Hello everyone, I thought I'd start this thread to allow other birders like myself to post their life lists if they have one written up. A life list consists of any bird species that you have seen or heard in person in your life time. I've only been birding for about three years now really, so my list is only about 200 or so species. However, this is means that I am very close to getting all of Ontario's (well my area of Ontario's anyways) common or likely possible species. I'll have to do some travelling soon, not that i'm complaining . So please everyone if you can, post your lists and lets get this discussion rolling ! Common Loon Red-necked Grebe Horned Grebe Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant American Bittern Great Blue Heron Great Egret Cattle Egret Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Mute Swan Trumpeter Swan Tundra Swan Canada Goose Snow Goose Wood Duck Mallard American Black Duck Gadwall Northern Pintail American Wigeon Northern Shoveler Blue-winged Teal Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup Lesser Scaup Long-tailed Duck Common Goldeneye Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Red-breasted Merganser Ruddy Duck Turkey Vulture Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper’s Hawk Broad-winged Hawk Red-tailed Hawk Rough-legged Hawk Golden Eagle Bald Eagle Osprey American Kestrel Ruffed Grouse Wild Turkey Common Moorhen American Coot Virginia Rail Sora Sandhill Crane Black-bellied Plover American Golden-Plover Semipalmated Plover Killdeer Greater Yellowlegs Lesser Yellowlegs Solitary Sandpiper Spotted Sandpiper Ruddy Turnstone Sanderling Dunlin Pectoral Sandpiper White-rumped Sandpiper Semipalmated Sandpiper Least Sandpiper Short-billed Dowitcher American Woodcock Common Snipe Bonaparte’s Gull Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Lesser Black-backed Gull Great Black-backed Gull Caspian Tern Common Tern Mourning Dove Rock Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo Black-billed Cuckoo Long-eared Owl Short-eared Owl Great Horned Owl Snowy Owl Great Gray Owl Barred Owl Northern Saw-Whet Owl Eastern Screech-Owl Chimney Swift Common Nighthawk Whip-poor-will Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher Red-headed Woodpecker Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker Eastern Wood-Pewee Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Willow Flycatcher Least Flycatcher Eastern Phoebe Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird Northern Shrike Red-eyed Vireo Warbling Vireo Philadelphia Vireo Yellow-Throated Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Blue Jay Gray Jay Common Raven American Crow Horned Lark Purple Martin Northern Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow Tree Swallow Cliff Swallow Barn Swallow Tufted Titmouse Black-capped Chickadee Red-breasted Nuthatch White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren House Wren Marsh Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Mountain Bluebird Eastern Bluebird American Robin Wood Thrush Veery Swainson’s Thrush Gray-cheeked Thrush Hermit Thrush Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling American Pipit Cedar Waxwing Northern Parula Orange-crowned Warbler Tennessee Warbler Lawrence’s Warbler (backcross hybrid) Blue-winged Warbler Golden-winged Warbler Nashville Warbler Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Magnolia Warbler Cape May Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Cerulean Warbler Blackburnian Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) Black-throated Green Warbler Palm Warbler Pine Warbler Bay-breasted Warbler Blackpoll Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler Prothonotary Warbler Black-and-white Warbler American Redstart Ovenbird Northern Waterthrush Mourning Warbler Common Yellowthroat Wilson’s Warbler Canada Warbler Hooded Warbler Summer Tanager Scarlet Tanager Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Indigo Bunting Eastern Towhee American Tree Sparrow Field Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Savannah Sparrow Vesper Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Snow Bunting Eastern Meadowlark Bobolink Brown-headed Cowbird Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird Common Grackle Baltimore Oriole Orchard Oriole Purple Finch House Finch Common Redpoll Pine Siskin American Goldfinch House Sparrow also include memorable stories about the first time you ever saw a certain species ! My most memorable was most likely the Great Grey Owl. It had made its way to Kingsville, Ontario, just west of Point Pelee. This was the furthest south one has ever been sighted, and I got to watch it for about an hour catching voles about 10 feet away from me, just amazing
I am not into birding myself, but my brother was quite into it and got 700 in the USA, which apparently is quite difficult. He is now into making a world mammal list (he goes all over the world) and is already over 500.
Chlidonias should have a crazy list. At the risk of sounding like him, I think there was a thread on this a few months ago. I seem to recall him posting a link to a birding website that had his list? Or maybe I dreamt that. Anyway, I suspect that there are a couple people here whose lists are in the thousands.
not at all. New Zealand's not exactly renowned for its numbers of bird species and when I do travel I tend to keep going back to the same part of the world so my list doesn't really grow in a proper relation to the number of trips I make, and in addition southeast Asia is one of the hardest places to bird in. If I ever get to Africa and South America my list will sky-rocket!! Much the same goes for my mammal list - hardly any species that can be easily found in NZ, southeast Asian mammaling is quite difficult as well, and if I can get to Africa and South America it will increase dramatically.
Ok, it sounds like I was dreaming then. I suspect that the website that you posted a few months ago was this website (or something similar). I guess I mistakenly assumed that one of those guys was you. Surfbirds.com - World Bird Species Life List On a personal note, I only started getting into birdwatching in 2011. As far as I am concerned, I only "saw" a bird if I recorded it in my field guide. This means, however, that I probably only have about 50 birds on my list.
