Welcome!

Hello, WikiLambo, and welcome to Wikipedia! Thank you for your contributions. I hope you like the place and decide to stay. Here are some pages that you might find helpful:

I hope you enjoy editing here and being a Wikipedian! Please sign your name on talk pages using four tildes (~~~~); this will automatically produce your name and the date. If you need help, check out Wikipedia:Questions, ask me on my talk page, or place {{helpme}} on your talk page and someone will show up shortly to answer your questions. Again, welcome!  BlankVerse 14:30, 17 December 2006 (UTC)Reply

Hi, sorry about the confusion on the barn swallow, go ahead with the posting, it's my fault for being slow to register that it was a quote. Perhaps after the firt sentence of taxonomy might be a better location though. If you have any problems formatting the refs, let me know. jimfbleak (talk) 09:57, 27 June 2008 (UTC)Reply
I've not seen those alt names before, myself jimfbleak (talk) 13:34, 28 June 2008 (UTC)Reply

Wikiproject Birds

edit

G'day James, just thought I'd let you know there is a Wikiproject Birds you may be interested in. Good stuff added to the jackdaw page BTW. Cheers, Casliber (talk · contribs) 13:18, 15 October 2008 (UTC)Reply

Welcome to WP:BIRDS!

edit

Birds of Turkey

edit

Hi WikiLambo: Happy you've joined us, and great to hear that you're tackling Turkey. There's a potentially usesul list at List of birds of Turkey. Going only on what I've found in other bot generated lists (these were created automatically from the Avibase system by another wiki editor), there may be lots of errors! :P Good luck on the Masters; what's your topic? BTW, don't worry if you don't have loads of time to contribute. Few of us do, but we're all chipping away where we can... MeegsC | Talk 19:17, 15 October 2008 (UTC)Reply

WikiProject Birds November newsletter

edit
File:Pitta-like Ground-roller.jpg
The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
Issue VIII (November 2008)

It'll mean a sprint to the finish line to reach our informal goal of 100 FA/GA articles by year's end; we're currently 11 articles shy of that total. A list of possible candidates—articles already containing significant amounts of information, which only need a bit more work to nudge them into contention—can be found here, if you'd like to help.

 
One of the many antbirds...
Articles of note

New featured articles and lists:

  1. Antbird (October 19)

New good articles:

  1. Indigo Bunting (October 30)



Welcome to our newest members


Article statistics



 
Penguin could use some help...
Collaboration efforts
  • This month's collaboration article is Penguin—an iconic and well-known family that is the project's third most popular "read" (after Bird and Chicken). With more than 80,000 readers a month, this article deserves to be one of our first-class entries. Though it's in reasonable shape at the moment, it needs the expansion of a few key sections, and could use considerable referencing as well as some copyediting. Can you help?
  • In a related note, be sure to vote for December's collaboration, which will be chosen on 30 November. As always, we could use a few new nominations—Birdwatching is the only contender at the moment.
Project news
  • Over the last month, we've obtained many new photos from the photosharing website Flickr. Some photos on Flickr are already suitably licensed for use on Wikipedia. However, it's also possible to ask uploaders to change the license of those photo(s) which are unsuitably licensed (by far the majority), and a good proportion of them have been willing to release images when asked. This is particularly useful for articles that currently have no images. There are still thousands of bird articles needing photos and few people involved in this process. Contact Richard001 (talk · contribs) or Snowmanradio (talk · contribs) for more information about how you can help.
  • We have a newly-generated cleanup list to work on. According to its latest stats, we now have more than 13,750 articles in the project, with 760 (5.5%) tagged as needing corrections or improvements of some kind.
Newletter challenge

Maias (talk · contribs) took up last month's challenge, and started our article about the newly-described species Vanikoro White-eye. This month, we're looking for someone to create an article on the Northern Rockhopper Penguin, Eudyptes moseleyi, which has been split by many of the world's authorites; this will remove a redlink from our Penguin article as well. The editor who starts this article and gets it to at least a reasonable stub class will be mentioned in next month's newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.


This has been an automated delivery by TinucherianBot (talk) 07:16, 11 November 2008 (UTC) Reply

Jackdaw

edit

Hi, I've restored the Jackdaw of Rheims. The Aesop deleted text was In several stories from Aesop's Fables the jackdaw is referenced. Such stories are: "The Jackdaw and the Doves", "The Eagle and the Jackdaw", "The Escaped Jackdaw", "The Eagle, the Jackdaw and the Shepherd", and "The Jackdaw and His Borrowed Feathers". doesn't mention the Jackdaw and the Peacock. I left the others because they had references, doesn't necessarily mean they should stay. The pangram, for example, is nothing to do with the bird as such.

