What do you think is the most difficult bird to see in the world? (1 Viewer)

[Jon.Bryant]

What is your vote for the most difficult bird to see in the world?

How about

- Inaccessible Island Rail?

There are few trips that provide a chance to visit the island, although once ashore the bird is reportedly quite common. The ‘Atlantic Odyssey’, arrives in April which is not a great time for a landing, as the sea is starting to get rougher, prohibiting a landing - I recall that on this voyage, they have only ever managed to land once - we didn’t, although we did get tantalisingly close and thought we were in luck until an expeditionary zodiac starting getting rolled around in the surf!
I asked a resident of Tristan da Cunha what we be the best option for a landing - he said take the monthly boat to Tristan da Cunha and stay for January (when the sea is calmest), then pay a local to take you across to Inaccessible Island to try a landing - the beach is super steep, so any swell or reasonable waves are a problem - you basically need a mill pond! So you need 1 month on Tristan da Cunha (and a few good books as there are very few birds on the Island), a super calm day and a local available and willing to try a landing when the stars align!

 

[DMW]

It's one of those unanswerable questions, really. There are quite a few species which haven't been seen for several years and might be extinct, while there are others which definitely still exist but can't be accessed for various reasons. Then there are the really difficult ones which require more time and / or effort than most people are prepared to devote.

 

[James Lowther]

There’s quite a few previous threads on this topic. One in particular I remember where someone stuck difficult birds into categories based on the reason for their difficulty
Cheers
James

 

[Patudo]

- Inaccessible Island Rail?

Even the name sounds pretty daunting!

There must be at least a couple of endemics in the Andamans/Nicobars that must be both skulking and require dodging infamously hostile tribesmen?

 

[James Lowther]

Inaccessible bird species

There are currently 11.140 species of birds recognized (IOC 13.1) of which 160 are considered extinct, meaning that world listers can strive for 10.980 species. The top world listers are all below 9.800, meaning that all still need over 1.000 species, which I find a surprisingly high number...

www.birdforum.net

 

[DMW]

Even the name sounds pretty daunting!

There must be at least a couple of endemics in the Andamans/Nicobars that must be both skulking and require dodging infamously hostile tribesmen?

All the currently-recognised Andaman species can be seen without great difficulty / spear dodging, with the exception of Narcondam Hornbill which requires a very expensive boat charter (but seemingly otherwise straightforward). Visiting the Nicobars is relatively easy for Indian nationals, but was an intractable bureaucratic problem for foreigners last time I tried.

 

[Jon.Bryant]

There are quite a few species which haven't been seen for several years and might be extinct, while there are others which definitely still exist but can't be accessed for various reasons

I suppose I was really day dreaming about the most difficult bird to 'twitch'. Obviously if a bird may or may not be extinct, it is not really a great candidate to try and see. I recall a tour guide suggesting the hardest bird to twitch in the world was either the Emperor Penguin (now quite easy if you have money) or Tibetan Sandgrouse - which he had seen on his trip (but again, there are now quite a few spots that you can get to without an exhausting trek up to the summit from Er la Pass, which they had to complete)!

Another candidate for me is Amsterdam Island Albatross - Impossible to ID with confidence away from the breeding grounds (although nearly all birds are colour ringed), very few trips to the Amsterdam Island, and on the last one I saw advertised, you had to speak a good level of French to be allowed on the vessel!

All the currently-recognised Andaman species can be seen without great difficulty

I wonder what lurks on the unsurveyed Sentinel Islands?.....Although, as it is a crime to visit the islands, anything there would fall outside the concept of 'difficult' and into the 'impossible' - unless you are willing to risk a prison sentence.

 

[MiddleRiver]

Ivory billed Woodpecker?

 

[DMW]

As you say, Emperor Penguin is just a function of money, and Tibetan Sandgrouse is dead easy at Tso Kar in Ladakh - you don't even have to leave your vehicle!
Amsterdam Island Albert should be gettable if you pay for passage on the Marion Dufresne, which resupplies the French sub-Antarctic stations.
It would be surprising if there's an undescribed endemic on North Sentinel, it's very small and geographically unremarkable, but you never know - there's an undescribed rail on Great Nicobar.
I guess most of the really difficult species which aren't off-limits for political reasons are likely to be in New Guinea and Melanesia. Ones that spring to mind in mainland Asia are Black Partridge and both Crested Argus. I know James Eaton and Wilbur Goh saw Malaysian Crested Argus quite recently, but I'll wait until one is coming in to mealworm in front of a hide!

 

[Jon.Bryant]

Inaccessible bird species​

There are currently 11.140 species of birds recognized (IOC 13.1) of which 160 are considered extinct, meaning that world listers can strive for 10.980 species. The top world listers are all below 9.800, meaning that all still need over 1.000 species, which I find a surprisingly high number...

www.birdforum.net

Thanks for this. As I say, I wasn't really thinking of birds that are inaccessible, but are accessible, but take a certain amount of logistics to see.

