What is a "tick" (1 Viewer)

As for myself, I consider I have achieved a wild bird when I see and identify it as a living creature. For that reason, I personally exclude birds I saw in my pre-birding and childhood days, even though they might be large spectacular species that I can easily name now. So if I'd accidentally photographed a bird as in the OP and identified it later, it wouldn't count. If it was a rare species, it would count as a rueful footnote and no doubt a conversation piece.

For sure, the sort of experience the OP describes is an incentive to keep on one's toes when in the field.

And I should have mentioned that seeing the missed bird and 'ticking' it later would give me at least double the satisfaction as the first one would have. Perhaps that's a personal quirk.