Any Colourblind birders out there? (3 Viewers)

[Trevor-Diss]

I'm green-red colourblind, this can make it extremely difficult for me to identify certain species, especially at a distance.

Are there any others out here with the same affliction (15-20% of the white male population is colourblind to some extent), how do you cope with identification and when do you have to ask the lady in your life (less than 1% of the white female population is colourblind) just exactly what bird is it you photographeed today

As a footnote, I'm not being politically incorrect when I mention 'white' as non white men are rarely colourblind

 

[citrinella]

I'm green-red colourblind, this can make it extremely difficult for me to identify certain species, especially at a distance.

Are there any others out here with the same affliction (15-20% of the white male population is colourblind to some extent), how do you cope with identification and when do you have to ask the lady in your life (less than 1% of the white female population is colourblind) just exactly what bird is it you photographeed today

As a footnote, I'm not being politically incorrect when I mention 'white' as non white men are rarely colourblind

Me too, but I have different information on colour blindness.

1. I was told about 1 in 8 males were colour blind, but have since found out this was a mis-quote : it is about 8 per cent.

2. My many Chinese friends say the situation is similar in their population.

For birding - a great frustration. I know one other colour-blind birder and he is much better at id than me - because he is better on calls.

I should have started working on call id as soon as I became interested in birds. It is the main reason why I started photographing birds - so I could take the photo to someone who wasn't colour blind for help. But that loses the jizz and the call, so the photos need to be pretty good

So the message is - study the calls. Mind you, any birder will benefit from that, especially in woodland !

At a distance ? All sorts of difficulties may accrue which have nothing to do with colour blindness. My eyesight has deteriorated significantly in recent years and I have spent a fair bit of money on better glass. Jizz is important is you cannot pick out the call. At the weekend I glimpsed two flocks at about half a mile which I am pretty sure were golden plover by the way they grouped, flew, turned and caught the light. Not certain, and I lost them before I could pick up the binoculars.

At the end of the day you just have to be satisfied with what you can be sure of. If you aren't positive - don't worry about it, many people have much more serious things to worry about !

Mike.

 

[rezMole]

Once saw on TV a piece about a blind birdwatcher who identified everything by sound. He was going round some woods with Bill Oddie - who was most impressed - So was I.

 

[John P]

I can't pass the Ishihara tests and so I'm considered red/green colour blind.

The effects vary greatly from person to person and I don't feel in any way incapacitated, I look at colours of things and usually agree what they are with other people although I may be seeing something in a slightly different tone or on the other hand I may be seeing something completely different, but if I see something as orange or blue (or whatever) other people are seeing the same colours too.

The only thing I really struggle with is seeing things like the red on a Redpoll's head, if I'm really close and in good light I can see it but otherewise it's just not really there.


PS. I can do the one at the top left of the Ishihara page but that's all.

 

[Mysticete]

I have partial red green colorblindness, although I think it is rather slight, and mainly seems to cause different shades of green to look the same to me. So far this has not been a huge problem, however I expect it adds another ounce of difficulty in identifying empidonax flycatchers

 

[shrikebirder]

I'm red-green and blue-purple colour blind, though I don't find birding that difficult ( I use shades ).

 

[Keith Dickinson]

I've got a moderate problem with red/green, much greater problem with separating dark colours, no idea if black, dark blue, green or red.
Causes minimal problem with birding as I use more black and white cues to help me, I practised this by watching videos with the colour turned off so only B & W pics. It's surprising how much this can help as you stop trying to work out the colours and concentrate on the dark areas and light areas, which are quite distinctive in a lot of species.
Only time it didn't work was with a lot of the warblers, which is why I am still pretty poor at ID-ing these.

 

[Vectis Birder]

One of the best bird photographers in the world, Romy Ocon, is colour-blind.

 

[Clive Watson]

One of the best bird photographers in the world, Romy Ocon, is colour-blind.

I never knew that! He's taken some fabulous stuff. I also had no idea that the incidence of it varied with ethnicity. I once knew a woman who was colour-blind - very rare!

 

[JamesA]

I'm red-green and blue-purple colour blind

Exactly the same here. Can be annoying, but not in a big way.

 

[joannec]

........ blue-purple colour blind, though I don't find birding that difficult ( I use shades ).

My husband tells me when he was little he got told off for colouring the sky in purple on a class mural. Everyone else's bits of sky were shades of blue but he evidently spoiled the picture.

 

[gambirder]

I am. No probs with kingfishers, robins or goldfinches . . . but if a bird has say an "olive wash" Grrrrrrrrr!!! And don't get me started on blue / purple / green glosses on indigobirds / glossy starlings and the like. |=@|

 

[gambirder]

And another thing, its really unfair of birds to have "ish" in their plumage. "Greenish"?? Pah! I ask you. Look if you're gonna be green BE GREEN none of this ish rubb...ISH

 

[socialist plover]

This is a problem I have as well. I'm hopeless on the red/green thing, and several years ago I had an eye test at a newspaper I worked with and was told that I'm skew-whiff on the "violet spectrum" (I think that's what they said anyway).
One of the problems is that because my colour perception (I say perception, because I can see colours, just can't distinguish many of them) is so bad, I have learned from an early age not to use colour as a significant marker for anything. For example, if I were to witness a car crash and someone asked me later the colour of the cars, I'd probably say one was lightish and one was darkish rather than their specific colour. This means that, even with colours I can see, I subconsciously take less note of them than I should. This 'filtering' actually compounds and deepens your physical colour-blindness!
I believe that if you're colour-blind, you start doing this from an early age because your brain works out that your colour perception is shaky, even if you're not consciously aware of it at the time. Instead you concentrate on other things, like shape, size etc.
It's these things I rely on more when birding. I'm still hopeless, mind you, and not sure how much I can put that down to colour-blindness.
There are certain species I know I will never be able to find by myself because of the colour thing, and that's just something you get used to. As someone else here said, there are bigger problems in life to worry about!

 

[Trevor-Diss]

I'd like to thank everyone who 'owned' up to being colourblind and it will definately encourage me to learn other ways of identifying the species, my main problem now is I spend most of my time walking riverbanks or coastal areas and this is where you tend to see lots of birds showing similiar colours with just a beak or leg colour being the only difference in some cases.

Still I'll enjoy my time out watching and walking, taking the photo's and probably asking more dumb questions

 

[steve_zodiac]

Not colour blind but I do have a condition which causes me problems when I'm birding sometimes - I have permanent tinnitus. Usually when I'm in a really quiet location I have trouble listening for bird calls.

 

[Trevor-Diss]

My father had permanent tinnitus, it must be really hard to live with at times lets alone listen to birdsong

 

[Peewit]

Tinnitus might be awful to have as it affects all parts of your life.

Just to see people who are tormented by the condition is quite upsetting to see.

My brother is colourblind and has the Purple/blue and red/green problem. He was diagnosed when he was young.

I am pleased this did not affect his work as he is an accountant. He does not need to see colours at all as much as other people.

I am sure that some people have problems with their jobs as well their hobbies. Must be quite a 'pain' to deal with. I would imagine people like the Police and the Army would discredit you for being colourblind.

When you go for an eye test does anyone remember getting the green/red test. A test where you are asked to look at the red and green lit rectangles. You have to identify a circle in the middle. One of the circles is bolder lined then the other. That is the one you have to identify. To me that is a form of checking colour as well as sight impairments.

 

[Chewbaxter]

A"Red-Greener" here :t:

Generally I'm okay until someone says "it's that one over there with the green markings" then I'm stumped!

And the bins don't help... you still can't make out the colour... it just helps you to struggle in more detail!

:t:

Neil.