Bismarck Honeyeater
Barely known member
Not sure if this was covered
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Inaccessible bird species (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Maffong
- Start date
Not sure if this was covered
Another Cat. C) bird would be Auckland Island Rail, which is extirpated from the main island, now surviving on only two satellite islands, which of course are not allowed to be landed on, as well as the only places which offer cruises not having the islands in their itinerary (ie. zodiac, which there is for the snipes and robin, but ofc. almost definitely not seen from them..)-[Though they still have Chatham Snipe + Robin on their checklist, Heritage Expeditions].
Also thinking of making a spreadsheet/smthng. simillar for the whole list? This is actually quite interesting.
Also thinking of making a spreadsheet/smthng. simillar for the whole list? This is actually quite interesting.
Melanie
Well-known member
The Buff-breasted buttonquail seems to be the holy grail of the Australian bird fauna. Despite camera traps and infra-red cameras it is still extremely difficult to track down this bird. And how will they know whether this species still exists?
My question is: How many reliable sightings have there been of the Buff-breasted buttonquail since the 1990s?
My question is: How many reliable sightings have there been of the Buff-breasted buttonquail since the 1990s?
Jacana
Will Jones
Confirmed? Quite possibly zero since the last specimen was collected in 1922. All those more recent sightings might have all actually been Painted BQ.
Is the buff-breasted button-quail still alive? After years of searching, this century-old bird mystery has yet to be solved
It may not be extinct, but our research suggests the buff-breasted button-quail may only be hanging on by a thread, at best.
theconversation.com
Oh I heard a different opinion on that from some guy's blog, The TRUE facts of the Buff-breasted Button-quail - Lloyd Nielsen's Birding Australia , how much water it holds not too sure, but I think the guy is trustworthy, and what he claims at the end (I presume about the people that wrote the Conversation article), does make them seem quite arrogant, but not too sure what to make of it overall.
Jacana
Will Jones
Yeah, there are some big personalities in Australian ornithology and things can become quite acrimonious.
The people who say it's still out there have so far not produced any images, specimens etc. I'm quite amazed that the nest that was found was not even photographed.
That being said, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they're actually still out there somewhere and that some of these observations may well be genuine. But for now they have to remain unconfirmed.
temmie
Well-known member
While not for the faint-of-heart, Lake Lufira Masked-Weaver has been seen and photographed by a Belgian birder I know personally.
He was travelling for work, and I reckon he did this as a day trip from Lubumbashi (which has air connections to all parts of the world).
So while reaching Lake Lufira is probably not 100% trouble-free, this seems to be a realistically accessible site for those that are mentally prepared...
He was travelling for work, and I reckon he did this as a day trip from Lubumbashi (which has air connections to all parts of the world).
So while reaching Lake Lufira is probably not 100% trouble-free, this seems to be a realistically accessible site for those that are mentally prepared...
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chowchilla
Well-known member
As I mentioned in another thread not too long ago, the frequent reported sightings in the Lake Mitchell area of Buff-breasted Buttonquail by visiting British birders were likely not this species. An extensive search for it about ten years ago came up empty.
A small population may still persist in Northern Cape York. Of the many trips that go up there, none have seen it in a number of years. I know many a Queensland birder who has never seen one. The nest has never been seen, that's fake news; and no one has ever recorded breeding behaviour. It may even be extinct.
A small population may still persist in Northern Cape York. Of the many trips that go up there, none have seen it in a number of years. I know many a Queensland birder who has never seen one. The nest has never been seen, that's fake news; and no one has ever recorded breeding behaviour. It may even be extinct.
mentioned in Article :: xeno-canto (another paper by these two authors from 2017 mentioned here: Buff-breasted Buttonquail (Turnix olivii) - BirdLife species factsheet), so it was definitely documented in 2016Confirmed? Quite possibly zero since the last specimen was collected in 1922. All those more recent sightings might have all actually been Painted BQ.
