birderbf
Wild, Wild West ................... ern Spindalis
Seeing the incredible success of the Devil Bird's (formerly Crazy Birder) "Bird Points Game", and "Bird Points Game Yearlist 07 version", and seeing the tremendous demand (OK two people, one of them myself) for an ABA-area counterpart.
Just to get everything straight: the ABA area is the entire contiguous 48 states and Canada, as well as Alaska and all it's little islands in the Aleutian chain. Greenland, Hawaii (and all other territories of the US) and other Canadian territories are not included. The little French-owned islands south of Newfoundland are in the ABA area. The rules over the ocean are: the bird must have been seen within 200 miles of the "dry" ABA area, or within half the distance between the "dry" ABA area and a neighboring country (i.e. an Audubon's Shearwater in the straight of Florida must've been seen no more than half the distance between the nearest point of Florida and Cuba).
Rules of this game are as follows.
Simply, after the common and scientific name of each bird, there follows a number. Whip out a calculator and add up the numbers that precede the name of a species that you have seen. There are 940 countable birds accepted in the ABA, but don't worry - I'll let you have them in about 19 installments of 50 species.
What do the codes mean, you ask? Well they average out the overall abundancy of the species they are tagged to - over the entire ABA area. So one bird that may be a state or province first may be very common elsewhere on the continent, and thus a lower code. For instance - I just saw a Yellow-headed Blackbird in New York, which is a fairly uncommon occurence, as they live far out west. Meanwhile, someone out in Wyoming wouldn't bat an eyelash at that species. Then again there are species which have only graced the ABA area a handful of times, and those have higher codes, as they are rare anywhere in the ABA area.
So basically this shows your birding quality, not quantity.
Code 1 = everyday bird, at least for somewhere in the ABA area. Examples, House Sparrow, Swainson's Hawk, King Rail.
Code 2 = an ABA area breeder highly restricted in range, or abundant yet recusive. Namely, Whooping Crane, Black Rail, even North Hawk Owl.
Code 3 = rare but regular visitor to the area. Eurasian Wigeon, Five-striped Sparrow, Lesser Black-backed Gull
Code 4 = very unusual occurence, recorded maybe less than twenty times
Code 5 = highly unusual occurence, maybe ten or even five individuals or fewer recorded. Gray-hooded Gull, Lanceolated Warbler, White-throated Needletail.
This game will begin on sometime Friday July 19. A Version 2.1, yearlist edition, will appear after all the 940 species have been displayed in all 19 or 20 installments, to keep things from getting to confusing!
Just to get everything straight: the ABA area is the entire contiguous 48 states and Canada, as well as Alaska and all it's little islands in the Aleutian chain. Greenland, Hawaii (and all other territories of the US) and other Canadian territories are not included. The little French-owned islands south of Newfoundland are in the ABA area. The rules over the ocean are: the bird must have been seen within 200 miles of the "dry" ABA area, or within half the distance between the "dry" ABA area and a neighboring country (i.e. an Audubon's Shearwater in the straight of Florida must've been seen no more than half the distance between the nearest point of Florida and Cuba).
Rules of this game are as follows.
Simply, after the common and scientific name of each bird, there follows a number. Whip out a calculator and add up the numbers that precede the name of a species that you have seen. There are 940 countable birds accepted in the ABA, but don't worry - I'll let you have them in about 19 installments of 50 species.
What do the codes mean, you ask? Well they average out the overall abundancy of the species they are tagged to - over the entire ABA area. So one bird that may be a state or province first may be very common elsewhere on the continent, and thus a lower code. For instance - I just saw a Yellow-headed Blackbird in New York, which is a fairly uncommon occurence, as they live far out west. Meanwhile, someone out in Wyoming wouldn't bat an eyelash at that species. Then again there are species which have only graced the ABA area a handful of times, and those have higher codes, as they are rare anywhere in the ABA area.
So basically this shows your birding quality, not quantity.
Code 1 = everyday bird, at least for somewhere in the ABA area. Examples, House Sparrow, Swainson's Hawk, King Rail.
Code 2 = an ABA area breeder highly restricted in range, or abundant yet recusive. Namely, Whooping Crane, Black Rail, even North Hawk Owl.
Code 3 = rare but regular visitor to the area. Eurasian Wigeon, Five-striped Sparrow, Lesser Black-backed Gull
Code 4 = very unusual occurence, recorded maybe less than twenty times
Code 5 = highly unusual occurence, maybe ten or even five individuals or fewer recorded. Gray-hooded Gull, Lanceolated Warbler, White-throated Needletail.
This game will begin on sometime Friday July 19. A Version 2.1, yearlist edition, will appear after all the 940 species have been displayed in all 19 or 20 installments, to keep things from getting to confusing!