The Birds WikiProject Newsletter
May 2009

We've done it! With the awarding of a GA rating to Australian Magpie, we reached the milestone of 100 FA/FL/GA articles for the project. And that's fitting, since it was Casliber ( talk · contribs) who both shepherded the magpie article to its rating, and who challenged us to the goal of reaching 100 in the first place. We also reached our goal of 50 FA articles, when Rufous-crowned Sparrow got its star. Well done everybody; those are major accomplishments. Now, on to 150…

Articles of note

New featured articles:

• Tree Sparrow (April 4)
• Rufous-crowned Sparrow (April 18)

New good articles:

• Australian Magpie (April 15)

New project members

• Welbergen ( talk · contribs)

Article statistics

Bird articles by quality and importance
Quality	Importance
	Top	High	Mid	Low	NA	???	Total
FA	2	19	61	152			234
FL	1		6	23			30
FM					616		616
GA	6	10	34	149			199
B	10	37	66	229			342
C	12	100	253	1,056		5	1,426
Start	5	114	832	6,175		3	7,129
Stub		16	1,310	7,969		2	9,297
List		10	75	734	107	1	927
Category				4	3,866		3,870
Disambig				2	195		197
File				1	305		306
Portal					57		57
Project					58		58
Redirect	1	14	98	222	2,016		2,351
Template				1	276		277
Other					6		6
Assessed	37	320	2,735	16,717	7,502	11	27,322
Unassessed						10	10
Total	37	320	2,735	16,717	7,502	21	27,332
WikiWork factors ( ?)		ω = 98,555			Ω = 5.29

Project news

• May's collaboration article is Red Knot, a widespread species which is in increasing peril across much of its worldwide range. (Some scientists have predicted that the American subspecies, for instance, may be extinct as soon as 2010.) Help us to raise the profile of this worldwide shorebird.
• On a related note, be sure to vote for June's collaboration article, which will be chosen on May 27. If none of the existing nominations interest you, consider adding a new one!

"Heard" birds

Spoken articles are Wikipedia articles which have been read aloud and recorded. Such recordings make Wikipedia content available for visually challenged users, for those who can understand English but cannot read it, for those who enjoy podcasting, and for people learning English. Currently, WP:BIRDS has 14 spoken articles—a tiny fraction of the more than 13,000 articles and lists overseen by the project. There is a real need to increase this number, and it's easy to help with the process. Recording an article can be done using a home computer with a microphone and the free software Audacity. The Spoken Wikipedia WikiProject oversees all recording efforts, and their project pages should be followed carefully to ensure that agreed standards of access, content and performance are met. Please contact AshLin ( talk · contribs) for more information.

Newsletter challenge

Shyamal ( talk · contribs) stepped up yet again and created an excellent, well-referenced start to the ornithophily article. This month, we're looking for someone to split the article about Bonelli's Warbler into two species: Eastern Bonelli's Warbler and Western Bonelli's Warbler, both of which currently exist only as redirects. The person who splits this article and separates the appropriate information into each new article will be mentioned in the next newsletter.

Got a suggestion? A correction? Something you'd like to see included in a future issue? Drop a note at the Tip Line with your ideas!

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