Phantasms and Fallacies— Problems and Pitfalls in Bird Identification with Julian Hough

The San Diego Field Ornithologists Zoom meeting was held on 16 June 2026. Julian Hough's presentation was entitled: Phantasms and Fallacies— Problems and Pitfalls in Bird Identification Why is it a large group of birders can look at one species and all of them will misidentify it? Why do certain people consistently find an inordinate amount of rare birds? Why are some birders seemingly able to identify birds at great distance on brief or distant views with Ninja-like ability? These questions and many more can be answered by looking at the psychology of how we look at birds. Julian Hough takes a look at the subconscious workings of our brain—and how it can often fail us when birding. From Lancashire, England, Julian has been interested in birds since the age of six. He spent his early years birding around the British Isles in the pursuit of rare birds and worked briefly as a journalist on Britain’s top-selling birding magazine Birdwatching. Julian spent his early 20s cutting his U.S. birding teeth in Cape May, New Jersey. Birder by day and waiter by night, he managed to squirrel away enough tips to backpack around the globe. Two years were spent as part of a team conducting neotropical migration counts for Cape May Bird Observatory, helping define what is now commonly known as “Morning Flight” and one season as a research biologist at Long Point Bird Observatory in Ontario, Canada. Julian has done some moonlighting as a professional bird guide for Sunrise Birding to places such as Alaska, Jamaica, China and Uganda. An artist, photographer and writer, his work has been widely published in numerous European and American publications. Along with the late Russell Slack, he designed, produced and illustrated Rare Birds Where and When. After four decades of globe-trotting adventures involving too many planes, trains and automobiles, he is currently settled in New Haven, Connecticut with his son Alex. Please feel free to become a member of the San Diego Field Ornithologists! https://sandiegofieldornithologists.org