There is a list of bird FAs at the project page. Two of these, Red-billed Chough and Common Raven, are about corvid species, so there are plently of examples to look at. If you start on this as an FA, let me know if you need any help. There are lots of images on commons jimfbleak (talk) 07:28, 4 December 2008 (UTC)Reply

WikiProject Birds February newsletter

edit
 

The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
February 2009

Apologies for the long gap between the last newsletter and this one; if anyone is interested in helping to produce these regular updates, assistance would be much appreciated! A new year means new goals: can we get to 50 featured articles for the project before mid-year? We're only three articles away at the moment...

Articles of note

New featured articles and lists (since Oct 31):

  1. Northern Bald Ibis (January 27)

New good articles (since Oct 31):

  1. Huia (January 13)
  2. Djibouti Francolin (January 16)
  3. Golden White-eye (January 20)



Welcome to our newest members


Last year's collaborations
Month Article Status
Jan Andean Condor FA
Feb Emperor Penguin FA
Mar Moa B
Apr Cattle Egret FA
May Cockatiel B
Jun White Wagtail B
Jul Hoatzin B
Aug Ara (genus) B
Sep
Oct Bird of prey Start
Nov Penguin B
Dec
Project news
  • After a few month hiatus, we're about to start up our monthly collaboration article improvement drive again. The results of last year's collaborations were mixed. We started strongly, with three of our first four efforts reaching FA status—two of them before their months had even expired! However, things quickly tailed off after that, and none of our later efforts even reached GA status. Please vote for 2009's first collaboration, which will be chosen on Valentine's Day (14 February). If none of the existing nominations is of interest, consider adding a new one!
  • Bogbumper (talk · contribs) took up the last newsletter's challenge, and started our article about the Northern Rockhopper Penguin, which is recognized by many of the world's taxonomic authorities as being worthy of species status. This month, we're looking for someone to start an article about distraction displays—behaviors used by birds to lure or drive potential predators away from nests or young. The editor who starts this article and gets it to at least a reasonable stub class will be mentioned in next month's newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.


WikiProject Birds March newsletter

edit
 

The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
March 2009

Articles of note
 
Rufous-crowned Sparrow

New good articles:



Article statistics



Project news
 
Cockatoo needs you...
  • Our first collaboration article for 2009 is Cockatoo—a well-known Australasian family of parrots. The article is already in reasonable shape, thanks to early efforts by a number of contributors, and with a little more work, we should be able to get it to GA/FA status. Can we get our first "group star" for the year on this one?
  • On a related note, be sure to vote for April's collaboration article, which will be chosen on March 31. If none of the existing nominations interest you, consider adding a new one!
  • Please be sure to mark any featured lists as FL-class rather than FA-class. All of our current featured lists have been moved into this new(ish) category.
  • Beginning in April, we'll be removing from our "active participants" list the name of any editor who hasn't edited on Wikipedia for 6 months or more, putting them instead into a "retired editors" section. (Please note that will be easy to move yourself back into the active category if you start editing again after an extended absence.) This should help us to better evaluate our project's editor retention and make for more efficient newsletter delivery.
Videos
  • We all know the old adage "A picture is worth a thousand words." And if that's true, videos are probably worth 10,000! They're a great way to add information to articles—for instance by showing behaviours that are hard to explain with text or static pictures. They can also include audio, adding a dimension unavailable in a photo. If you don't have your own video camera, you can still help the project by finding and requesting videos from others who have already taken them (checking, for example, at Flickr, YouTube or The Internet Bird Collection). If you have questions about how to upload videos, several project members, including Richard001 (talk · contribs) or Aviceda (talk · contribs), may be able to help.
Newsletter challenge

Shyamal (talk · contribs) took up the last newsletter's challenge, and started our article about distraction displays—behaviors used by birds to lure or drive potential predators away from nests or young. This month, we're looking for someone to start an article about acoustical luring, which is a method used by some predatory birds to lure potential prey into reach. The person who creates this article and gets it beyond a mere stub level will be mentioned in the next newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.


