Do people count ringed birds on their lists? (1 Viewer)

Adam W said:

Each to their own I suppose but why wouldn't it count? My first Cettis Warbler flew into my kitchen window, luckily it recovered and flew off but if it hadn't it would still be on my list as I would have still seen one which was a wild bird and alive at the time.

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Oh, I'm taking it as a given that each person makes his or her own 'rules' about this sort of thing - except, as Jim mentions, when it comes to ABA "Big Year" lists, when some attempt at creating a level playing field is necessary. I am just trying to expand on how I feel about what constitutes, for me, finding the bird.

I would call the Cetti's a case that's in a grey area ... a bird that was incapacitated, but... it's still free-flying, and well. I would have difficulty deciding what to do with that one.

What I was referring to above was moribund birds, which seems similar to counting dead ones.

Peter C. said:

Oh, I'm taking it as a given that each person makes his or her own 'rules' about this sort of thing - except, as Jim mentions, when it comes to ABA "Big Year" lists, when some attempt at creating a level playing field is necessary. I am just trying to expand on how I feel about what constitutes, for me, finding the bird.

I would call the Cetti's a case that's in a grey area ... a bird that was incapacitated, but... it's still free-flying, and well. I would have difficulty deciding what to do with that one.

What I was referring to above was moribund birds, which seems similar to counting dead ones.

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Some scenarios:

Your cat is walking past with a bird in its mouth. You shout. It drops it. Its a tick. It hops about a bit and keels over. Why wouldn't you count it?

You are driving. You see a bird fly out from the verge, you hit it and kill it. You stop. Its a tick, but you identified it post mortem. Do you count it?

A rumoured one from the USA many years ago: A load of birders are thrashing a marsh in a line to flush a Yellow Rail. Suddenly there's a shout. One of them, lagging a bit, has spotted a Yellow Rail kicking out its remaining minutes behind the line as someone has trodden on it. He's picked it up. Does he tick it and does anybody else tick it?

You have turned up to see a Pallid Swift released. It fails to fly off the releaser's hand. Eventually it is launched like a paper dart. It goes eeaaaoowwww - bonk. It is taken back into care. Is it on your list?

Have fun!

John

#1- No. The cat can, if he likes, he found it.

#2 - No. For me, the identification is top-priority. The whole point. The thing is now a specimen. Don't count specimens.

#3 - Great Z., I would hope not!

#4 - No. Falls into the banding station "would I have seen it without it having been restrained?" criterion, which I alluded to before (see page 1).

For me the most important criterion is whether or not it 'feels' like its on my list. I'm very poor at bird calls, so for me it just doesn't feel like a tick when I hear a bird only. All the 'rules' say that Ring-necked Pheasant and Mandarin Duck are perfectly tick-able in the UK, so I ticked them. However, when I finally saw them in China I immediately had that feeling that I had seen something new and that these were world ticks. As a ringer I love seeing a bird in the hand and whether or not it is ringed (caught by me or not) makes no difference. Having said that, there is still a limit, and it wouldn't feel right to travel to see a bird that had been trapped and kept for me to see. Where do you draw the line? I guess that is the point; we all have our own sets of rules and what is most important is what satisfies our own personal criteria.

Tom