was the practice until then. For this, of course, the emergence and development of specialized optics, such as binoculars and telescopes, is of utmost importance.
Thanks to them, and to a kind of first predecessor of the field bird identifiers in the United States, Florence Merriam's contemporaries acquired a new hobby suitable for ladies. Unlike the male-dominated scientific circles of the time, the new activity that was gaining popularity, called “birdwatching”, was completely accessible to the fairer sex, since it did not require scientific knowledge.
With the advent of identifiers, it became possible to provide information about certain objects in a way accessible to the majority of people, therefore to cultivate in them an interest and desire to preserve them. In turn, this ever-growing “army of amateurs” willingly collects such valuable and necessary information for scientists. Thanks to the data collected by the many amateurs, scientists manage to solve fundamental problems affecting the biology of various animals, their behavior, numbers, etc., as well as similar problems in plants and fungi.
Author: Denitsa Peneva
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