This has been an automated delivery by Cbrown1023 talk 21:32, 3 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

WikiProject Birds April newsletter

edit
 

The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
April 2009

So close! After many long months of effort, we're only one article away from our project goal of 100 good or featured articles and lists. Can we make it by next month?

Articles of note

New good articles:



New project members



Article statistics



Project news
 
Start your puffins...
  • April's collaboration article is Puffin—a genus-level article about the "little brothers" of the ocean. Although this is another popular article with Wikipedia readers (the 59th most popular bird article, according to February's statistics), it currently ranks only as a "Start". Help us to improve its usefulness to our readers!
  • On a related note, be sure to vote for May's collaboration article, which will be chosen on April 27. If none of the existing nominations interest you, consider adding a new one!
  • The latest copy of the project's cleanup listing shows we're now overseeing more than 14,000 articles. Unfortunately, nearly 900 of them (more than 6%) are tagged as needing cleanup of some kind—from citations for questioned facts and entry of missing ISBN numbers to resolution of POV disputes and requests for expansion. While a considerable number of these could be resolved in a manner of minutes, scores have been awaiting cleanup for the better part of two years! If you've got a few minutes to spare, why not dip into the list and help to reduce the backlog. Of primary importance (from a project standpoint) are the problems identified with our FA articles—including Turkey Vulture.
  • As noted last month, we'll be removing from our "active participants" list the name of any editor who hasn't edited on Wikipedia for 6 months or more, putting them instead into a "retired editors" section. (Please note that will be easy to move yourself back into the active category if you start editing again after an extended absence.) This should help us to better evaluate our project's editor retention and make for more efficient newsletter delivery.
Commons and bird images
  • Except in very rare cases, all bird-related images, sounds and videos should be uploaded to Wikimedia Commons. Those uploaded directly into en.wikipedia cannot be used by other Wikipedia or Wikimedia projects, and are also much harder to find. Unfortunately, there are currently a number of such images in existence. Some are not used in articles, and most are not placed into a bird-specific image category. If you come across one, please consider moving it to Wikimedia Commons, which has a much better system for categorizing bird images. You can search for and move images yourself, but or you can simply add them to Category:Bird images (which should only contain images from en.wikipedia, with the occasional exception such as featured pictures), which allows others to find and move them. If you need any assistance in getting starting, please contact Richard001 (talk · contribs).
Newsletter challenge

It was decided (by talk page agreement) that last month's challenge was too specific; instead a redirect was created to the aggressive mimicry article, which was expanded slightly with bird-related information. This month, we're looking for someone to start an article about ornithophily—pollination by bird; currently, this "article" exists only as a redirect to the more general article about zoophily. The person who creates this article and gets it beyond a mere stub level will be mentioned in the next newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.


WikiProject Birds May newsletter

edit
 

The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
May 2009

We've done it! With the awarding of a GA rating to Australian Magpie, we reached the milestone of 100 FA/FL/GA articles for the project. And that's fitting, since it was Casliber (talk · contribs) who both shepherded the magpie article to its rating, and who challenged us to the goal of reaching 100 in the first place. We also reached our goal of 50 FA articles, when Rufous-crowned Sparrow got its star. Well done everybody; those are major accomplishments. Now, on to 150…

Articles of note

New featured articles:

New good articles:


New project members


Article statistics


 
Red Knot
Project news
  • May's collaboration article is Red Knot, a widespread species which is in increasing peril across much of its worldwide range. (Some scientists have predicted that the American subspecies, for instance, may be extinct as soon as 2010.) Help us to raise the profile of this worldwide shorebird.
  • On a related note, be sure to vote for June's collaboration article, which will be chosen on May 27. If none of the existing nominations interest you, consider adding a new one!
"Heard" birds

Spoken articles are Wikipedia articles which have been read aloud and recorded. Such recordings make Wikipedia content available for visually challenged users, for those who can understand English but cannot read it, for those who enjoy podcasting, and for people learning English. Currently, WP:BIRDS has 14 spoken articles—a tiny fraction of the more than 13,000 articles and lists overseen by the project. There is a real need to increase this number, and it's easy to help with the process. Recording an article can be done using a home computer with a microphone and the free software Audacity. The Spoken Wikipedia WikiProject oversees all recording efforts, and their project pages should be followed carefully to ensure that agreed standards of access, content and performance are met. Please contact AshLin (talk · contribs) for more information.

