Tick criteria for you? (1 Viewer)

I don't tick birds on call. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I just don't do it. On the other hand, however, I don't have an obsession for seeing every single detail of the bird as well.
There are 2 things needed for a bird to make it's way to my life list: 1) I have to see it and 2) It has to be positively identified, either directly on the field, by a field guide back in home or by someone else.
I am a little compulsive about how good I see the bird and I usually don't settle with silhouettes hopping around in a bush or a flushed/fleeting bird. I mean, if it's all I've got, then I make my peace with it, add it to my list (although not very happily) and wait for better views. But in most of the cases I really want to see the bird good enough to see a diagnostic feature by myself, and not ticking something just because someone pointed at a meaningless silhouette and said "This is the x bird."
Although I do have some extreme cases, mostly for special birds, for example;
Last month we were birding and a sandgrouse flock flew by. I looked at them with binoculars and 2-3 birds I looked were Black-bellieds (I wanted Pin-tailed). Got a little disappointed but still decided to take a few pics in case there was a Pin-tailed mixed in. And there was one. I didn't see it "live" and ID it but the bird was there. And somehow I was satisfied with it as if I had just kept on looking with the binoculars I would probably have never noticed it. And I could just look at the bird from my camera screen, which I like to think as a binocular, although one that brings the image to you with a 5 sec. delay and stores it forever. I also saw the Pin-tailed alone for a moment about 30 minutes later but it was too distant and ID was made by my guide.
Another incident is when I was shown a Rough-legged Buzzard, I saw the diagnostic features myself but somehow now I don't remember exactly how I saw it, and it was only 3 years ago.

Farnboro John said:

I've seen Sloth Bear paw prints and wouldn't dream of ticking it on them. But if a scientific survey wanted records of Sloth Bear from where I was I would submit the picture.

John

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Seen a fresh Brown Bear turd in a forest* in Bulgaria, but I don't count that either!


* Yes, bears do do it in the woods :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: :-O

It seems to me a few common themes run through all the posts to date, with expected personal preferences.

What none of them include is any acceptance of an ID totally made by someone else where you don't see the diagnostic features yourself, no matter how 'expert' that observer was.

Mick

I wouldn't have a problem with someone pointing out a bird and saying it's ID (though that person I need to trust). I almost always relocate it and see it for myself anyways.

MTem said:

It seems to me a few common themes run through all the posts to date, with expected personal preferences.

What none of them include is any acceptance of an ID totally made by someone else where you don't see the diagnostic features yourself, no matter how 'expert' that observer was.

Mick

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If I know the person involved, I know if they know what they are talking about. I've been in places where the person pontificating loudly to all that don't want to listen about a certain bird, hasn't even got the right family. If I trust his knowledge, I still like to confirm for my self in a field guide or in Opus.

If I saw the bird, regardless of whether it was identified at the time or in photographs later, I have no issues counting it. I do count heard only but I'm not exactly happy about it...I just like to see the birds I'm counting!

For other things...plants I count if they are identifiable, even if they are a bit dead.

Insects/butterflies/moths I count as long as they are alive or if they are extremely pristine (i.e. they died within about the past hour).

I would initially take somebody I trusts word for the ID if I was a bit slow to nail it myself. BUT I would check on it later in the Field Guide and subject the call to scrutiny. No way I would take a strangers word for it. One "knowledgeable" guy last month was calling all sorts of rubbish for quite simple birds at Leighton Moss and 'Joe public' was lapping it up.

Coronatus said:

I would initially take somebody I trusts word for the ID if I was a bit slow to nail it myself. BUT I would check on it later in the Field Guide and subject the call to scrutiny. No way I would take a strangers word for it. One "knowledgeable" guy last month was calling all sorts of rubbish for quite simple birds at Leighton Moss and 'Joe public' was lapping it up.

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Just so. I once spent the last part of a day in the Weymouth area contradicting a fool of an RSPB group leader who was mis-IDing gulls in order to get his group's day list/life lists up. Luckily for every mis-ID he made I was able to show the real bird elsewhere in the flock, but I don't think his credibility survived.

John

Like others here, I don't count a bird for my life list unless I've actually seen it and identified it for myself; however, additions for my other lists (year, state, county, etc.) can be heard-only, unless of course that addition is a lifer.

As a child with a newly discovered love of birdwatching I gleefully ticked everything. I can remember listing both Raven and skuas without ever seeing a Carrion Crow or an immature gull! Thankfully reality interceded at some point but I still relied on my birding betters to ID many of my new birds. The pitfalls of this were demonstrated some years later when I was watching a Richard's Pipit at Salthouse. A group of birders arrived, replete with guru who went on to pick Lapland Bunting, Twite and even Snow Bunting out of a small flock of what seemed to be Skylarks. I was tempted to point this out but everyone seemed pretty happy with their bag and I didn't want to be the cloud on their silver lining. Nowadays I have to be confident that I can ID a bird based on the features that I see, if I'm not happy with a view I don't tick it.

As for call only records I will write them down in my notes but I won't tick 'em, after all I regard myself as a birdwatcher. Luckily I've seen all the birds I've heard although if I hadn't accidently flushed those Quails in France ... Either way as others have said it's your list and your rules, if you want to tick a silhouette or a dodgy, brief flight view then go ahead and do it but keep a bottle of Tippex handy, just in case.

James.

I read about a young girl who ticked several thousand species while travelling around the world. I think that is the especially bad case. She probably would not be able to recognize the same birds if a footage of her standing and looking at the bird was shown to her afterwards.
-Do you know what this was?
-Hmm... red-throated blue-billed shrike-babbler?
-no....

On the other hand it is silly not to count your local birds that are the only species in their genus for several countries around and have distinctive song. Nightingale, Scops Owl, Cuckoo. Once you are sure that no Starling scratching noise is coming from the same spot in the bushes it can be nothing else. Nightingales are *rarely* seen but they are heard-ticked easily wherever you go.

Zheljko said:

On the other hand it is silly not to count your local birds that are the only species in their genus for several countries around and have distinctive song. Nightingale, Scops Owl, Cuckoo. Once you are sure that no Starling scratching noise is coming from the same spot in the bushes it can be nothing else. Nightingales are *rarely* seen but they are heard-ticked easily wherever you go.

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Oh, I'd still be really wary about those ... once heard a very distinct Nightingale song in a square in Arles; thought it was a rather odd place for one to be singing, but hey - I'm not at all familiar with these birds, what do I know about their habits?

Spent quite a while trying to track it down (the square was very well-lit, and it would've been a lifer), and eventually found the source of the song ... speakers hidden in the ivy on the front of a nearby hotel! I guess they wanted to add "atmosphere" ...

<once heard a very distinct Nightingale song in a square in Arles>
And what about all those false ticks from a famous twitch in Berkeley Square? There was only magic abroad in the air.