Guess how many shorebirds are in this photo . here is how many I came up with .
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How many shorebirds do you see in this photo? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Nickk
- Start date
About 550 ...I will let someone else do an exact count 
Hope I'm not way out - I do counts like that every week on my local patch in numbers up to 1000 - 2000 waders and 10000 wildfowl
Hope I'm not way out - I do counts like that every week on my local patch in numbers up to 1000 - 2000 waders and 10000 wildfowl
Er - what photo? We used to do regular counts of gulls coming in to roost at reservoirs. Between us we came up with fairly consistent results (by counting in groups of ten or fifty). We also came up with a rule of thumb which I have tested many times with flocks up to about a thousand. Glance at the flock, take the first number that pops into head and double it. This matches very well your observation that estimates are usually only 30 to 50% of the real total.
Terry O'Nolley
Cow-headed Jaybird
Sheesh - I only guessed ~250. I think our mind sort of forgets about all the birds that are partially obscured and forgets that in real life the birds are several layers deep.
That is a good demonstration - I will remember it!
That is a good demonstration - I will remember it!
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