Newsletter challenge

Shyamal (talk · contribs) stepped up yet again and created an excellent, well-referenced start to the ornithophily article. This month, we're looking for someone to split the article about Bonelli's Warbler into two species: Eastern Bonelli's Warbler and Western Bonelli's Warbler, both of which currently exist only as redirects. The person who splits this article and separates the appropriate information into each new article will be mentioned in the next newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.


WikiProject Birds June newsletter

edit
 

The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
June 2009

With three new additions to the project's FA/FL/GA article count, we're on our way towards our next goal — of 150 such articles. Ruff and Alpine Chough are currently good article nominations; drop by their candidacy pages to comment, review or suggest improvements!

Articles of note

New featured list:

New good articles:


New project members
 
Secretary Bird
Project news
  • June's collaboration article is Secretary Bird, about an iconic long-legged African raptor, which is widespread throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Our current featured articles display a decided "Anglophone" bent; can you help us to get our first African species to FA?
  • On a related note, be sure to vote for July's collaboration article, which will be chosen on June 27. If none of the existing nominations interest you, consider adding a new one!
  • There still 16 bird families with articles currently considered to be Stubs—great progress if you think back to the scores we had last year, but still more than we should have. Any assistance in reducing that number would be much appreciated!
Newsletter challenge

SP-KP (talk · contribs) met last month's challenge and split our former "Bonelli's Warbler" article into Eastern Bonelli's Warbler and Western Bonelli's Warbler, reflecting widespread agreement among taxonomists that the two former subspecies merit their own species; jimfbleak (talk · contribs) helped with taxobox reorganization. This month, we're looking for someone to wikify our Brazilian Merganser article. The editor(s) who perform this needed service will be mentioned in next month's newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.


Gropecunt Lane

edit

Hi there

Its best you place your concerns on the article's talk page. That way, all significant contributors will be able to see it, and any discussion can be kept in one place, rather than spread across several talk pages. I have no objections to any changes being made - but with WP:FA status, its best to discuss things before making significant edits. Parrot of Doom (talk) 13:38, 9 July 2009 (UTC)Reply

Help for Lost Lexicographers

edit

If you feel alone in encyclopaedia, you might want to come to where far more lexicographers hang out and do actual lexicography. It has a tea room. Uncle G (talk) 16:29, 9 July 2009 (UTC)Reply

WikiProject Birds August newsletter

edit
 

The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
August 2009

We're looking for input on several topics this month — including whether we should change the period of time we work on collaboration articles from a month to a quarter, and whether we should change the authority for our species (and article) naming from Handbook of Birds of the World to the International Ornithological Committee's World Bird List. Be sure to add your two cents (or pence or rand or rupees or pesos or bolivars or whatever other currency is appropriate) to the discussions...

Articles of note
 
Macaroni Penguin — just one of the project's new Featured Articles

New featured articles:

  1. Macaroni Penguin (June 2)
  2. Australian Magpie (July 7)
  3. Ruff (July 14)

New good articles:

  1. Alpine Chough (June 23)
  2. Red-throated Diver (July 18)


New project members


Article statistics


Potential collaboration changes

The question has been raised as to whether we should change our collaboration article period from monthly to quarterly. Please weigh in on the debate — and be sure to list anything you'd like to have considered for possible collaboration efforts.

Project news
 
What's my name? Help decide — see the text.
  • A proposal has been made to change the standard source for species (and article) names from Handbook of Birds of the World to the International Ornithological Committee's World Bird List. Do you agree or disagree? Comments and opinions are sought here.
  • There's renewed interest in getting some of our nearly-there topics ready for a run at Featured Topic. Currently, there are a trio of potentials: the Procellaridae, the New World vultures and the choughs. Each of the first two have two articles that will need to be improved to at least GA-class before the topic can be nominated. For the procellarids, Procellariiformes is currently B-class and Diving-petrel is currently Start-class. For New World vultures, New World vulture is currently B-class, and Cathartes is currently Start-class. The choughs are currently up for Good Topic listing — but getting either Alpine Chough or Chough to FA-class would enable us to put that one up for featured topic as well.
  • Last month saw the start of an Outline of Birds, which should eventually provide a project index, allowing interested readers to more easily access all of the articles associated with WikiProject Birds. Help to populate the outline with any articles you find missing.
 
