Should you tick "heard only" birds? (1 Viewer)

[KenM]

There is also the issue of mimicking: the other day I thought I heard a Ring-necked Parakeet in the back garden but quickly determined it was a Starling mimicking. Unfortunately it may have learned the call from nearer to home than I would have said a while ago, so I may find the real thing in the garden sooner rather than later.

John

This year they have moved in "Big Time", to the point where I've had to purchase a "Fort Knox" feeder....let's in all the "small jobs" whilst excluding the latter, and what's more!...you can ID the full repertoire of their calls....blindfolded. :-C

 

[lewis20126]

There is also the issue of mimicking: the other day I thought I heard a Ring-necked Parakeet in the back garden but quickly determined it was a Starling mimicking. Unfortunately it may have learned the call from nearer to home than I would have said a while ago, so I may find the real thing in the garden sooner rather than later.

John

Also the issue of tapes - the other day, I was blasting out the calls of Ring-necked Parakeet in a woodland in Southampton. Eventually the wintering parakeet responded and called a few times, enabling us to locate it in the trees. B Of course if someone had been looking from another direction, they could well have ticked off my tape for their Hampshire year list. :eek!:

cheers, alan

 

[KenM]

Also the issue of tapes - the other day, I was blasting out the calls of Ring-necked Parakeet in a woodland in Southampton. Eventually the wintering parakeet responded and called a few times, enabling us to locate it in the trees. B Of course if someone had been looking from another direction, they could well have ticked off my tape for their Hampshire year list. :eek!:
cheers, alan

Personally, I abhor the use of tapes , basically if you can't mimic it...put in the hours! (got to be a thread there...What have you mimicked and got a response from?....I can think of 6 species). Watching Robson Green on the TV last night on Skolkholm, with the resident warden using a tape lure, to census the individual Manxies in their respective burrows, and Robson declining the tape lure (momentarily), before eliciting a response...with lips puckered! :eek!:

 

[McMadd]

Judging by the many misidentifications of common garden birds out there on the web, there's a few who shouldn't be ticking seen/photographed birds let alone heard only...

 

[Tero]

Mostly, but I don't like to add lifers as heard only. I suppose if I were out of the country and someone helped me with an owl.

 

[Nutcracker]

Personally, I abhor the use of tapes , basically if you can't mimic it...put in the hours! (got to be a thread there...What have you mimicked and got a response from?....I can think of 6 species). Watching Robson Green on the TV last night on Skolkholm, with the resident warden using a tape lure, to census the individual Manxies in their respective burrows, and Robson declining the tape lure (momentarily), before eliciting a response...with lips puckered! :eek!:

Go on, start the thread! :t:

Also the issue of tapes - the other day, I was blasting out the calls of Ring-necked Parakeet in a woodland in Southampton. Eventually the wintering parakeet responded and called a few times, enabling us to locate it in the trees. B Of course if someone had been looking from another direction, they could well have ticked off my tape for their Hampshire year list. :eek!:

cheers, alan

Tape-luring a ***** parakeet?? :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: Now that really smacks of desparation! :-O

 

[KenM]

Go on, start the thread! :t:


Tape-luring a ***** parakeet?? :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: Now that really smacks of desparation! :-O

Yes...I have to beat them off with sticks at this end! :-O

 

[StuartReeves]

I have American Bittern on my Danish list as a heard only. It was an inaccessible displaying bird which was widely twitched and ticked on call so it would have been churlish for me to do otherwise. I'm not sure I'd have ticked it if I hadn't seen the species in the US.

I twitched a singing Thrush Nightingale in Suffolk one spring. I was prepared to tick it on song if it didn't show on the basis that song is one of the best ID features and I've seen a few of them elsewhere. As it turned out I only heard a short burst of song which wasn't enough to put the ID beyond doubt so it was a case of untickable audio.

 

[ScottBWHQ]

I have never felt right about adding a heard only bird, it almost feels like there should be an asterisk!

 

[Rapala]

I will count heard-only birds because, as it has been said earlier in this thread, it can be a definitive way to identify birds. However, I only count a heard-only bird if I am absolutely confident about the ID. Many birds are just quite difficult to view, such as some wood-warblers which can be easily identified by song. The all too common Red-Eyed Vireo can be very difficult to spot, but it's loud, warbling song is distinctive, so I can count it without searching the treetops (not to say that I don't enjoy seeing these birds). When I'm birding, I am out to see what species of birds are in the area, and identifying a bird by song easily tells me which birds are around.

