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Message: <blockquote data-quote="James Emerson" data-source="post: 1563636" data-attributes="member: 53821">Could you give an example of a birding authority that allows ticking on sound only?  To my mind, organisations such as the BOU and similar organisations only maintain a list of birds that you are allowed to count under their rules (i.e. they decide whether the bird is in a wild state).  I am haven't heard of a birding authority that tells people how they must witness the bird in order to tick it.  An exception is bird races, where rules are agreed in advance as to whether hearing a bird is enough, whether each member of the team has to see it etc, but these rules are used purely to maximise the amount of species that can be recorded in the time.  Whilst a lot of bird calls are distinctive, a number aren't, so I think ticking everything by call could be rather stringy.For the record, I haven't seen or heard Quail, but I had Golden Oriole (heard only) as a non-counted appendix to my British List until I saw one this year.</blockquote>