I need a proper introduction!
Newsletter challenge

Prashanthns (talk · contribs) met the last newsletter challenge and wikified the Brazilian Merganser article. This issue, we're looking for someone to expand the Semnornis (toucan-barbets) article from Stub-class to Start-class. The editor who does so will be named in next month's newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.


Newsletter delivery by –xeno talk 02:11, 6 August 2009 (UTC)Reply

Science lovers wanted!

edit
Science lovers wanted!
 
Hi! I'm serving as the wikipedian-in-residence at the Smithsonian Institution Archives until June! One of my goals as resident, is to work with Wikipedians and staff to improve content on Wikipedia about people who have collections held in the Archives - most of these are scientists who held roles within the Smithsonian and/or federal government. I thought you might like to participate since you are interested in the sciences! Sign up to participate here and dive into articles needing expansion and creation on our to-do list. Feel free to make a request for images or materials at the request page, and of course, if you share your successes at the outcomes page you will receive the SIA barnstar! Thanks for your interest, and I look forward to your participation! Sarah (talk) 02:30, 17 April 2012 (UTC)Reply

Main Page appearance: Western Jackdaw

edit

This is a note to let the main editors of Western Jackdaw know that the article will be appearing as today's featured article on April 22, 2013. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page. If you prefer that the article appear as TFA on a different date, or not at all, please ask featured article director Raul654 (talk · contribs) or one of his delegates (Dabomb87 (talk · contribs), Gimmetoo (talk · contribs), and Bencherlite (talk · contribs)), or start a discussion at Wikipedia talk:Today's featured article/requests. You can view the TFA blurb at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/April 22, 2013. If it needs tweaking, or if it needs rewording to match improvements to the article between now and its main page appearance, please edit it, following the instructions at Wikipedia:Today's featured article/requests/instructions. The blurb as it stands now is below:

The Western Jackdaw is a passerine bird in the crow family. The name derives from the word "jack", meaning "small", and "daw", its native English name. Found across Europe, western Asia and North Africa, it is mostly resident, although northern and eastern populations migrate south in winter. Four subspecies are recognised, which mainly differ in the colouration of the plumage on the head and nape. Linnaeus first described it formally. Later analysis of its DNA shows that, with its closest relative the Daurian Jackdaw, it is an early offshoot from the genus Corvus, and possibly distinct enough to warrant reclassification in a separate genus, Coloeus. Measuring 34–39 centimetres (13–15 in) in length, the Western Jackdaw has black plumage with a grey nape and distinctive pale-grey irises. It is gregarious and vocal, living in small groups with a complex social structure in farmland, open woodland, on coastal cliffs, and in urban settings. An omnivorous and opportunistic feeder, it eats a wide variety of plant material and invertebrates, as well as food waste from urban areas. Western Jackdaws are monogamous and build simple nests of sticks in cavities in trees, cliffs, or buildings. (Full article...)

UcuchaBot (talk) 23:02, 8 April 2013 (UTC)Reply

edit

Hi. Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help. We noticed though that when you edited Many-banded krait, you added a link pointing to the disambiguation page Telegu. Such links are almost always unintended, since a disambiguation page is merely a list of "Did you mean..." article titles. Read the FAQ • Join us at the DPL WikiProject.

It's OK to remove this message. Also, to stop receiving these messages, follow these opt-out instructions. Thanks, DPL bot (talk) 08:58, 14 July 2014 (UTC)Reply

ArbCom elections are now open!

edit

Hi,
You appear to be eligible to vote in the current Arbitration Committee election. The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to enact binding solutions for disputes between editors, primarily related to serious behavioural issues that the community has been unable to resolve. This includes the ability to impose site bans, topic bans, editing restrictions, and other measures needed to maintain our editing environment. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail. If you wish to participate, you are welcome to review the candidates' statements and submit your choices on the voting page. For the Election committee, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 13:59, 23 November 2015 (UTC)Reply

Fair Use in Australia discussion

edit

As an Australian Wikipedian, your opinion is sought on a proposal to advocate for the introduction of Fair Use into Australian copyright law. The discussion is taking place at the Australian Wikipedians' notice board, please read the proposal and comment there. MediaWiki message delivery MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 11:08, 2 March 2017 (UTC)Reply

This message has been automatically sent to all users in Category:Australian Wikipedians. If you do not wish to receive further messages like this, please either remove your user page from this category, or add yourself to Category:Opted-out of message delivery