Hey folks, this is my first time to this forum, so first off, thanks for having me!
I am a very amateur birder but I'm very passionate about it. I thought it would be fun to create a game of sorts to encourage my friends and family (or anyone interested) to enjoy casual/amateur birding with me. It also makes it more exciting to see species you've recorded previously again each year.
The game is fairly straightforward (maybe it already exists? I've only joined the hobby reccently). All birds endemic to the region (southern ontario) are assigned a point value based on rarity. Every January, the game starts. When you spot a bird species for the first time that year, you gain the amount of points assigned to that species. No subsequent sightings of a species after the first count. The person with the most points by December wins (or you can just compete against yourself from previous years!) At December, all the points reset.
My big problem is that, as a very casual birder, I haven't encountered the vast majority of bird species in my region and have no idea how relatively rare they are. So as I've been going through the list of birds found in the region, there are many I can't confidently place in one category or another. I've tried very hard to use preexisting lists, but most don't list rarity and the few that do are way too ambiguous. I've even googled the rarity of many of the individual species but it wasn't much help. I've also tried going by number of sightings on apps like iNaturalist but there are way to many biases going into it to be accurate.
Obviously, this is a huge ask. There are over 500 species of birds native to southern ontario and it's near impossible to accurately quantify rarity across a region. But I've made my best attempt! I'll explain my levels below and post the list I've generated so far. It would be insane to ask anyone let alone strangers on the internet to systematically scrutinize the whole thing. But if you would like to skim it and let me know if you see anything that doesnt make sense/belong or have a species i didnt include, that would be cool!
Keep in mind this game is intended for total beginners without a ton of spare time, not seasoned birders. The system also doesn't include any vagrant birds (all of them are 10pts regardless of relative rarity)
The levels are:
1: Birds anyone would typically see at least once in a given year without trying.
2: Birds requiring the slightest effort, like a birdfeeder or going for more walks/hikes
3. Birds typically found farther from urban centers OR are a bit less common. May require a bit of a drive for someone living in a city or more careful observation.
4: Birds found fairly regularly in rural/natural/isolated areas, but with less frequency than level 3 birds
5: Uncommon birds, those found in relatively isolated/limited areas, and those that are slightly more difficult to spot due to behavior (e.g. active at dusk, tend to hide in dense vegetation, tend to be quiet)
6. Fairly rare/isolated bird species (relative to amateur birders)
7. Rare birds or those very difficult to spot due to behavior (e.g most owls)
8. Very rare birds or those with very isolated/restricted habitats
The current list (again, I AM NOT EXPECTING ANYONE TO READ/ANALYZE THE ENTIRE LIST! Just a brief skim and notes on anything that stands out is appreciated!)
1 POINT
2 POINT
3 POINT
4 POINT
5 POINT
6 POINT
7 POINT
8 POINT
I am a very amateur birder but I'm very passionate about it. I thought it would be fun to create a game of sorts to encourage my friends and family (or anyone interested) to enjoy casual/amateur birding with me. It also makes it more exciting to see species you've recorded previously again each year.
The game is fairly straightforward (maybe it already exists? I've only joined the hobby reccently). All birds endemic to the region (southern ontario) are assigned a point value based on rarity. Every January, the game starts. When you spot a bird species for the first time that year, you gain the amount of points assigned to that species. No subsequent sightings of a species after the first count. The person with the most points by December wins (or you can just compete against yourself from previous years!) At December, all the points reset.
My big problem is that, as a very casual birder, I haven't encountered the vast majority of bird species in my region and have no idea how relatively rare they are. So as I've been going through the list of birds found in the region, there are many I can't confidently place in one category or another. I've tried very hard to use preexisting lists, but most don't list rarity and the few that do are way too ambiguous. I've even googled the rarity of many of the individual species but it wasn't much help. I've also tried going by number of sightings on apps like iNaturalist but there are way to many biases going into it to be accurate.
Obviously, this is a huge ask. There are over 500 species of birds native to southern ontario and it's near impossible to accurately quantify rarity across a region. But I've made my best attempt! I'll explain my levels below and post the list I've generated so far. It would be insane to ask anyone let alone strangers on the internet to systematically scrutinize the whole thing. But if you would like to skim it and let me know if you see anything that doesnt make sense/belong or have a species i didnt include, that would be cool!
Keep in mind this game is intended for total beginners without a ton of spare time, not seasoned birders. The system also doesn't include any vagrant birds (all of them are 10pts regardless of relative rarity)
The levels are:
1: Birds anyone would typically see at least once in a given year without trying.
2: Birds requiring the slightest effort, like a birdfeeder or going for more walks/hikes
3. Birds typically found farther from urban centers OR are a bit less common. May require a bit of a drive for someone living in a city or more careful observation.
