Animals You've Seen That Few Zoochatters Have Seen

A couple of birds that might fit the bill:

Aleutian Tern
Australian Painted Snipe
Chestnut-backed Buttonquail
Plains-wanderer
Marbled Frogmouth
Yellow-billed Kingfisher
Buff-breasted Paradise-kingfisher
Western Bristlebird
Rufous Scrub-bird
Noisy Scrub-bird
Tropical Scrubwren
Chestnut-breasted Whiteface
Banded Whiteface
Chestnut-rumped Heathwren
Slaty-backed Thornbill
Slender-billed Thornbill
Dusky Gerygone
Purple-crowned Fairy-wren
Rufous-crowned Emu-wren
Black Grasswren
Pilbara Grasswren
Sandhill Grasswren
Thick-billed Grasswren
Western Grasswren
Kimberley Honeyeater
Grey Honeyeater
Green-backed Honeyeater
Black-eared Miner
Yellow Chat
Copper-backed Quail-thrush
Western Quail-thrush
Black-throated (Western) Whipbird
Chiming Wedgebill
White-browed Treecreeper
Black-eared Catbird
Fawn-breasted Bowerbird
Black-winged Monarch
Frill-necked Monarch
Yellow-legged Flycatcher
Northern Scrub-robin
Northern Crested Shrike-tit
Red-lored Whistler
Spinifexbird

 

Nice list, except.....(pedantry alert!), a 'couple' is two. These are more than two...... Sorry n all, but people keep doing this, and eventually I cracked. And yes, I know language is a living thing, and changes with time, but you'd get called out in here for calling a chimpanzee a monkey, or a heron a stork.

 

"Couple" is often used as a joke, in combination with a large amount of things.

 

Tossing a few out there, all wild.

Nazca Booby
Wrentit?
Sharp-tailed Snake

A variety of less common North American birds might count, although Ituri, birdsandbats, and Thylo likely share a good number of them.

How about Fin Whale and Atlantic White-sided Dolphin? Guessing a handful of Zoochatters but not many?

A couple captive ones with Dragon Eel, Peach-throated Monitor, and the recently described Ruby Red Dragonet? What about Peacock Mantis Shrimp?

 

I've seen fin whale and peacock mantis shrimp.

 

I've seen Peacock Mantis Shrimp in pet stores (and in a few aquariums).

 

I probably don't have as many odd birds as you may think.. especially not from your corner of the country.

As for the others, I have seen the whale, eel, monitor, and mantis shrimp.

~Thylo

 

I just remembered I saw the eel once, too, also in a pet store.

 

I was going through some old pictures and found a picture of what I though at the time I took it was a Meadow Vole. It turned out to be a Southern Red-backed Vole, a lifer for me and a species that surely qualifies for this thread.

Here's an attempt at a bird list. Most of these aren't that unusual, but the lack of (surprising) American birders on this site certainly inflates my number. Species marked with an * I saw in captivity:

American Black Duck
Harlequin Duck
Surf Scoter
White-winged Scoter
Black Scoter
Ruffed Grouse
Greater Prairie-Chicken (subspecies pinnatus, which even fewer ZooChatters have seen)
Horned Grebe
Red-necked Grebe
Eared Grebe
Black-billed Cuckoo
Common Nighthawk
Eastern Whip-Poor-Will
Sora
Whooping Crane
American Avocet*
American Golden-Plover*
Upland Sandpiper
Baird's Sandpiper
Pectoral Sandpiper
Semipalmated Sandpiper
American Woodcock
Wilson's Snipe
Greater Yellowlegs
Solitary Sandpiper
Common Tern
Forster's Tern
Red-throated Loon
American Bittern
Least Bittern
White-faced Ibis*
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Boreal Owl*
Red-headed Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
Pileated Woodpecker
Puerto Rican Parrot*
Great Crested Flycatcher
Olive-sided Flycatcher
Eastern Wood-Pewee
Willow Flycatcher
Least Flycatcher
Northern Shrike
Yellow-throated Vireo
Blue-headed Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Purple Martin
Brown Creeper
Winter Wren
Sedge Wren
Marsh Wren
Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher
Eastern Bluebird
Veery
Swainson's Thrush
Wood Thrush
Brown Thrasher
Purple Finch
Grasshopper Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
Field Sparrow
Fox Sparrow
White-crowned Sparrow
White-throated Sparrow
American Tree Sparrow
Henslow's Sparrow
Savannah Sparrow
Lincoln's Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
Eastern Towhee
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Bobolink
Eastern Meadowlark
Western Meadowlark
Orchard Oriole
Rusty Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Ovenbird
Northern Waterthrush
Blue-winged Warbler
Black-and-white Warbler
Tennessee Warbler
Orange-crowned Warbler
Nashville Warbler
American Redstart
Cape May Warbler
Northern Parula
Magnolia Warbler
Bay-breasted Warbler
Blackburnian Warbler
Chestnut-sided Warbler
Blackpoll Warbler
Black-throated Blue Warbler
Palm Warbler
Pine Warbler
Black-throated Green Warbler
Wilson's Warbler
Scarlet Tanager
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
Dickcissel

