Birding (bird watching) is one of the most popular pastimes world wide. This hobby can be extremely relaxing and exciting. Learning to identify bird species locally and internationally by either their individual calls or using your visual senses. If you are interested in birds and birding or birdwatching and would like to find out more information ACS can help by giving you an opportuniy to study ornithology with us via our unique distance education courses.

Click here for an outline on our Ornithology course BEN102

Ornithology - the study of birds

With more than 9000 species distributed over nearly the entire earth, birds far outnumber all other vertebrates except the fishes. Birds are among the most beautiful, fascinating and amazing creatures on the planet. Their brilliant plumage, the complexity of their social behaviour and the sheer range of their forms have combined to provide a special attraction. For variety and beauty there is no other class of animal that can come anywhere near the birds. They range in size from the tiny humming birds weighing only a few grams to the giant ostrich, measured in kilograms. Their lifestyle diversity is immense. Birds live in all kinds of habitat from forests to deserts, mountains and prairies, all the oceans and even Antarctica. There are birds that feed on nothing but seeds or nectar and others that pursue living prey by sometimes unique and often ferocious ways; their courtship and mating rituals range from the simple to the highly complex and idiosyncratic, and they demonstrate enormous variety in methods of locomotion and flight. This course will introduce you to many of these amazing characteristics within the world of aves.

Here is a link to our Student Magazine where you can access topics of interest submitted by students studying with ACS Distance Education. One of our students Barbara Bacci has submitted the two following pieces of work click here for Raptors and Kingfishers or click here for Seabirds and Waterbirds.