4: Birds found fairly regularly in rural/natural/isolated areas, but with less frequency than level 3 birds
5: Uncommon birds, those found in relatively isolated/limited areas, and those that are slightly more difficult to spot due to behavior (e.g. active at dusk, tend to hide in dense vegetation, tend to be quiet)
6. Fairly rare/isolated bird species (relative to amateur birders)
7. Rare birds or those very difficult to spot due to behavior (e.g most owls)
8. Very rare birds or those with very isolated/restricted habitats
The current list (again, I AM NOT EXPECTING ANYONE TO READ/ANALYZE THE ENTIRE LIST! Just a brief skim and notes on anything that stands out is appreciated!)
1 POINT
- American crow
- American Robin
- Northern Cardinal
- Black-capped chickadee
- Ring-Billed gull
- Herring Gull
- House sparrow
- Bluejay
- Rock Dove
- European Starling
- Grackle
- Dark eyed junco
- Mourning dove
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Canada Goose
- Red-winged blackbird
2 POINT
- American Goldfinch
- Downy Woodpecker
- Hairy woodpecker
- White-breasted nuthatch
- red-breasted nuthatch
- Turkey Vulture
- Song Sparrow
- Domestic Goose
- Domestic turkey
- Domestic chicken
- Domestic duck
- Warbling vireo
- Chipping sparrow
- Mallard
- Wild turkey
- Trumpeter swan
3 POINT
- Rose-breasted grosbeak
- Red-tailed hawk
- House Finch
- Cedar Waxwing
- Barn Swallow
- Red-Eyed Vireo
- Killdeer
- Ruby-throated hummingbird
- Tree swallow
- Bank swallow
- Northern rough winged swallow
4 POINT
- Eastern Kingbird
- Baltimore Oriole
- Yellow Warbler
- Gray catbird
- Red-bellied woodpecker
- Eastern Phoebe
- Least Flycatcher
- Great crested Flycatcher
- American Redstart
- Purple Finch
- Common yellowthroat
- Ovenbird
- Veery
- Pine Warbler
- Chipping Sparrow
- Pine Siskin
- White-Crowned Sparrow
- White throated Sparrow
- double-crested cormorant
- blue-winged teal
- Ruffed grouse
- Marsh Wren
- Golden crowned kinglet
- Hermit thrush
- Wood thrush
- Yellow rumped warbler
- Black throated green warbler
- Black throated blue warbler
- Capeay warbler
- Magnolia warbler
- Pine Warbler
- Blackburnian warbler
- Chestnut sided warbler
- Nashville warbler
- Black and white warbler
- Scarlet Tanager
- Field sparrow
- Savannah sparrow
5 POINT
- Pileated woodpecker
- Blue heron
- Bobolink
- Eastern Meadowlark
- Yellow bellied sapsucker
- Brown thrasher
- American Woodcock
- Wilsons Snipe
- Eastern Bluebird
- Northern Flicker
- American Black Duck
- American Wigeon
- Gadwall
- Ospray
- Sora
- Black tern
- Caspian Tern
- Blue-headed vireo
- Brown Creeper
- Winter Wren
- Golden crowned kinglet
- Ruby crowned kinglet
- Northern waterthrush
- Common loon
- Common raven
6 POINT
- Green heron
- Belted Kingfisher
- Tufted Titmouse
- Pie-billed grebe
- American Bittern
- Least Bittern
- wood duck
- green winged teal
- Northern pintail
- Hooded merganser
- Northern Harrier
- Sharp-shinned hawk
- Cooper's Hawk
- Virginia rail
- Common gallinule
- Sandhill crane
- Common tern
- Common nighthawk
- Alder flycatcher
- Purple martin
- Eastern towhee
- Grasshopper sparrow
7 POINT
- Tawny Owl
- Snowy owl
- burrowing owl
- Northern Saw-whet owl
- Eastern whip-poor-will
- Grasshopper sparrow
- Orchard oriole
- Tundra Swan
- Common Goldeneye
- Common merganser
- Red-breasted merganser
- American Coot
- Lesser Yellowlegs
- Bonapartes gull
- black-backed gull
- Barred owl
- Chimney swift
- Northern shrike
- Horned Lark
- Bohemian waxwing
- Palm warbler
- Bay-breasted warbler
- Mourning warbler
- wilsons warbler
- Canada warbler
- Pine siskin
8 POINT
- Boreal owl
- Loggerhead shrike
- American three-toed woodpecker
- Black billed magpie
- Gray Partridge
- Barn owl
- Northern bobwhite
- Henslows Sparrow
- Black-crowned night heron
- Mute swan
- Bufflehead
- Bald eagle
- Northern Goshawk
- Red shouldered hawk
- American Kestrel
- Peregrine Falcon
- Least sandpiper
- Spotted sandpiper
- Black billed cuckoo
- Yellow billed cuckoo
- Eastern Screech owl
- Great horned owl
- Great Grey owl
- Willow flycatcher
- American pipit
- Northern perula
- Clay-colored sparrow
- Vesper sparrow
- Hoary redpoll
- Common redpoll