Is the buff-breasted button-quail still alive? After years of searching, this century-old bird mystery has yet to be solved
It may not be extinct, but our research suggests the buff-breasted button-quail may only be hanging on by a thread, at best.
Maffong writes: The top world listers are all below 9.800, meaning that all still need over 1.000 species, which I find a surprisingly high number.
Peter Kaestner is now at 9856 IOC, 9670 ebird (as of May 8th, 2023). Anyone else following his lists on ebird & Surfbird? Fun to watch his numbers grow!
janinmt
Peter Kaestner is now at 9856 IOC, 9670 ebird (as of May 8th, 2023). Anyone else following his lists on ebird & Surfbird? Fun to watch his numbers grow!
janinmt
chowchilla
Well-known member
If you look at this thread:
Name a Bird You've Seen 2
Some members might remember that about 10 years ago there was a fun thread where we took it in turns to name a bird that we had seen, with no repeats, to see how far down the global species list we could get. What with the numerous taxonomic changes, with new species added to our personal lists...
www.birdforum.net
And see the species yet to be played, the overwhelming majority of them are island species with very restricted ranges. Many world listers never get to these remote islands, or even not so remote islands, often because the returns aren't great for often considerable financial outlay.
Of course, some do, but they're truly in the minority, and usually minted financially. There have been a considerable number of splits of island species, especially in Asia, so some who have visited, say, remoter parts of Indonesia, may find that the tick they have of a particular species, now excudes several other range-restricted birds that were once part of that species; and if they want to tick them, they need to go back and island hop through those regions, often seeing many of the same birds they've seen before for just a handful of birds, or even just one or two.
So I think you'll find that the vast majority of species top listers haven't seen fall into that category.
Some species are simply very hard to find because they are very rare, found in inaccessible places, and/or are possibly secretive, or elusive for other reasons. There may be quite a few Night Parrots out there in Australia, for example, but they are likely very thinly spread over a vast area, are typically nocturnal, and if they behave like other outback species, likely hunker down in spinifex and refuse to show themselves or call to nearby observers, in drier times. 'Survival mode' as one Aussie guide once described it to me.
Maffong
Well-known member
I love following the lists of world listers grow, they will often post about their most recent adventures on Facebook, including awesome photos and great stories. Peter Kaestner added like 150 species in the past few months, which seems like a really astonishing number at that level.
By the way, I have an excel sheet with all the species that had been proposed so far and was just about to post it, when I made the mistake to request data about the species with the least observations on ebird. The number of species that weren't brought up so far was staggering, somewhere in the triple digits! I would really like to work through them, but I haven't found the time for this recently. Perhaps I'll post the incomplete excel plus the list of birds that need to be checked and the forum can help me sort it out.
By the way, I have an excel sheet with all the species that had been proposed so far and was just about to post it, when I made the mistake to request data about the species with the least observations on ebird. The number of species that weren't brought up so far was staggering, somewhere in the triple digits! I would really like to work through them, but I haven't found the time for this recently. Perhaps I'll post the incomplete excel plus the list of birds that need to be checked and the forum can help me sort it out.
Maffong
Well-known member
It's a shame that the paragraph about them seeing the species is so short, given especially how there are virtually no modern-day records.
jurek
Well-known member
Please, post it! It will be fun to see. But, as Chowchilla said, a rarely reported bird is usually with low effort to reward ratio but not inaccessible. Especially that American birders abroad usually stick to easy and organized tours.
I, for fun, started checking Ebird for birds not photographed, or with a very poor photograph or only photographed as captured or captive birds. These are so far:
Dwarf Cassowary - Casuarius bennetti
Northern Cassowary Casuarius unappendiculatus
Alagoas Curassow Mitu mitu
Sira Curassow Pauxi koepckeae
Rusty Lark Mirafra rufa
One could make a list of foreign bird destinations from most common to least visited. World birders usually start with common holiday destinations like Costa Rica, India, Thailand. Over the years some take tours to more specialized places like Ghana, Ethiopia etc. Only very few progress to places like minor islands of Indonesia or Russian Far East and see endemic birds living there. Indonesia, for me, is relatively easy destination because minor islets are usually connected with local flights or ferries, safe, not expensive, not require special permits etc (except the notorious Komodo).
