User:Binclima811/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
New World warbler

Why have you chosen this article to evaluate?
I have chosen this article because I am an avid birder and I find new world warblers to be particularly interesting. It is a joy each spring and autumn to look for these birds during their migration between the US and South America. My first impression of this article from a preliminary scan was that it is well done. I cannot speak for species endemic to South American species as I am not familiar with most of them, but I did not see anything missing regarding migratory species in the US. The description of these birds, including their feeding and mating habits, size, and general information, seemed to be accurate and somewhat well sourced.

Evaluate the article
Lead Section

The lead section's introductory sentence does a good job in briefly describing what new world warblers are and describes the topic of the article in a concise and interesting way. I found the lead section to generally be an effective introduction to the topic. There was not a large amount of detail, but enough to announce the topic. There is information presented concerning this family's origin that is not discussed further in the article. There is not much of an overview or outline of what will be presented in the article, but basic information concerning their taxonomy, general appearance, and origin are illustrated.

Content

The content throughout the rest of the article draws on several sources which are fairly up to date, with much of the information being gathered from sources published in the last fifteen years. As far as I can tell, there is not any content missing or unrelated to the topic. The information presented is related to the topic, and there were not any details that strayed away from the focus of the article. This article does not deal with Wikipedia's equity gap. The primary focus of this article does not concern historically underrepresented groups. There is however a point in the lead section which posits the theory that this family of birds originated in Northern Central America without any citation. The description section for these birds contains relevant information, however the information presented lacks citation and I did not know where any of the details concerning their size and habits came from.

Tone and Balance

The tone of this article comes across as neutral, and there are not any claims made which lean towards certain conclusions. This group of birds is poorly studied as they are hard to come across, and the article makes this clear. That is the closest this article comes to not being neutral, but overall, there is no sense of an unbiased tone. The viewpoints illustrated do not come across as over or underrepresented, and as far as I could tell there were not any fringe views presented much less be classified as fringe. There were not any points while reading the article that made me feel as if I was being directed in one way or another.

Sources and References

Not all the facts contained in the article are backed by secondary sources. The description section for this family contains no references. Information concerning these birds breeding habits, number of eggs per clutch, migration patterns, and several other points of interest lack citation. There is a specific instance where the Lucy's Warbler is claimed to be the smallest warbler in this family of birds, with several genera subsequently being listed as the largest warblers. There is no source to back these claims up. I think this information could be mended with a citation from a source such as Sibley bird guides or information from the Cornell lab of Ornithology website. The sources that are cited mainly concern the taxonomy of this family, and they are mixed when it comes to up to date and out of date. I personally believe this is warranted, as the taxonomic classification of genera in this family has been reorganized several times since the introduction of these birds as a family in 1947. In my opinion it is relevant to include how this classification has changed, as it illustrates the scientific process of taxonomic change. While out of date it may be, it does not mean older conclusions are completely useless. The information sourced comes from as diverse a group of ornithologists as is possible. Many of the authors for cited sources are either American or Latino, which corresponds to the range these birds occupy and their migratory patterns. The sources are relevant and in the case of taxonomy I believe the sources presented are as good as it gets when in comes to contemporary views on classification. As stated before, information the description section could likely have citations from sources like the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and bird guides. The Cornell Lab in particular, but many bird guides as well such as Sibley's, are well respected sources of information for birds in general, and they could likely back up many if not all the unsourced claims in this section. The links provided do work, and relevant information such as DOIs are included.

Organization and Writing Quality

The article is written very well, and I felt as though it was an easy read. If I were not interested in birds as much as I am I do not know if it would be a harder read. I did not notice any misspellings or grammatical errors while reading this article. The spelling for the genera I knew was accurate. The article is broken into sections which covered essentially all the relevant information concerning these birds. As stated before, there is information in the lead section concerning the origin of this family, and this is not brought up again at any point in the article. Perhaps a small section going into further depth on the origin of these birds may be helpful.

Images and Media

The images included the article provide a necessary look of these birds. There is an image next to the lead section of a Prothonotary Warbler which is labelled accurately, and it matches the general description of these birds in this section as small, colorful birds. The other images included correspond to the separate genera included in the family Parulidae. These images provide a good representation of each genus, and they are labelled accurately as well. Each image of birds included comes from birdphotos.com, a completely free use website that does not copyright images. Visually appealing is somewhat subjective, but I personally found them to be appealing when viewing them in the article.

Talk-Page Discussion

Most of the talk concerning this topic has to do with classification of certain genera listed along with the lack of citation for certain points made in the article. This article is rated as a start class and is part of the WikiProjects Birds. This WikiProject is an attempt to create a standardized resource for ornithological information. The discussion based around this topic differs from class discussion in that there is a very clear set of factors which classify the state of this article and what needs to be done to improve it.

Overall Impressions

Overall, I believe this an important article that presents a lot of good information, but there are a lot of key elements which are missing support. The lack of citations specifically needs to be worked on. The section on the taxonomic classification of these birds is probably the articles largest strength. Much of the information is cited well, and the information is presented in a detailed and unbiased way. The greatest weakness of this article has to be the lack of sources for information in the description and lead section. The easiest way to mend this is finding sources that back up the unsupported information. In general, I think this article is underdeveloped. As stated before, the article is important, but it needs more secondary evidence to back up claims.