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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kuzeycem" data-source="post: 3257049" data-attributes="member: 105360">I don't tick birds on call. I'm not saying it's wrong, but I just don't do it. On the other hand, however, I don't have an obsession for seeing every single detail of the bird as well.There are 2 things needed for a bird to make it's way to my life list: 1) I have to see it and 2) It has to be positively identified, either directly on the field, by a field guide back in home or by someone else.I am a little compulsive about how good I see the bird and I usually don't settle with silhouettes hopping around in a bush or a flushed/fleeting bird. I mean, if it's all I've got, then I make my peace with it, add it to my list (although not very happily) and wait for better views. But in most of the cases I really want to see the bird good enough to see a diagnostic feature by myself, and not ticking something just because someone pointed at a meaningless silhouette and said "This is the x bird."Although I do have some extreme cases, mostly for special birds, for example;Last month we were birding and a sandgrouse flock flew by. I looked at them with binoculars and 2-3 birds I looked were Black-bellieds (I wanted Pin-tailed). Got a little disappointed but still decided to take a few pics in case there was a Pin-tailed mixed in. And there was one. I didn't see it "live" and ID it but the bird was there. And somehow I was satisfied with it as if I had just kept on looking with the binoculars I would probably have never noticed it. And I could just look at the bird from my camera screen, which I like to think as a binocular, although one that brings the image to you with a 5 sec. delay and stores it forever. I also saw the Pin-tailed alone for a moment about 30 minutes later but it was too distant and ID was made by my guide.Another incident is when I was shown a Rough-legged Buzzard, I saw the diagnostic features myself but somehow now I don't remember exactly how I saw it, and it was only 3 years ago.</blockquote>

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