I have posted the link to the Surfbirds life listings (it was on one of the My Zoo List threads, where someone had said something about not many birders having got above 8000 species I think), but I'm not on there. I also posted a link on another thread once to my year list on Birdforum (but I don't have my life list on there either). For what it's worth, my life list is currently 1078 birds (I'm generally pretty strict on what I count: it has to be seen well, and it actually has to be seen - no "heard only" - partly because I suck at identifying bird calls and partly because its bird-watching not bird-listening!!). My mammal life list is 163 species (not including multitudes of unidentified bats and murids!!) With regards to your last paragraph, Australia is one of the easiest places in the world to go birding, so you're in a good place to start off.
Wow! Almost 1,100 is impressive - as is 163 mammals. The down side to me getting into birding so late, is the missed opportunities to birdwatch in North and South America, Europe, and Asia on my travels. Man, I could have notched up some impressive numbers! Now I can't even add to my list the red-tailed black cockatoo from near Darwin or the bush stone curlew from near Cairns. *Sigh* Maybe one day I will visit those places again. Listing your ~1,100 birds is probably not practical, but maybe you can tell us about the rarest bird that you saw in the wild and/or your most memorable birding encounter? [Mine would probably be searching for gang-gang cockatoos in the Grampians. We went to a park where they were reputed to be found 3 days in a row near dusk - no luck. I have an app with the calls of some native birds, so there I was walking through the forest holding my phone in the air with its tinny speakers belting out a call that was only audible up to about 2 metres away: even that did not draw them out. On the 4th day, just when we were about to give up our search, there I was taking a water break, when little seeds started falling on my head. It was a male and female gang-gang 20 metres above my head in a towering gum tree! We stood there craning our necks and trying to take pics until 10 minutes later they flew off, squawking all the way. It's amazing what you find when you stop looking.]
I have no car, my traveling is nonexistant, and I've only been at it about 8 months, so my life list is a mere 238. There is a thing in the US called county listing where you have a new lifelist for every county you bird in, thus allowing those of us with limited travel budgets a little more chance. I have about 1500 ticks for my home state of Kansas. My only "heard only" bird is a black rail, because some of the great birders tell me seeing one is near impossible. Also, all but about 6 of my birds were seen in Kansas only. I have friends with 1500, and over 2000 birds on their life lists (thanks to South American and Africa) which blows my mind. Some of the cooler ones I've seen include snowy owl, long-tailed duck, sandhill crane, western wood-pewee, and black rail. All but the rail were extremly out of range.
I only started keeping a list last year. I added all the species I have photographed over the years, so currently the Bird list is 237, Mammals is only 73, Fish/Amphibians/Reptiles is a little over 200. Like Chlidonias, I'm only interested in things I see, not hear. Hix
I don't think it is used by non-Americans as much as it should, but the website eBird is an amazing way of keeping track of your sightings. No birder over here who is anything doesn't use it, and I'd like to see a more widespread use.
ArizonaDocent, over 700 for just the US is huge. There are only 675 birds that are regulars in the US and Canada. To get over 700 he has to have had all 675, plus 25+ vagrants. Very difficult to do.
675 is just for ABA, which doesn't include Hawaii, where someone could get a few dozen birds not found on the mainland. Still a monumental achievement, I only know one birder who has managed to do this.
You can get a good idea from a person's life list how wealthy they are, where they have the good fortune to live, and how much leisure time they have.
for the ABA area only 63 contributors to Surfbirds have lists of 700 or over (although of course only a percentage of American birders put their list totals on there): Surfbirds.com - ABA Area Life List Rankings For the whole North American region, as KCZooFan says, your totals can be much higher: Surfbirds.com - North America Region Life List
the beauty of listing is that its entirely a personal choice of what and how you list. There are life lists, country lists, county/state lists, trip lists, day lists, year lists, garden lists....whatever you want. You can make it as complex or straightforward as you like. The important thing I think is not to try and compete with anybody, just go for the enjoyment it brings you. A lot of the really top listers (you know, 7000, 8000 species) don't actually seem interested in the birds as such, its just another tick, trying to get the list higher and higher. I'm always interested in what other people have seen, but I don't care if they've seen more birds (although I do allow myself to be jealous if they've seen a Picathartes). It's not "a mere 238 birds"...it's 238 birds!! Awesome!
I've begun birding in the past few months and have gotten completely hooked. I may only have about 130, but the thrill of a new species is still fun. My problem right now is birds don't like 100 degree heat any more than humans do. Just waiting until October now.
Your very correct. Different listing helps me to keep my interest alive. I'm not going to pretend that I don't like the competition, but I think that helps to push you to see more birds. But, one cannot forget to enjoy the birds. I'm sure you could blow any birds I get out of the water down there in Texas. One of the best spots for birds in the country.
not necessarily. Some of the top listers on Surfbirds are actually bird guides for major companies like Rockjumper, so they get paid to rack up their life lists, lucky sods. But I think its safe to say that all the rest of the top bunch are probably very well-off financially.
I found year listing to be a great boon. I'd always thought of it as a bit pointless, running around wasting money trying to see birds you've already seen hundreds of times before, but then when I started my first year list just to see what it'd be like, I discovered how great it was to do. The main satisfactions I got were firstly it actually makes you get out there looking for birds instead of watching tv, and secondly it really makes you appreciate all those common birds again, even sparrows and starlings, because they are "new" all over again. And of course its lots of fun trying to get a new highest year total, and comparing years to see what you did or didn't see, or when you saw particular species in each year.
