Are bird lists easier to complete? (1 Viewer)

[earlytorise]

I've been looking for a blog where someone recounts a big year for butterflies/dragonflies/reptiles etc in Hong Kong, but I have never found one.

My gut feeling is that a big year for birds (within a certain area) is much easier than a big year for these other categories of animals, but I don't know for sure.

 

[Mysticete]

I've been looking for a blog where someone recounts a big year for butterflies/dragonflies/reptiles etc in Hong Kong, but I have never found one.

My gut feeling is that a big year for birds (within a certain area) is much easier than a big year for these other categories of animals, but I don't know for sure.

John Vanderpoel, when he did his ABA big year some time back, was also keeping track of each mammal he saw this year. But I don't believe he made any special effort to target mammals, rather just kept a recorded what he saw.

I think getting a high total for birds for a big year, what whatever scale, is probably easier. Most birds are diurnal and active, easy to notice, and active all year long. Migration allows a seasonal change in what species might be present in a given area, and vagrants may further inflate your list. Information is often easily available, even for particularly rare species, and their are dedicated tours often for remote areas that someone may have trouble accessing on their own.

Depending on location, mammals and herps are going to be harder. If you are in a more temperate climate, hibernation means that a large chunk of the year diversity will be low. A lot of species are not obvious, identification is tougher, and the amount of available information is often limited. Local knowledge of herps is often tightly guarded, so any sort of attempt beyond a state/province level would require a lot connections and a lot of field experience everywhere. A lot of time might need to be spent looking at night. And diversity, at least in a temperate climate, may very well be lower. I think the one benefit though of going after mammals and herps if one wanted to do a big year is that you really wouldn't need to rely on vagrants. So you could be more flexible in scheduling and investing field time.

 

[Mysticete]

Out of curiosity, I did stumble upon this bit of speculation on what it would take to do a big year in the USA for herps. Gives you some perspective of what would be entailed.

"The Big Year" - Herping Style - Field Herp Forum