Top 5 Birds of 2015 (1 Viewer)

1.Harlequin Duck
2.Red-Breasted Goose
3.Gyr Falcon
4.Barrow's Goldeneye
5.Dark-Eyed Junco

Dalmatian Pelican- magnificent birds and a species I'd long wanted to see
Western Rock Nuthatch- took a lot of time but persistence had its reward with a singing bird at Sidirokastro
Cream-coloured Courser - another long desired bird, and we nearly ran it over!
Lesser Grey Shrike - previously only seen one, in Scotland, so being surprised by one in Greece was nice
Barred Warbler-seen a couple of these before but neverhad really good views, the Thorntonloch bird was eventually obliging.

My bottom five were 1. Arctic Warbler for not showing while I was there, ,2. Sparrowhawks for catching 3. White-rumped Sandpiper for being caught, 4. Pectoral Sandpiper for another disappearing acts do 5. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker for staying out of sight after being spotted by my guide near Lisbon.

David

Only one tick in the UK: Hudsonian Godwit, probably doesn't make the cut!

Because I finally saw Wallcreeper in Turkey, and Demoiselle Crane also makes the top five as it wasn't even on the trip agenda!

Botswana also had some spectacular birds including the delightful Carmine Bee-eater - a bird I've long wanted to see.

Pel's Fishing Owl is top bird of the year - completely unexpected and we saw 2!

To complete the top five is a problem - Schalow's Turaco, Rock Pratincole, Brown (Turkish) Fish Owl, White-throated Robin, could all qualify. So it's a top 8 for me!

I only birded in West Virginia this year, so my top birds are rare for the state but aren't necessarily rare elsewhere.

Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Eurasian Wigeon (First state record)
Curlew Sandpiper (First state record, found by me)
Red-necked Phalarope
White-winged Dove

Also:

Common Gallinule
"Eurasian" Teal (First state record, found by me)

Dave

In alphabetical order...

Broad-billed Sandpiper - RSPB Frampton Marsh, Lincolnshire
Crag Martin - Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Little Bittern - Kirkby Pits, Lincolnshire
Pallid Harrier - Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire
White-winged Black Tern - RSPB Frampton Marsh, Lincolnshire

The tern was probably my favourite. Not the rarest, but watching it show on my local patch in the warm glow of a summer evening was as close to magical as birding gets.

I got 34" UK lifers" this year with some good birds seen, a bit difficult to pick five
1 capercaille \loch garten
2 bee eater\ Cumbria
3 crag martin\ Derbyshire
4 Nightingale \ Cambridge
5 sabines gull(sum plum)\ Cheshire
5

Rob and my top 5 birds of the year ( hard to choose order of preference ) :
1) Short - Eared Owl - a complete surprise, whilst twitching a ring-neck duck, drake, at Hardley Staithe - the owl blew us away and gave us crippling, close , views and then flew over our heads.
2) Wryneck in Winterton Dunes, whilst twitching and dipping a blue throat - again a complete surprise to see the wryneck, which perched for an age in 2 separate trees, in the clear, giving us extensive and clear views through the scope
3) Booted Eagles flying so close over our heads on the Portuguese Algarve, that we felt that we could reach out and touch them.
4) A group of Hawfinches , male and female showing incredibly well in leaf litter at Lynford Arboretum- we needed our elbows here though, for the crowd that was also looking at them...
5) 2 Ospreys in Scotland ( not at Loch Garten) ... one still on the nest, stretching / flapping its wings and practicing its flight. we went the next day - one had already left. the other remained and we were fortunate to see it fly away south.

Paul Chapman said:

After 2014 without a tick, 2015 was a bit of a shock to the system. I had five (!) British ticks - being Great Blue Heron (17.04.15), Hudsonian Godwit (25.04.15), Moltoni's Warbler (23.05.15), Acadian Flycatcher (22.09.15) & Chestnut Bunting (26.10.15) - but that would be too easy a top five.

I had a few short trips away - Canaries for six days in February/March where I had been before so only 'ticks' were feral Nanday Parakeet and Barbary Dove but enjoying some of the non-ticks and views; Latvia/Estonia for three days in June to enjoy the variety and without any tick targets; and two days in Turkey later that month for Brown Fish Owl.

So my top birds for 2015 as a result were:-
Houbara Bustards - watching a displaying male on Fuerteventura and the female having none of it
Great Blue Heron - mainly because of the previous Scilly dip and the fact that this one took two trips (alas no camera on my return trip and not a world tick) - the hardest won are the sweetest
Moltoni's Warbler - again on the hardest won principle with a Fair Isle twitch after a Blakeney dip
Common Rosefinch - probably my favourite of the common species on the Latvia/Estonia trip with the attached on the fence at Riga Airport (though Red-backed Shrikes ran it close)
Brown Fish Owl - as I had been trying to fit it in for a number of years and it was a bit of a daft twitch

All the best

Paul

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What fantastic photographs, Paul, which add extra light and dimension to your interesting choices. Thank you for sharing them :t:

dandsblair said:

My top 5 birds for 2015 were

Yellow-headed Picathartes (White-necked Rockfowl)
Black-crowned (Crimson and Black) Pitta
Whitehead's Trogon
Black and Yellow Broadbill
Buffy Fishing Owl

