THE WARBLER GUIDE: The Overlooked ID Points that Make Identifying Fall Warblers Easy
Our warblers are some of the most beautiful birds in the world. But their beautiful colors often blind birders to many of their most important ID points. And when some species don their drabber fall plumages, those overlooked ID points become the key to identifying them.

This talk discusses many of these very important but often overlooked ID points such as overall contrast, subtle facial features, color impressions, feather edging, rump contrast, and foraging style, location, and behavior. And fortunately, viewing a warbler from below can reveal some of the most important ID points for many species. Learn how many tail and undertail covert patterns are, in fact, diagnostic alone or when combined with one other ID point.

Individual species, especially the most challenging to identify, will also be discussed with outlines of the important ID points, comparisons with similar species, and illustrations of how often disregarded partial views can be used to identify many of even the most challenging warbler species.

BIO
Tom Stephenson has been birding since he was a kid under the tutelage of Dr. Arthur Allen of Cornell University. His articles and photographs are in museums and many publications including Birding, Birdwatcher’s Digest, Handbook of the Birds of the World, Handbook of the Mammals of the World, Birds of Madagascar, and Guide to the Birds of SE Brazil.

Tom has lectured and guided many groups across the US as well as in Asia, where he trained guides for the government of Bhutan. He has donated numerous recordings of Eastern Himalayan rarities and other Asian species to Cornell’s Macaulay Library of Natural sounds.

For several years he was on Zeiss’s digiscoping team for the World Series of Birding; and in 2011 his and Scott’s team won the World Series Cape Island Cup. In 2014 Tom and Scott set the US record for a Photo Big Day, taking pictures of 208 species in one 24-hour period.

He joined Roland Corporation in 1991, managed the recorder division, and retired recently as Director of Technology. While at Roland he designed the features, and managed the marketing for many of the most successful products in the history of the company, including all of their multi-channel digital recording systems He also brokered many third-party relationships with companies ranging from hardware manufacturers like Hewlett Packard and IBM and big-named software firms. He also worked closely with engineers at Apple on a multi-channel audio.

In 2002, he co-founded Roland’s RSS audio division, which designed and sold products for the commercial and home audio markets including solid-state playback systems for Muzak and Disney, and multi-channel Ethernet mixing and distribution systems.

His latest book, The Warbler Guide, is published by Princeton University Press and recently won the National Outdoor Book Award. The Warbler Guide App, for iOS and Android, includes 3D rotating models and won the 2015 Design Award for AAUP Book, Jacket and Journal Show. His app, BirdGenie, is a “shazam” for bird song that helps bird enthusiasts identify over 150 common vocalizations in eastern and western US by recording them on their smart phone. BirdGenie won the prestigious PROSE award from the American Association of Publishers.