Thoughts on ticking dead birds (1 Viewer)

wolfbirder

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #1

Listen, I know it is generally accepted that dead birds are not tickable, and I am not talking about the sort you find stuffed in a display cabinet either.

But what happens if you find a freshly dead bird in the wild, untouched by human hands, intact, and not obviously damaged.

The bird is still a wild bird, just freshly dead.

Its a rare situation I admit, where you find a bird that you have not otherwise ever seen, but it happened to me with Nubian Nightjar. Best views of a Nightjar species I have ever had, but not tickable.

Should it be tickable?

 

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Simon Wates

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #2

I wouldn't. At least with a dead bird one could scribe a tick on the actual bird with a magic marker. Mind you, it must hurt to have only seen an x Nubian Nightjar!

 

wolfbirder

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #3

Simon Wates said:

I wouldn't. At least with a dead bird one could scribe a tick on the actual bird with a magic marker. Mind you, it must hurt to have only seen an x Nubian Nightjar!

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It wasn't really, I had not expected to see any at all, on my recent Israel trip, but I just came across this freshly dead one by the side of the road. Of course it was sad, but it was true added bonus to see it, infact by being deceased it offered the best ever views I have had of a Nightjar species.

So it was a real surprise for me. A wild Nubian Nightjar. Just a dead one -

So I've still seen one, just wondered why it 'really' mattered whether it was dead or alive. I didn't wish it dead, it just that is the way I saw it. The sighting is still noteworthy for me.

 

S

Simon Wates

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #4

Ah...but its soul's gone to heaven despite leaving its beautiful body behind. I'm not normally in such a deep mood at this time of day

I'm sure it must have been a memorable experience even if partly sad as you say.

 

Nutcracker

Stop Brexit!

• Oct 7, 2017

• #5

It wouldn't be tickable as a personal tick, but it would count toward national / regional lists (like e.g. that Pale-legged Leaf Warbler on Scilly, UK first, picked up newly dead)

 

Gladiator96

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #6

I wouldn't even tick a seriously injured bird.

 

wolfbirder

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #7

Gladiator96 said:

I wouldn't even tick a seriously injured bird.

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I can see the logic in not ticking a dead bird, but that is taking it too far surely?

How do you know a bird is not dying of cancer for instance? Where do you draw the line.

 

Andy Adcock

Worst person on Birdforum

• Oct 7, 2017

• #8

Injured birds are tickable as long as they're not in captivity, dead birds are not, pretty simple.

Regardless of semantics, this is the established way of things, take it or leave it.


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pppppvvvv

Guest

• Oct 7, 2017

• #9

And if it only called once on your heard list, that could have been the bird's final dying scream, and the bird was dead before the sound reached you.

Dying, dyeing, strange day today is turning into Grasshopper!

 

Last edited: Oct 7, 2017

wolfbirder

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #10

You've nailed it Andy.

 

Paul Chapman

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #11

University friends discovered Nechisar Nightjar as new to science from a roadside corpse. Even more frustrating as a non-tick!

All the best

 

Jane Turner

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #12

Until cold weather brought me another, I always had a quandry about a dead bird. I saw a Peregrine make a kill a long way out over the beach - I only saw the prey as the falcon hit it at the bottom of a long stoop. I'd got as far as chunky wader. The Peregrine ate its catch on the beach, dragging it ahead of an incoming tide and managed to eat most of it before it got flushed. I came straight over the house then dropped its prey, which was a woodcock... I'd seen the bird alive but only ID'd it later. It went on the house list as a corpse at the time, but not my house list, not that anoyone else has one!

 

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davercox

Dave Cox

Supporter

• Oct 7, 2017

• #13

All brings back memories of WEO's Little Black Bird Book, and giving the kiss of life to (I think) a recently dead Great Reed Warbler.

 

wolfbirder

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #14

Interesting stories...................thanks for your thoughts.

 

Jos Stratford

Eastern Exile

Staff member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #15

wolfbirder said:

But what happens if you find a freshly dead bird in the wild, untouched by human hands...

... it happened to me with Nubian Nightjar.

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As your nightjar was freshly dead by the roadside, surely that is effectively 'touched' by human hands, i.e. hit by a car.

 

Strontium Dog

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #16

Is anyone even going to attempt to explain the rationale behind it, or is it still a case of "them's the rules, and we don't question the rules"?

 

Andy Adcock

Worst person on Birdforum

• Oct 7, 2017

• #17

Strontium Dog said:

Is anyone even going to attempt to explain the rationale behind it, or is it still a case of "them's the rules, and we don't question the rules"?

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The name of our hobby is 'bird watching', no rationale needed, dead birds don't do much and why do we need to question the guidelines, it's not an exercise in philosphy.

Instead of criticising others, let's here your considered 'rationale', I'm sure there are some who would take the opportunity to increase their lists in whatever way possible.

 

Last edited: Oct 7, 2017

Egrets Ivadafew

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #18

I came across some beaters one day, before I turned back, I saw My first Woodcock flushed by before being shot dead by a hunting party. Even though I saw it alive, I never ticked it. Not sure why, maybe I felt it would forever be a black smudge in my list. Am I weird?

 

wolfbirder

Well-known member

• Oct 7, 2017

• #19

The philosophy is interesting though, the fact that it can't count because its dead (which I do accept simply because this interpretation is the norm), but its not as though its like going to a museum and ticking a stuffed bird.

Of course the scenario I find myself in is rarely going to apply for people/birders.

Jos's theory that it has been touched by human hands, for me personally wouldn't apply as any collision (if that is what happened) was accidental, or co-incidental, in the same way that birds rest on ships still count. That aspect wouldn't bother me.

Of course I am not ticking Nubian Nightjar, because it was dead, and they are the rules (I think) of birdwatching.

 

Andy Adcock

Worst person on Birdforum

• Oct 7, 2017

• #20

wolfbirder said:

The philosophy is interesting though, the fact that it can't count because its dead (which I do accept simply because this interpretation is the norm), but its not as though its like going to a museum and ticking a stuffed bird.

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I'd argue that it's exactly the same, they're both dead?

The only variable is probably that you can say you found it.


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