Bismarck Honeyeater
Barely known member
I follow his progress, I wonder wether he will break 10,000 before IOC breaks 11,000?
Ian Lewis
aka Gryllo
Of the species on your list I've seen three.
On the Atlantic Odyssey you can (or could) if weather allowed zodiac cruise close inshore at Gough Island and see the Gough Moorhen, Gough Island Finch and the Northern Rockhopper Penguins. We had rough seas and were unable to launch the zodiacs. Distant penguins were seen there and one close up on Tristan da Cuna.
On the main island of Tristan da Cuna the Gough Moorhen has been (illegally) reintroduced as a replacement for the now extinct Tristan Moorhen. We all heard one and I was lucky enough to see one. The problem with Inaccessible Island isn't permission its the ability to land. Those prepared to risk it and get soaked could have landed but the expedition leader said no, so we missed the finch and rail, both of which are apparently easy if you do get ashore. A few punters with super eyesight saw some birds in flight from where the ship was anchored but they were most likely Tristan Thrushes.
In Hawaii in 2003 with a local guide I watched a pair of Akikiki at the nest and heard and saw three Akekee in flight.
Those species from Somaliland can be seen, the third Birdquest trip to there is going this October. Nubian Bustard and Niam-niam Parrot have been seen in Chad by Birdquest.
I went to Yemen and Socotra in 2009 and although Yemen mainland is inaccessible, Socatra can be accessed via UAE. The Abd-al-kuri Sparrow is know seen on Birdquest and BirdTour Asia trips to Socotra. All other Yemeni endemics (except the accentor which has been lumped in Radde's) can be seen in Saudi Arabia
The first Birdquest to Afghanistan for the snowfinch and Long-billed Reed Warbler seems to have been cancelled very recently. Burma/Myanmar was of course accessible until recently.
A very interesting list
On the Atlantic Odyssey you can (or could) if weather allowed zodiac cruise close inshore at Gough Island and see the Gough Moorhen, Gough Island Finch and the Northern Rockhopper Penguins. We had rough seas and were unable to launch the zodiacs. Distant penguins were seen there and one close up on Tristan da Cuna.
On the main island of Tristan da Cuna the Gough Moorhen has been (illegally) reintroduced as a replacement for the now extinct Tristan Moorhen. We all heard one and I was lucky enough to see one. The problem with Inaccessible Island isn't permission its the ability to land. Those prepared to risk it and get soaked could have landed but the expedition leader said no, so we missed the finch and rail, both of which are apparently easy if you do get ashore. A few punters with super eyesight saw some birds in flight from where the ship was anchored but they were most likely Tristan Thrushes.
In Hawaii in 2003 with a local guide I watched a pair of Akikiki at the nest and heard and saw three Akekee in flight.
Those species from Somaliland can be seen, the third Birdquest trip to there is going this October. Nubian Bustard and Niam-niam Parrot have been seen in Chad by Birdquest.
I went to Yemen and Socotra in 2009 and although Yemen mainland is inaccessible, Socatra can be accessed via UAE. The Abd-al-kuri Sparrow is know seen on Birdquest and BirdTour Asia trips to Socotra. All other Yemeni endemics (except the accentor which has been lumped in Radde's) can be seen in Saudi Arabia
The first Birdquest to Afghanistan for the snowfinch and Long-billed Reed Warbler seems to have been cancelled very recently. Burma/Myanmar was of course accessible until recently.
A very interesting list
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Ian Lewis
aka Gryllo
By the way you omitted Medium Tree Finch Geospiza pauper which only occurs in the highlands of Floreana, Galapagos where permission to visit is not allowed.
Many people visit St Helena on the Atlantic Odyssey which used to run annually and was usually fully booked.
Andy Adcock
Worst person on Birdforum
I was told recently that there are flights out of South Africa?
