Slightly OT: WashPost clueless bird illustrations

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Janet Millenson

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Mar 23, 2023, 4:45:32 PM3/23/23
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The printed "Local Living" section in today's Washington Post has a feature article "Become a backyard birdwatcher" with some jarringly wrong illustrations. The cover art includes local birds like a robin and a Baltimore Oriole -- plus a Great Tit, a European bird, perched on top of the feeder. The deep green hummingbird looks a little suspicious to me, too. Inside, a stock photo is captioned "Several birds splash around in a birdbath." I'm not as well-traveled as many of you, but they look like some kind of white-eyes, another Old World family.

Maybe one of you experts can write a letter to the editor? Birders are everywhere; how could they not find one to vet these illustrations?!?

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Janet Millenson
Potomac, MD (Montgomery County)
ja...@twocrows.com


Strobel, Warren

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Mar 23, 2023, 4:52:43 PM3/23/23
to Janet Millenson, mdbirding
I noticed the White-Eyes as well. Hilarious! And kinda sad.

Warren P. Strobel
National Security reporter
The Wall Street Journal
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A: 1025 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 800 | Washington, D.C. 20036
Dow Jones


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Gail Mackiernan

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Mar 23, 2023, 5:13:27 PM3/23/23
to Strobel, Warren, Janet Millenson, mdbirding
Also the male Downy Woodpecker was misidentified as a female Hairy Woodpecker. 

Assume the article’s author did not “vet” the photos. Reminds me of when my department at U.MD did a public service announcement about the importance of protecting Chesapeake Bay wetlands. Our video producer selected some bird songs for the background for the voiceover. He came up with White-throated Sparrow, Hermit Thrush and Mourning Dove! Obviously I put a stop to that! He ended up with Red-winged Blackbird, Marsh Wren and Sora. 

Gail Mackiernan
Colesville

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Pat

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Mar 23, 2023, 5:40:13 PM3/23/23
to Gail Mackiernan, Strobel, Warren, Janet Millenson, mdbirding
The author would have nothing to do with the artwork, but an astute editor or proofreader should have let the artist and caption writer know there were mistakes.

Pat

Pat Valdata
Crisfield, MD

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Carol Sottili

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Mar 23, 2023, 6:04:44 PM3/23/23
to Pat, Gail Mackiernan, Strobel, Warren, Janet Millenson, mdbirding
When I worked at the Post, I convinced several editors to run all bird IDs through me after we made an egregious ID error on a hawk and received lots of blowback. I even got called at home when a bird ID was in question. It’s too bad they don’t still identify and run things by staff who have expertise in specific areas. 
BTW, I just returned from birding Costa Rica. What a great place!
Carol Sottili



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On Mar 23, 2023, at 5:40 PM, Pat <pval...@gmail.com> wrote:



JAMES SPEICHER

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Mar 23, 2023, 6:07:50 PM3/23/23
to Janet Millenson, mdbirding
It can be fun to pick out errors in the media, but how many of us could get articles out every day on deadline with fewer errors?  Local Living has been called to task at other times for featuring articles that have not even a smidgen of "localness" about them, so this article was quite refreshing in that regard.  Chalk it up to fewer staff, leaner budgets, etc.

I personally liked that the focus was on finding birds around the home and that birding isn't/shouldn't be a competitive sport.  

Jim S

On Thu, Mar 23, 2023 at 4:45 PM Janet Millenson <ja...@twocrows.com> wrote:

Sarah Lister

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Mar 23, 2023, 7:03:39 PM3/23/23
to Strobel, Warren, Janet Millenson, mdbirding
The digital version has the same header illustration but not the birdbath pic. 
Many of the plants in the illustration aren't native either. Ironic, given the focus.
The rest of the pics in this version are local (or at least local species). 
Doug Tallamy and Tykee James are both interviewed for the piece. I'd bet that the choice of illustration was made by the editor and that Doug and Tykee, and possibly the writer, were not involved in this choice.
A letter to the editor would be informative. 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/mdbirding/CAFedNpWRT3SKpA0okcip_3K_1_pjWUeEe0iFo73Pi9WggTw2EQ%40mail.gmail.com.

Ann Hobbs

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Mar 23, 2023, 7:23:39 PM3/23/23
to MDBIRDING
What I really loved about the article was that I did not see one negative remark in the comments!  So refreshing!
Ann Hobbs
Silver Spring, MD

On Mar 23, 2023, at 7:03 PM, Sarah Lister <samjli...@gmail.com> wrote:



Gail Mackiernan

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Mar 24, 2023, 5:51:13 AM3/24/23
to JAMES SPEICHER, Janet Millenson, mdbirding
The complaint is not about the article but the illustrations. This was simply laziness on the part of the Post, as well as a failure to run the photos past the writer, a very serious error. (And I used to work for a department that had a weekly science-based newsletter so know what that entails.) It is a lot of work but that does not excuse careless errors, which these were. 

Gail Mackiernan
Colesville

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Michel Cavigelli

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Mar 24, 2023, 6:41:13 AM3/24/23
to JAMES SPEICHER, Gail Mackiernan, Janet Millenson, mdbirding
I actually thought one point made in the story did not make sense: putting out any kind of seed will attract birds. that's just not true, right?

Ann Hobbs

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Mar 24, 2023, 7:45:24 AM3/24/23
to Gail Mackiernan, MDBIRDING
Interestingly, the illustrations in the online version of the article, except for the first one, appear to be appropriate and accurate.  Since the online version usually appears before the print version, something must have happened in the translation—perhaps a need to fit everything properly on a printed page?
Ann Hobbs
Silver Spring

On Mar 24, 2023, at 5:51 AM, Gail Mackiernan <katah...@comcast.net> wrote:

 The complaint is not about the article but the illustrations. This was simply laziness on the part of the Post, as well as a failure to run the photos past the writer, a very serious error. (And I used to work for a department that had a weekly science-based newsletter so know what that entails.) It is a lot of work but that does not excuse careless errors, which these were. 
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