How many countries would you have to vist to see all the bird species in the world? (1 Viewer)

[jurek]

I agree that the best approach is to list all countries with at least one endemic bird, then make a list of birds not found in any of these countries, and see a minimum number of countries needed to see these.

My suspicion is that loading and cleaning lists is the most time consuming part. Countries with at least one endemic bird are numerous and also most biodiverse. Therefore only a small number of non-endemic birds would not be found in any of them. So the latter part may be relatively easy, perhaps doable by pen and paper.

As others said, in reality this is an undoable method to see all the worlds birds, because of logistics.

I tried ChatGPT out of laziness and it could not find a solution, then for the first part it gave a comically wrong answer. As usual. There seems to be a fixed limit of the length of lists in ChatGPT. So birdwatchers are safe from the AI uprising for now.

My own effort for the Western Palearctic and regular species (excluding vagrants to the region) the list is 11: Algeria, Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Morocco, Portugal including Madeira and Cape Verdes), Russia, Spain including Canary Islands and Balearics, Turkey, United Kingdom and 12 (Iceland) if all birds must be regular visitors to a country.

 

[earlytorise]

It might be fun for people to systematically answer the question, region by region.

I'll start with N America, which is easy. Canada doesn't have a true endemic (Harris's Sparrow winters in the US), so you can get all your N American ticks from the US.

As for E Asia, China (by the way there are Taiwanese endemics) and Japan cover everything except the Siberian Nuthatch, which is now an individual species. So you will need to include Russia.

 

[Val35]

The only endemics in Europe (I didn't count the breeding-only seabirds) are found in the Canaries (8), Madeira (3), the Azores (2), the Balearic Islands (1), Corsica (1), Cyprus (1) and Scotland (1).

Corsican Finch and Marmora's Warbler in Corsica too (although they are also found on Sardinia and Tuscan Archipelago)...Mediterranean Flycatcher too (Balearic Islands, Corsica, Sardinia...).

 

[jogresh]

I agree that the best approach is to list all countries with at least one endemic bird, then make a list of birds not found in any of these countries, and see a minimum number of countries needed to see these.

My suspicion is that loading and cleaning lists is the most time consuming part. Countries with at least one endemic bird are numerous and also most biodiverse. Therefore only a small number of non-endemic birds would not be found in any of them. So the latter part may be relatively easy, perhaps doable by pen and paper.

As others said, in reality this is an undoable method to see all the worlds birds, because of logistics.

I tried ChatGPT out of laziness and it could not find a solution, then for the first part it gave a comically wrong answer. As usual. There seems to be a fixed limit of the length of lists in ChatGPT. So birdwatchers are safe from the AI uprising for now.

My own effort for the Western Palearctic and regular species (excluding vagrants to the region) the list is 11: Algeria, Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Morocco, Portugal including Madeira and Cape Verdes), Russia, Spain including Canary Islands and Balearics, Turkey, United Kingdom and 12 (Iceland) if all birds must be regular visitors to a country.

Interesting effort, half way there..
Perhaps phrasing the 2nd part of the question " then list all bird species not found in the previous countries".. 🤔🤷‍♂️

 

[chowchilla]

Then all you need are splits, and you probably have to re-jig your list every time. So any list is only up to date for a period of months rather than years.

Taiwan was mentioned up the page (I highly recommend a trip here. I cleaned up on the endemics, except for Taiwan Thrush which got split from Island Thrush), but is it a country? The majority of the world says, no.

 

[James Lowther]

I agree that the best approach is to list all countries with at least one endemic bird, then make a list of birds not found in any of these countries, and see a minimum number of countries needed to see these.

My suspicion is that loading and cleaning lists is the most time consuming part. Countries with at least one endemic bird are numerous and also most biodiverse. Therefore only a small number of non-endemic birds would not be found in any of them. So the latter part may be relatively easy, perhaps doable by pen and paper.

As others said, in reality this is an undoable method to see all the worlds birds, because of logistics.

I tried ChatGPT out of laziness and it could not find a solution, then for the first part it gave a comically wrong answer. As usual. There seems to be a fixed limit of the length of lists in ChatGPT. So birdwatchers are safe from the AI uprising for now.

My own effort for the Western Palearctic and regular species (excluding vagrants to the region) the list is 11: Algeria, Armenia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Morocco, Portugal including Madeira and Cape Verdes), Russia, Spain including Canary Islands and Balearics, Turkey, United Kingdom and 12 (Iceland) if all birds must be regular visitors to a country.

Are there any species occurring in Armenia, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey or Iceland that don’t also occur in countries with endemics (e.g. Saudi Arabia, USA)?
Cape Verde is an independent nation BTW.
James

 

[James Lowther]

Then all you need are splits, and you probably have to re-jig your list every time. So any list is only up to date for a period of months rather than years.

Taiwan was mentioned up the page (I highly recommend a trip here. I cleaned up on the endemics, except for Taiwan Thrush which got split from Island Thrush), but is it a country? The majority of the world says, no.

I don’t think either of those issues is particularly problematic.
Re splits these only matter if the split species doesn’t occur in any of the countries already on the list. So any of the many splits affecting species in eg South America, east Africa, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia etc won’t have any impact.
Re: which countries you include in the list you just set your definition and stick to it. So if you think Taiwan is a country you include it on the list, if you think it’s part of China you don’t. Same with the various UK overseas territories.
Cheers
James

 

[THE_FERN]

Strictly speaking, of course, this question is unanswerable---at least in the general, or universal sense. There are at least 2 subjective decisions to be made first: 1) how many species are there, 2) how many countries are there. It gets worse, because, having decided how many species there are, you have to decide where these occur... These answers will (should) vary with the individual...

Meanwhile, is it really true that only 10 people have seen more than 7,000 species?

...Wow. If that's what it's like for the most apparent group of organisms (i.e. probably including plants) then no wonder we've a more complete (or at least extensive) catalogue of stars

 

[jurek]

Also I wonder if there any historic attempts to see all the world's species back in the day when people with vast amounts of wealth loved challenges like this.That would surely make for a gripping read.

Yes, in those past times of plenty there were such people like Noah Strycker in 2015 and Arjan Dwarshuis in 2016. Both seen over half of world's bird species. Birding Without Borders makes a good read.

 

[Owene]

Strictly speaking, of course, this question is unanswerable---at least in the general, or universal sense. There are at least 2 subjective decisions to be made first: 1) how many species are there, 2) how many countries are there. It gets worse, because, having decided how many species there are, you have to decide where these occur... These answers will (should) vary with the individual...

Meanwhile, is it really true that only 10 people have seen more than 7,000 species?

...Wow. If that's what it's like for the most apparent group of organisms (i.e. probably including plants) then no wonder we've a more complete (or at least extensive) catalogue of stars

Igoterra has 52 people over 7000 and is a fairly niche site

 

[Rob Hunt]

Igoterra has 52 people over 7000 and is a fairly niche site

Surfbirds has 102 people over 7000, with 22 of those over 9000.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Igoterra has 52 people over 7000 and is a fairly niche site

And I know a few people who are over 7000 but not on the list, for their own reasons.

 

[Steve Lister]

Portugal including Madeira and Cape Verdes

Portugal does not include Cape Verde. But it does include The Azores which have two endemic species, so maybe you just got the two mixed up.

 

[MJB]

Portugal does not include Cape Verde.

Indeed. Cabo Verde has been an independent country since 1975, though Portuguese remains its official language...
MJB

 

[jurek]

My mistake, in this case add 1 to the above