Interestingly I have seen at least two of the Inaccessible birds listed at the beginning of the thread - Hainan Peacock-Pheasant (now they have hides and feeding stations for the huge number of Chinese Photographers, they are quite easy) and Yemen Serin - quite easy to find in Southern Oman - I though they were limited to a sink hole site, but I stumbled on other birds at a wadi (and subsequently found out they had already been reported there).

I have also come close to a few others on the list - there are a few that despite being on islands were landing is not permitted, can be seen by Zodiac - Gough Moorhen (missed - to zodiac trip as a storm was approaching), Gough Finch (missed -same), Black Robin (not on the list - UTVs, but others saw it well and got photos from the zodiac), Chatham Island Parakeet (not on the list - seen from the main vessel - thank goodness I had a pair of 16x image stabilized binoculars!), Reischek's Parakeet (again the binoculars were very useful, but better views in any case), Snare's Island Snipe (not on the list - missed this one, but the man next to me go a reasonable photo from a bobbing Zodiac! - I just couldn't get on to the little blitter as it ran back and forth!).

 

[Jon.Bryant]

pay for passage on the Marion Dufresne, which resupplies the French sub-Antarctic stations

Yes I think this is the vessel that you can sometimes get passage on, but as I say all the crew is French, and as all safety messages and ships broadcasts are in French, you need to be able to speak French well before they will accept you as a paid customer.

 

[James Lowther]

Thanks for this. As I say, I wasn't really thinking of birds that are inaccessible, but are accessible, but take a certain amount of logistics to see.

That thread covers birds like that
Cheers
James

 

[Jon.Bryant]

I guess most of the really difficult species which aren't off-limits for political reasons are likely to be in New Guinea and Melanesia

Probably. I am off to West Papua later this year, and have my fingers crossed that Lake Habema in the Balem Valley is accessible - I note Bird Tour Asia submitted records from there onto EBird last autumn, so here's hoping.

We went to Papau New Guinea in 2019 and had a very fortunate trip, but I foolishly didn't go out on one night watch (it was starting to rain and the woods were full of leeches), so I missed Starry and Wallace's Owlet-Nightjar. Anyway as some wise wag said 'if Papua New Guinea was easy, it would be full of Australian tourists, and it isn't - there rests the case'.

 

[James Lowther]

Link to Maffong’s spreadsheet here

Post in thread 'Inaccessible bird species'
Inaccessible bird species

 

[Jim M.]

Inaccessible bird species

There are currently 11.140 species of birds recognized (IOC 13.1) of which 160 are considered extinct, meaning that world listers can strive for 10.980 species. The top world listers are all below 9.800, meaning that all still need over 1.000 species, which I find a surprisingly high number...

www.birdforum.net

An old thread. 10k has been passed now.

 

[James Lowther]

An old thread. 10k has been passed now.

It’s a little more than 2 years old and most recently updated less than 1 year ago.

It’s not about the highest world list but which species are most difficult to see and why. I am quite sure the majority of the information within is relevant

All the best
James

 

[Jon.Bryant]

Link to Maffong’s spreadsheet here

Post in thread 'Inaccessible bird species'
Inaccessible bird species

It is a fascinating thread, and a good read, but looking through the spreadsheet, this does seem to have been whittled down into the practically 'impossibles' - gone are Snare's Snipe and Black Robin etc. So a list of what unless things change, you are almost certain never to see, rather than a list of species that can be seen, but require the greatest challenge.

 

[James Lowther]

Well inaccessible island rail and Amsterdam albatross are both on there…
I confess I am a little confused what discussion you are trying to kick off here. The thread is called:-

What do you think is the most difficult bird to see in the world?​

Surely disqualifying species because they are too difficult is a bit of a strange approach to the question?

Cheers
James

 

[Jon.Bryant]

I confess I am a little confused what discussion you are trying to kick off here.

I was only a bit of amusement and nothing too serious - as per the thread title I was think of 'difficult bird to see', and perhaps some amusing stories about the logistics of seeing a particular bird... so I was not thinking about what is 'impossible to see'.

Looking at the list, you can therefore exclude all the Cat A (Extinct), the Cat D (Birds in areas that are off limits), and probably the Cat E (Birds that are encountered so infrequently, there is no real knowledge of where to look). This leaves 44 species in categories B (require a expedition) and C (require complicated permitting), but I must admit that amusing stories about complicated permitting sound rather like an oxymoron, so perhaps that one should go as well.

I can also think of a few other birds that are difficult - say Salim Ali's Rosefinch - just the one site, which is now quite easy to get to, but a the trip requires a drive from 2700m to 5000m. If you don't spend a week or so trying to acclimatize on the plateau, then it is a tough trip - when our Chinese friend's tried to do it without acclimatizing, three out of four felt so poorly they couldn't get out the car to even try and find it!

 

[Lietuvis Birder]

Nechisar Nightjar? I'd say a bird that we only know about because we found a dead one once is going to be pretty hard to spot.

On the upside if you do, you could make birding history.