 

[Sangahyando]

I will count heard-only birds because, as it has been said earlier in this thread, it can be a definitive way to identify birds. However, I only count a heard-only bird if I am absolutely confident about the ID. Many birds are just quite difficult to view, such as some wood-warblers which can be easily identified by song. The all too common Red-Eyed Vireo can be very difficult to spot, but it's loud, warbling song is distinctive, so I can count it without searching the treetops (not to say that I don't enjoy seeing these birds). When I'm birding, I am out to see what species of birds are in the area, and identifying a bird by song easily tells me which birds are around.

I think there's also a big difference between birds you're already well familiar with on the one side, having seen and heard them previously (my year lists contain quite a few "heard only" warblers etc.), and lifers or rarities or species that you rarely encounter on the other.

 

[lewis20126]

Go on, start the thread! :t:


Tape-luring a ***** parakeet?? :eek!: :eek!: :eek!: Now that really smacks of desparation! :-O

This is Hampshire - we don't get much here and twitchable Ring-necked Parakeets are like gold dust.

FWIW, Parrots as a whole respond very well to tape, most notably in the Neotropics.

cheers, alan

 

[MJB]

Mostly, but I don't like to add lifers as heard only. I suppose if I were out of the country and someone helped me with an owl.

We had to be content with identifying Eastern Ground Parrot near Strahan, Tasmania, by their sporadic calling from dense grassland that also held record numbers of Brown Snakes... :eek!:

We visited the recommended area three times in dry spells between showers, heard nothing on the first visit (possibly because there was a steady morning breeze that raised the background noise quite a bit), heard two rather distant calls from different sites on the second visit (fitful light breeze late afternoon) and calls from four separate not-too-distant sites on the third (flat calm, partly overcast evening). We roughly estimated distances by triangulation of directions from two separate observers.:scribe:

Each visit spanned about three hours, but we saw no movement except from other species using scrub patches. We familiarised ourselves by listening to a variety of recordings beforehand.
MJB

 

[Farnboro John]

This is Hampshire - we don't get much here and twitchable Ring-necked Parakeets are like gold dust.
cheers, alan

I agree with that. Even here in the far North East corner of the county, Ring-necked Parakeets are less than annual in Farnborough (though numbers are resident Northward in Bracknell and Eastward in Sunningdale). They bred at Moor Green about twenty years ago but just an isolated pair.

Still... taping??? They aren't normally silent - not for more than a few minutes!

John

 

[dantheman]

This is Hampshire - we don't get much here and twitchable Ring-necked Parakeets are like gold dust.

FWIW, Parrots as a whole respond very well to tape, most notably in the Neotropics.

cheers, alan

Needs Must ...

 

[Julian61]

Since hearing and not seeing a Savi's warbler a few years ago I've wondered about this. My head says no problem, I've experienced the bird and probably more satisfactorily than a sighting. Then I wonder whether I'm more birder than birdwatcher, then I realise that it doesn't matter, that it's up to the individual. No rules! Still, despite perfectly good arguments I've somehow indoctrinated myself into the seeing is ticking mentality. One of those weird situations where I know I'm wrong. Not that it's keeping me up at night!

 

[mike86]

I don't count heard only if its a new bird for us as would want to see it first. But i do count heard onlys on year lists for birds that have seen previous.

 

[dwallace]

I would agree with Mike. In terms of identifying rather than listing Cetti's Warbler, for example, I would be happier hearing it rather than just obtaining a brief glimpse.

Despite living in Hampshire, Ring-necked Parakeet is probably the most unusual record on my modest garden list.

Dave W

 

[Alexjh1]

I tend to keep my own "heard only" list for my own personal reference but not count it in my proper listing capacity. There are a few birds which have distinctive calls which I've been happy to leave on there for a while certain in their identity (Savi's warbler and Woodlark for instance) but for me the real problem happens when I'm birding abroad and I hear something that I know has to be a new species, but being a much more visual person than sound based I can't actually memorise it unless I'd prepared for possible calls beforehand, I don't think I would get away with "some kind of owl in Kuala Lumpur" for instance.

 

[njlarsen]

Short answer: absolutely yes, with species where the sound in such that you can be certain