Talk:American Birding Association

Griscom award most prestigious?
I think that superlatives like "birding's highest award" and "most prestigious" are better applied to the Ludlow Griscom Award during the period 1980-1999 when it was the only regularly-granted award by the ABA. According to Davis (1994), Dean of the Birdwatchers: A Biography of Ludlow Griscom, when the award was initiated it recognized "outstanding contributions to excellence in field birding." (p. 198) With the introduction of the Robbins award for Education/Conservation, the Ridgway award for publications, the Peterson award for "promoting the cause of birding," and the Wilds award for distinguished service to ABA, there is a widening of the scope of accomplishments that ABA wants to recognize as good birding; at the same time, the Griscom award is rededicated more narrowly as recognition for excellence in regional ornithology. Certainly the ABA's web site does not give priority to the Griscom award, although it is the only one with "outstanding" in its full title.

No doubt the news media will continue to echo the superlatives for the Griscom award. Here is a more recent example:

Dgorsline (talk) 11:59, 14 August 2012 (UTC)

Update progress
I intend to tidy up the references in the Initiatives and Event sections; add material about Birders Exchange and the Institute for Field Ornithology; and then I think the remaining maintenance tags can be cleared. Dgorsline (talk) 12:30, 25 September 2012 (UTC)