OFO News February 2024 17 NATURE-CURIOUS PEOPLE flock to birding because birds are beautiful and inspiring, not because of some scientific notation. It’s easy to spend a lifetime simply enjoy- ing birds, without learning a lot of jargon. And yet, for various reasons, an increas- ing number of birders are finding their way to the four-letter bird code. I first became aware of the four-letter bird code many years ago while out with other birders. The hike leader referred to a Mourning Dove as a “MODO,” and I was puzzled. She explained that it was the bird’s code name. Intrigued, I did a bit of research when I got home. Systematic bird banding was intro- duced in 1899 by Hans Mortensen, a Danish educator. Dr. Paul Bartsch, a microbiologist, has been credited with introducing systematic bird banding in North America in 1902. Through most of the 20th century, North American bird banders would either use a bird’s name in full in their records or they would use a personal or local shorthand. There were no standar- dized national or international codes in wide use. In early 1978, an article titled “Standard Abbreviations for Common Names of Birds” co-authored by Kath- leen Klimkiewicz and Chandler Robbins was published in the periodical North American Bird Bander introducing the four-letter bird code. This code was designed to facilitate orderly record- keeping. The Bird Banding Laboratory (which currently operates under the umbrella of the US government’s US Geological Survey) endorsed the sim- plicity and uniformity of the system. It was subsequently adopted for broad use by bird banders across the continent. THE BASIC APPROACH was easy enough. Unique four-letter identifiers were est- ablished for almost every North Ameri- can wild bird species. ■ For birds with one-word common names, the first four letters become the code. The code for Mallard is MALL and for Gadwall it is GADW . ■ For birds with two-word common names, the code is the first two letters of each word, so the Northern Mockingbird is NOMO and the Mourning Dove is MODO. ■ For three-word bird common names, if the first two words are hyphenated, the first letter of the first two words with the first two let- ters of the third word form the code. For example, the code for a Red- breasted Nuthatch is RBNU. ■ For birds with four-word common birds names, the first letter of each word is used. Not surprisingly, there were a few ins- tances that created coding conflicts. For example, Cerulean Warbler and Cedar Waxwing would both resolve to CEWA. For these few exceptional cases, special unique identifiers were created. The Cer- ulean’s code is CERW while the Cedar Waxwing’s is CEDW. Bird banders were generally pleased to have a simplified, standardized, more efficient approach. In 2003, the US- based Institute for Bird Populations, a non-profit that studies the causes of bird population declines, waded in to address Although most keen birders would simply know this bird as a Red-eyed Vireo, those who use the four-letter bird code might call it a REVI. Unlocking the avian alphabet BY PAUL NICHOLSON Red-eyed Vireo Photo by Nancy Barrett