Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (7 Viewers)

[DuckNorris]

I started birding just over a month ago, so many of my life birds will be birds I've actually seen before but didn't know what they were.

Today I saw my first positively-identified Mississippi Kite. This was in Memphis, Tennessee USA.

 

[Nightjar61]

Velvety Manakin. An armchair tick after the IOC and SACC split of Blue-crowned (now Blue-capped) Manakin, having seen both forms in Central America and South America.

Dave

 

[Dyrlege]

Strix uralensis, mid-/east Norway, early June 2022.

 

[Lisa W]

Pigeon Guillemot, today - July 30, 2022. Saw it in the harbor at Winchester Bay, Oregon.

 

[DuckNorris]

Double-crested Cormorant, South County Regional Park, Palm Beach County, Florida.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Makassar Myna, from the plane taxiing to leave Makassar Airport after 3 weeks on Sulawesi and Halmahera.

 

[B1FF]

I hope "life-bird" is a loose term here, because I saw my first woodcock (Scolopax rusticola, English terms might be misleading, "Waldschnepfe") the day before yesterday. Woodcock is not a rare bird where I live, but I haven't seen one before, so that's my most recent life-bird, right?. (The bird was sunbathing at the riverbank, sort of loafing.)

 

[Keith/Portland]

I know that we have birders of all ages and number of years participating in this
pastime we all enjoy.

But, I thought that it would be interesting to see when it was that you observed your last "life" bird. *A "life" bird is one which you now have seen, but have never seen it in the wild before.

What was it? When? and Where?

My last "life" bird was:

Sharp-tailed Grouse seen in Sax-Zim bog area of northern Minnesota, USA, January 30, 2005

It would be interesting to know what percentage of lifers are self-found. Sadly nowadays hardly any, in the UK at least, one imagines.

 

[B1FF]

I started birding just over a month ago, so many of my life birds will be birds I've actually seen before but didn't know what they were.

Glad to hear that. (Amateur hour here: Your Most Recent "Life" Bird #4508)

 

[Mysticete]

I hope "life-bird" is a loose term here, because I saw my first woodcock (Scolopax rusticola, English terms might be misleading, "Waldschnepfe") the day before yesterday. Woodcock is not a rare bird where I live, but I haven't seen one before, so that's my most recent life-bird, right?. (The bird was sunbathing at the riverbank, sort of loafing.)

Yes that is the definition.

 

[Richard G]

Number 250 - the Bempton Turkestan Shrike

 

[Mysticete]

It would be interesting to know what percentage of lifers are self-found. Sadly nowadays hardly any, in the UK at least, one imagines.

This would only be true if one is a rabid twitcher who seldom ventures outside there own country (or even county). Certainly the vast majority of my lifers are self found, since I rarely twitch (and even then the bird is more likely to be a county or state bird, not an actual new species for my list).

 

[Mysticete]

Not exactly a recently seen bird, but the AOS split of Chihuahuan Meadowlark from Eastern Meadowlark gives me a nice armchair tick.

 

[B1FF]

Yes that is the definition.

I hope there will be more (trivial) life-birds for me. Landlord reportedly saw a wagtail the other day, which has become rare here.

 

[Nightjar61]

I also got an armchair tick with the IOC/NCAA split of Chihuahuan Meadowlark.

Dave

 

[DuckNorris]

Another from a newbie birder from Florida:
Roseate Spoonbill, Green Cay Nature Center, Boynton Beach, Florida USA

 

[Swindon Addick]

What I love about this thread is the way it mixes new birders seeing common species that they happen not to have seen before with twitchers who've travelled serious distances to see mega-rarities and people who've just been on the holiday of a lifetime and seen hundreds of new species. Plus people like me whose lists could be a lot longer if we put more effort in. All of us have exactly one bird that counts as our most recent lifer.

Anyway, after the disappointment in the winter of my first Snow Goose getting kicked off my list for being an escapee, I finally have a lifer this year - the Squacco Heron at Pagham this afternoon.I think that's number 275 for the UK the way I count it.

 

[Bananafishbones]

Last new bird in my Amazonia NP trip late July
Long-Tailed Hermit, an hour before I got brilliant views of a pair of the fabulous Glossy Antshrike

 

[lammergeier05]

Last new bird, Malaysia: Yellow-crowned Barbet, Bukit Tinggi (along with the requisite Mountain Peacock Pheasant). Just shy of 150 lifers in two weeks with highlight being the famous Rail-Babbler at Panti Reserve.

 

[Bewick]

My last twitch was the squacco heron but my self-finds are the golden oriole, monty harrier and cirl bunting while birdwatching I’m France.