 

Several of these species also occur in Europe. Slavonian (Horned) Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, Black-necked (Eared) Grebe, Common Tern and Red-throated Diver (Loon) are not that hard in western Europe, and I assume that besides me, @Maguari, @KevinVar and @Vision, among others, have seen these species. Many of the waders and several of the warblers are rare vagrants in Europe, some even relatively frequent (e.g. American Golden Plover). Boreal Owl also occurs in Europe, but is very difficult to see in the wild - though they're not that uncommon in zoos. Most (all?) the ducks are kept in captivity in western Europe, though not all in zoos. Same with White-faced Ibis, Indigo Bunting and probably a few other songbirds as well.

I really have no idea how uncommon the rest is, or how easy they are to see in the US.

 

I forgot that those species also occurred in Europe.

 

Bolded what I've seen on your list. I'll have to see about making a list later and see what species are shared!

 

59/105. So I've seen a little over half. Species seen in bold.

~Thylo

 

2 species not mentioned sofar and from which I think only very few ZooChatters have seen them are the Galapagos dove and the New Caledonian Imperial pigeon. I not only have seen these species ( the former in some private collections and at Weltvogelpark Walsrode ), the latter only at Weltvogelpark Walsrode ) I even took care for them ( ways back in the 1980s ) !

 

Ok, so here's a list of more uncommon ones on my list. Avoiding ones already listed in the quoted post. How about it @birdsandbats and @ThylacineAlive ?

Mountain Quail
Spruce Grouse
Sooty Grouse
Pacific Loon
Clark's Grebe
Brandt's Cormorant
Virginia Rail
Lesser Yellowlegs
Black Turnstone
Surfbird
Short-billed Dowitcher
Heermann's Gull
Iceland Gull (Thayer's spp)
Arctic Tern
Royal Tern
Parasitic Jaeger
Thick-billed Murre
Rhinoceros Auklet
Northern Hawk-Owl
Black Swift
Vaux's Swift
White-throated Swift
Black-chinned Hummingbird
Calliope Hummingbird
Allen's Hummingbird
Lewis's Woodpecker
Williamson's Sapsucker
Red-naped Sapsucker
Nuttall's Woodpecker
White-headed Woodpecker
American Three-toed Woodpecker
Black-backed Woodpecker
Western Wood-Pewee
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
Alder Flycatcher
Hammond's Flycatcher
Gray Flycatcher
Dusky Flycatcher
Pacific-slope Flycatcher
Say's Phoebe
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Cassin's Kingbird
Loggerhead Shrike
Cassin's Vireo
Hutton's Vireo
Gray Jay
California Scrub-Jay
Yellow-billed Magpie
Northwestern Crow
Violet-green Swallow
Oak Titmouse
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
Boreal Chickadee
Bushtit
Pygmy Nuthatch
Rock Wren
Canyon Wren
Pacific Wren
American Dipper
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Mountain Bluebird
Townsend's Solitaire
Varied Thrush
Sage Thrasher
California Thrasher
Phainopepla
Black-throated Gray Warbler
Townsend's Warbler
Mourning Warbler
Macgillivray's Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Green-tailed Towhee
California Towhee
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
Brewer's Sparrow
Lark Sparrow
Vesper Sparrow
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Harris's Sparrow
Summer Tanager
Black-headed Grosbeak
Blue Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Tricolored Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Hooded Oriole
Cassin's Finch
Pine Grosbeak
Lesser Goldfinch
Lawrence's Goldfinch
Evening Grosbeak

(I know it's listed in an older taxonomy, I need to update my species track document to reflect the current one...)

 

This isn't an easy list to make as if you're looking for people who have seen these species, this is the site to find them.

Captivity:

Chacma baboon
Great spotted kiwi
Temminck's golden cat (many would have seen this; but few going into the future)
Subantarctic fur seal
Blue-ringed octopus
Numbat
Ghost bat
King penguin

Wild:

Sperm whale
Humpback whale
New Zealand fur seal
New Zealand sea lion
Common bottlenose dolphin
Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin
Dusky dolphin
Common dolphin
Hector's dolphin
Platypus
Southern cassowary
Yellow-eyed penguin
Little blue penguin
Northern royal albatross
Takahe

 

So only 23 here!

Five here!

~Thylo