We’re very fortunate here at 10,000 Birds that our blog attracts a good number of visitors - in 2008 we’d had over 100,000 visitors by mid-April - and very grateful too (no-one likes to get really excited about a project only to find that no-one else gives a damn of course). We’re also fortunate that an increasing number of visitors think that it’s worth asking us to help out with, for example, identification queries, what do with a “baby bird” they’ve just found, or which field-guide they should use on a visit to eg the UK. It seems to us that at the very least it means that our enthusiasm and genuine love for birds is recognised, and - even - that some people out there in the blogosphere feel we might actually be pretty good at what we do!

We’ve been answering readers’ emails on pretty much an ad hoc basis for many months - a question comes in to one of us, we pass it around and one of us answers if we can, and one of us apologises if we can’t. That, though, seems to be missing a good opportunity to do what we really enjoy: spreading bird-related information, involving our visitors, and building an online community (aim for the sky eh?).

Why not instead, we thought, create a more open way of doing things, and actually promote the fact that, hey, we love to help and we’re proud that you think we can? While we’re doing that why not also ask a couple of colleagues if they’d like to join an informal “panel” and really ensure that our knowledge base is spread as wide as possible? Now we’re talking…

What we’ve decided to do then is this:

• Set up what we’re calling the “10,000 Birds Clinic” and use the by-line “Got a question about bird ID, birding best practices, or hotspots across six continents? Ask 10,000 Birds!“
• It doesn’t stop there. We’ve also asked Nial Moores (my brother, but also the Director of the conservation organisation Birds Korea and an expert in East Asian birds) and Jochen Roeder (well-known for his quirky Bell Tower Birding blog, but also an extremely knowledgeable and well-travelled birder) to join Mike, Corey, and myself on the firing line.
• On top of that we’re going to post all the questions and answers online where - hopefully - they may be of use to our present and future readers.
• And if our ‘panel’ can’t answer the question (and we’re not so arrogant or stupid that we think we know everything by any means) - well, it’ll be online and we can open it up to the greatest knowledge-base I know of: our readers - and has a more genuinely insightful, friendly, helpful, experienced bunch of birders and naturalists ever been available for the general good before? Okay, I’m exaggerating a little, but I’m serious too, so please consider this an open invitation to join in.

Like to meet the Panel (before you trust them to answer your questions)?.
Of course you would…

Mike Bergin: Mike lives in New York and is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but what he really aspires to be is a naturalist. Besides founding 10,000 Birds and I and the Bird, Mike is an enthusiastic ‘coder’, designing our current incarnation - and has also created a number of other entertaining sites and resources such as Nature Blog Network and Best Birding Tours.

Charlie Moores: Charlie lives in the UK, works for an airline, and has birded all over the world for more than twenty years. He wants to be a writer, and thinks no-one would believe his life could be so charmed if he didn’t take photos of as many of the birds he sees as possible. Blogging with 10,000 Birds fits his aims, needs, and insecurities perfectly. Really - do birders get much more fortunate than this?

Corey Finger: Corey is a lifelong upstate New Yorker who recently took the plunge and moved to the city. He’s only been birding since 2005 but has garnered a respectable life list and broke the magical 300 barrier in New York State in 2007 by birding whenever he wasn’t working as a union representative. He lives near Forest Park in Queens with Daisy and their two indoor cats, Hunter and B.B.

Jochen Roeder: Despite currently birding mostly from behind a newborn’s stroller, Jochen still remembers what a lot of birds look like as he has covered almost all of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, Namibia and South Africa. He has lived in the US (twice) but is now back in Germany, from where he says he’s happy to join the panel and “cause even more confusion by adding the little knowledge I can muster”.

Nial Moores: Director of conservation organisation Birds Korea, Nial has lived and worked in both Japan and (currently) South Korea, is a renowned tour-leader and is an acknowledged expert on the region’s birds (especially its endangered shorebirds which he is particularly passionate about). He also knows a lot about Radiohead - which may or may not come in useful…

So, there you go. Send in your queries, we’ll do our very best to give you the benefit of our combined experience, and if we’re not certain we can give you the best and most accurate information you could wish for we’ll open your question up to everyone who drops into 10,000 Birds to see if they can help. Oh, and while the cost of gas is going through the roof, house-prices teeter on the edge, and utility bills dig ever deeper into what’s left of your savings are we going to start charging for this service? Of course we’re not…

So, how do you get your question/query/inquiry/problem et al in to the 10,000 Birds Clinic?
It couldn’t be easier. Just mail me, Charlie, at charlie10000birds - AT - gmail.com. The rest of the process will kick smoothly into action, and your answer will be delivered - gift-wrapped and tied with a bow - within a day or two (perhaps not, but we’ll do our best anyway and that’s a promise).

And where might you go if you want to browse the questions, answers, or combined “Don’t Knows” of the Clinic? Simply go to the top of the sidebar, click on “Pages” and scroll down to “10,000 Birds Clinic”, or if you’re on the homepage go down to the “Welcome to 10,000 Birds” box, and click on the (soon to be created) “10,000 Birds Clinic” link. Easy as well!

How does that sound eh? Not too shabby if you ask me (which, hopefully, some of you may be doing anytime soon…)

Okay then, as of today, the “10,000 Birds Clinic” is OPEN! “Got a question about bird ID, birding best practices, or hotspots across six continents?” You have? We look forward to being of service…