What view of a bird do you need to consider it "Checked/Ticked" off list? (1 Viewer)

[Bino Steve]

Hi, I am curious to hear some reports on how good of a view do you need to have of a bird before you check it off your list? Can it be a fleeting glance? Or seen at high altitude? Do you need to have seen it in your binoculars, or is naked eye fine? Did it have to land and be still? Did you have to get a photograph of it? Do you have to see it in a certain binoculars? Do you have to see the male and the female? Do you restart your list every year or once and done.
Lots of aspects here and I'm very curious where the majority opinion lands. Cheers!

 

[Vespobuteo]

Hi, I am curious to hear some reports on how good of a view do you need to have of a bird before you check it off your list? Can it be a fleeting glance? Or seen at high altitude? Do you need to have seen it in your binoculars, or is naked eye fine? Did it have to land and be still? Did you have to get a photograph of it? Do you have to see it in a certain binoculars? Do you have to see the male and the female? Do you restart your list every year or once and done.
Lots of aspects here and I'm very curious where the majority opinion lands. Cheers!

Clearly identified by "self" from sound or sight.

The view doesn't have to be perfect, but some species obviously need a closer look than others.

Is it more complicated than that?

 

[chris murphy]

Savi's Warbler at the old Haverton Holes on Teesside, late eighties / early nineties.

Heard it singing from a reedbed almost constantly for an hour or so, then eventually saw a brown blob flit between the reeds, exactly where the song came from.

Boom! On the list, jobs a good 'un.

I still wince when I see that one on my list.

 

[foresttwitcher]

If you see (hear) it well enough to identify it then you've seen (heard) it - how 'well' that needs to be depends upon the species and it's ID subtleties.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Always subtleties; you see a bird clearly as a member of a particular family, and there is only one species where you are, but you don’t see the actual feature that distinguishes it from it’s neighbour. Tick or not?

 

[Vespobuteo]

Always subtleties; you see a bird clearly as a member of a particular family, and there is only one species where you are, but you don’t see the actual feature that distinguishes it from it’s neighbour. Tick or not?

No ticks on assumptions.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Do you check every Coot is not a vagrant American Coot?

 

[Mysticete]

Most times, I have to have a good enough view, or sometimes listen, to be able to see/hear the relevant field marks so that I am confident enough in the ID to add it to the lifelist. Admittedly, the threshold for this is lower for some species than others, specifically pelagics. I also generally have a higher threshold for quality of view for a life or ABA bird than I necessarily do for a bird that is simply new for my county/state list.

 

[Mysticete]

There is also, for life birds, the quality of the sighting. If I only get a few quick fleeting views of a drab or cryptic species but I hear the call well enough to be certain, I don't have an issue with putting it on the lifelist. But if it is some really cool or beautiful bird, than obviously I am going to want a nice look to really appreciate it.

 

[Bino Steve]

Interesting opinions so far. Keep them coming. Still wondering about restarting a list every year or not. Obviously you have some once in a lifetime views such as on an overseas trip you may never take again, but for your local patch, do you restart a list or just enjoy viewing whatever shows up and you don't check it off.

 

[JTweedie]

I think in an ideal world we'd all want a perfect, prolonged view of a bird, but it's not always going to happen. But if you know the shadow of a bird you see deep in a bush is a particular bird because other people had better views before you and confirmed what it was, or its singing helped ID it, then yes, I'd say I've seen it.

For a long time I had only heard cuckoos before seeing any. It was impossible to mix the birds up with anything else, so I tagged these, but I added a note saying "heard only". I left this note off the first time I saw one.

 

[Vespobuteo]

Do you check every Coot is not a vagrant American Coot?

If not, it's an observation with a certain likelihood.

But not a tick.

 

[Ratal]

Sight only. Good solid MK1 eyeball. Nothing else. I heard Elvis sing once, but never saw him...So I cannot say I seen him, can I?

 

[Vespobuteo]

Sight only. Good solid MK1 eyeball. Nothing else. I heard Elvis sing once, but never saw him...So I cannot say I seen him, can I?

🤣

What did he sing? Suspicious birds?

 

[Bino Steve]

Probably " You ain't nothing but a bird-dog"

 

[Farnboro John]

Sight only. Good solid MK1 eyeball. Nothing else. I heard Elvis sing once, but never saw him...So I cannot say I seen him, can I?

Not an option for blind birders (we've done this subject before!)

Personally I choose to see things before ticking them but year-tick on call, but for me hearing is as valid as sight. Best to be certain you aren't listening to someone's broadcast recording though.

John

 

[Larry Sweetland]

No ticks on assumptions.

I'm sure I'm bound to have a shed load of "range ticks" on my list. Latest example is the recent split of Blue-crowned Manakin into two species. I had to check very old notebooks to see where I'd seen them before knowing that I'd seen both species. Do I even know now how to tell them apart in the field and can I remember in that much detail what they looked liked/sounded like? Can I f@#k! 🤣

 

[YuShan]

For me, my acceptance criteria depend on the importance of the tick. I have the strictest rules for life ticks, but looser rules for routine ticks in my local reserve.

For a life tick, I must be very certain of my ID. I also want to have a good view of it. Generally, I do not tick "I didn't see it very well but the guide said it was a XXX". I must have had a good enough view to be able to identify it by myself.

Also, I generally don't tick any "heard only". I must have seen the bird if I want to tick it. But if heard clearly and without doubt of ID, I would accept a lower standard for the visual ID in that case. I know "heard only" is evidence of the presence of the bird, but then tropical birding would get a bit too easy and less fun. I'm not going to tick that Nocturnal Curassow just because I heard it calling.

My standard gets lower for routine birds. I don't need to get a perfect look of a Blackbird or Robin because they are so common and I already know what it is. Though I still don't tick them if I only hear them but don't see them (but that's just me wasting my time on seeing common birds!).

 

[Telephoto Paul]

I have to been able to see something for long enough for my brain to process the thought "I'm looking at an X" while still looking at it.

 

[opisska]

I mostly want a photo. I do even tick several species that I have not technically "seen" because I noticed the bird only in a photo of another bird later have only a handful of ticks without a photo and I do it only when the bird is really clear to ID - and it usually happens only in very specific circumstance be cause I am always birding with a camera in hand. My current "only seen" world list is:

• Thick-billed Lark - flew over the road in Western Sahara in a minefield, no way to pursue and stay alive
• Red Junglefowl - hid very quickly in a Oil Palm plantation in Malaysia, but Id is obvious
• Masked Crimson Tanager - from a bus in Ecuador
• Olive-backed Euphonia, Costa Rica, don't remember the circumstances
• Oilbird in flight in Ecuador forest at night, unmistakeable
• Common Buttonquail, Kenya - seen really well flying in front of the car for extended period time, wing pattern is unique

Also I tick birds that I only heard, but considering I am completely tone deaf, it really has to be an umistakable sound and it is mostly owls - my audio only list is: Boreal Owl, Double-spurred Francolin, Southen Boobook, Australasian bittern, Spotted Crake, Spotted Owl, Barred Owl, Peruvian Thick-knee, Deser Owl, Western Screech Owl, Saw-whet Owl, African Wood-Owl, Great Blue Turaco, Black Cuckoo, Little Greenbul. I'd probably never tick a warbler just on sound, I just don't trust them to keep the script ...

EDIT: I would also like to repeat my encouragement for people to tick heard-only birds and spread this idea. Why? Because it is really good for the birds, in particular for the nocturnal ones!