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What to include in a bird checklist? (1 Viewer)

kstrating

Well-known member
Yes, I appear to be a tad obsessed with checklists... :gh:

I have abandoned finding an annotated checklist for Ecuador, but want to try creating one. So far I have common and scientific names (the easy part) but am wondering what else to include. After some field testing (Nov-Dec 2007) I hope to make it available to other birders. So my question is:

What annotations do you find most useful?

Any help is greatly appreciated! -Katie.
 
kstrating said:
Yes, I appear to be a tad obsessed with checklists... :gh:

I have abandoned finding an annotated checklist for Ecuador, but want to try creating one. So far I have common and scientific names (the easy part) but am wondering what else to include. After some field testing (Nov-Dec 2007) I hope to make it available to other birders. So my question is:

What annotations do you find most useful?

Any help is greatly appreciated! -Katie.

Hi Katie,
You are biting off a large mouthful here. I have done a couple myself, but for the Philippines. If I were to do one for Ecuador I would doubtless start off with the latest text field guide that I could find and work from that (most presently up-to-date is Restall's Birds of Northern South America). Then I would take an Excel worksheet which already has all of the races and just go through the list first deleting any birds that have never occurred in Ecuador (I have such a list for the Howard & Moore that you can rework - send me a PM if wanted). After that I would probably separate any of the races occuring in Ecuador and deleting those that don't (in other words for a politypically Ecuador ranging bird I would have as many entries as there are Ecuador occuring races for that species). Then I would create let's say three other columns, e.g., Range (i.e. which Provinces in Ecuador according to each possible race); Altitudinal Optima (according to each possible race); General Info (e.g., if particularly common in such and such protected zone, National Parks, etc., if only occuring on such and such versant of which Andean chain, habitat notes - e.g. plants associated to the bird, geographical terrain associations, etc.).
 
Hi Steve,
Yes, quite a mouthful! I am struggling with two things, one is taxonomy the other is space. Ridgely & Greenfield (what we are going to carry) verses H&M (what I keep my world list in)...and these probably differ from the new Restall's (on order)...there needs to be some crosswalks, but which are most useful? Originally the idea was to put the birds in taxonomic order of H&M, but have plate numbers for R&G. We don't plan to travel out of Ecuador on our trip, so may not need to involve Restall except to update taxonomy. Does this make sense?

Space is also an issue, with nearly 1600 sp., spp, and morphs there needs to be a lot of condensing. The first print out took 36 pages in landscape formated letter size paper. Whew! Entire list will likely run about 40 pages even if half size, ie. single sheet folded in half, because each species takes two lines. Should be small enough to fit in the bird book, though if printed on write-in-the-rain paper, will be bulky. So far, range, abundance, distribution, elevation and plate numbers fit, much else makes each line too wide to fold in half.

I've been thinking about how we will be using this list and came up with two main uses and a question. The first use is to keep a record of where/when birds are sighted. This requires some blank columns and a little space for notations; three columns are devoted. The second is prior to traveling to an area, I want to be able to look and see what birds are common, uncommon, rare and occasional. Ideally, one ought to be able to see this at a glance then refer to the guidebook and tapes. This generated the question. I generally have little experience with bird cds, would it be useful to list the track number for each species along with plate numbers?

Thoughts? -K
 
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Jose, Wow, that would be great! I don't leave until November, but Vectis Birder in this forum leaves in a week or so and would probably like one as well. Please PM me for contact info when you get it. Thanks in advance. -Katie.
 
Wow! Thanks Jeff.

The site Jeff suggested above has over a hundred countries with lists of species in alphabetical order and columns for area/day listing. The lists look ready to print (I haven't tried yet) with little or no adjustments required. A great resource. Cheers! -k
 
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