A system for encoding bird field notes |  |
A system for encoding bird field notes | |
Several other aspects of bird observations are worth recording. Here are some:
Age and sex. For most purposes two age classes (adult and immature) suffice.
Description. The rarer the record, the more skepticism will greet it. It's important in these cases for the observer to report on what basis the bird was identified. What did the plumage look like? What was its overall shape? The color of unfeathered parts such as bills and feet?
Vocalization. The calls and songs birds make can be important in identification and are of interest in their own right.
Behavior. The actions of birds are another area worth studying.
Solidity of identification. Is the observer convinced that the identification of the kind of bird is correct?
Whether the form is considered countable by the American Birding Association. For example, exotics are not countable until they establish a stable breeding population over ten years, so all the author's sightings of Whooping Crane in New Mexico are not countable.
The list may grow with time as this system of representation matures. One of the virtues of XML is that you can add new tag and attribute types to a document type as the needs change.
With these considerations in mind, let us turn to the actual XML schema.