I'll get David to add photos of these on the post when he does his Top 5 (there are shots on Flickr under Ghana and Borneo)

Sarah

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Your choices of Black and Yellow Broadbill and Buffy Fishing Owl, made Rob and I smile ( and the pictures of them are fantastic too ) - these were 2 of our favourite birds that we saw in Borneo last year in April / May 2014.:t::t:

david kelly said:

Dalmatian Pelican- magnificent birds and a species I'd long wanted to see
Western Rock Nuthatch- took a lot of time but persistence had its reward with a singing bird at Sidirokastro
Cream-coloured Courser - another long desired bird, and we nearly ran it over!
Lesser Grey Shrike - previously only seen one, in Scotland, so being surprised by one in Greece was nice
Barred Warbler-seen a couple of these before but neverhad really good views, the Thorntonloch bird was eventually obliging.

My bottom five were 1. Arctic Warbler for not showing while I was there, ,2. Sparrowhawks for catching 3. White-rumped Sandpiper for being caught, 4. Pectoral Sandpiper for another disappearing acts do 5. Lesser Spotted Woodpecker for staying out of sight after being spotted by my guide near Lisbon.

David

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David, Your bottom five is an interesting take on the question and made me laugh out loud- Rob and I don't have a bottom 5, that I can think of ( having consumed far too much white wine already, this NYE ) ...but we do have a bottom 1 .. : arriving at a Theberton twitch at 3pm, c 1.5 hour drive from home ....waiting until c 9pm, birds ( 10 bee eaters ) did not return to roost, .... having lots of great banter and fun with people at the twitch .... so much so that we left our scope there !!!( but did not realise until we got home ) .. driving home and nearly being killed by a police car that ran a red light... having to make the trip 6 times ( 3 times each way to retrieve the scope ) - being alive to tell the tale puts the rest into perspective I think...

There are numerous other birds that could be put on this list, but in terms of rarity and/or personal significance, these seem like the best choices for a top 5 (I've included the date of the sighting for each bird):

1. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck - first LA County record, seen at Bonelli Regional Park (7/1)
2. Trumpeter Swan (lifer) - likely the same 4 birds seen twice on separate days in Hayden Valley, Yellowstone National Park (7/28)
3. Couch's Kingbird - second California record, at Sunset Park in Visalia, Tulare County (11/21)
4. Sinaloa Wren (lifer) - long-staying bird at Fort Huachuca, my rarest bird of the year, and my first sighting of an ABA Code 5 bird (11/23)
5. Yellow-eyed Junco (lifer) - lifer #500, seen late in the afternoon at Miller Canyon in the Huachucas (11/23)

Honorable mentions:

1. McCown's Longspur - kicked off 2015 with a lifer on New Year's Day! (1/1)
2. Painted Bunting (lifer) - female that showed up at a friend's feeder, just a quick bus ride from home (3/30)
3. Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - 2 different male birds: summering bird in Ventura County, nesting with Western Kingbirds (6/21); and wintering bird at Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica (12/12)
4. Neotropic Cormorant - first Ventura County record, new for my California list, and like the Scissor-tailed my first time seeing the species since my Texas trip in 2010 (6/21)
5. Hooded Warbler (lifer) - male at Huntington Central Park in Orange County (6/27)
6. Common Nighthawk (lifer) - distant bird seen at dusk from our hotel balcony in Beaver, Utah en route to Yellowstone (7/25)
7. Harlequin Duck - first time seeing the species in nesting habitat, at LeHardy Rapids in Yellowstone NP (7/28)
8. American Oystercatcher (lifer) - seen on jetties in Newport Beach (9/25)
9. Brown Booby - 80+ on a Channel Islands Pelagic (10/10), then 1 lone bird on the rocks at La Jolla Cove in San Diego (12/27)
10. Chestnut-sided Warbler - by far the rarest bird ever to show up in my own yard (10/18)
11. Arizona Woodpecker (lifer) - one of my most-wanted birds from my inaugural trip to southeastern Arizona, woodpeckers being one of my favorite groups (11/23)
12. Northern Cardinal - a single female bird in a yard in Ajo, AZ, which we staked out for a reported Rufous-backed Robin (which didn't show); first time seeing the species since Texas in 2010 (11/24)
13. Crissal Thrasher (lifer) - seen at Yuma West Wetlands on our last morning in Arizona (11/25)
14. Little Blue Heron - distant adult bird seen in marsh at Tijuana Slough NWR; again, first time seeing the species since Texas in 2010 (12/27)

1. Pallid Harrier
2. Lapland Bunting
3. Saker Falcon
4. Broad-billed Sandpiper
5. Grasshopper Warbler

All were from N Ukraine

Some awesome birds above, some of which I still need despite being to the right places.

I just want to be adopted by D & S Blair !

Difficult to pick five, but Andean Cock of the Rock must be my favourite.

I had a great birding year, my top 5 would have to be...

Eleonora's Falcon
Levant Sparrowhawk
Eider Duck
Eurasian Scops Owl (One of the strangest bird calls I have ever heard!)
Alpine Swift

Happy birding for 2016!