"A few weeks ago a friend, very excitingly, sent a photo around of a bird he later realized he misidentified. He felt very badly about his slipup and saw a need to apologize for it.

"I explained to him that there was really no need since every birder makes mistakes; only nowadays our blunders make it all over the World Wide Web.

"A wise old birder once told me that the only difference between an experienced birder and a beginner is that the expert has misidentified more birds.

"But my friend’s apology got me thinking. What if I had to apologize for every bird I misidentified?" ...