What's Your Current Target Bird? (2 Viewers)

[hannibalscannibal]

i want to interact with this site more but don't have much interesting to share at the moment, so i figured i'd use a little birding conversation starter : )

what's your current target bird, AKA which bird are you most looking to see right now? feel free to include where in the world you are, how long you've been looking, etc

my current target is the American Bittern, there are a few at a local reserve that call at sunset very often but they're way too good at hiding for me! i'll spot one eventually

 

[JWN Andrewes]

Tree Pipit & Pied Flycatcher are two I'll be looking for tomorrow for the year list (along with Pearl-bordered Fritillary, I'm trying to track down a few new butterflies this year too). Then there's Little Tern & Nightjar over the next week or two.

Good luck with your Bitterns.

 

[Farnboro John]

I have a medium term target to photograph Icterine Warbler in Britain: I haven't even seen one for more years than I care to check and I haven't clicked a shutter at one since the inland Suffolk singing male in, I think, 1989. They seem to have dried up somewhat on Spring migration at least. I'm fairly sure its the only non-BB rarity I haven't got some sort of digital photo of.

Longer term (though I hope not much longer) my target lifer in Britain is Siberian Rubythroat for which I've been lying in wait on Shetland for periods during the last seven autumns. But they are cunning and derisive little blighters which keep turning up before I arrive or after I've left.....

Abroad there's all sorts of stuff, some of which I may eventually see and some not: Steller's Sea Eagle, Hoatzin, any macaw, Rainbow Lorikeet. Mainly for colour or size, but also I'd love to hear a Superb Lyrebird mimicking.

But tomorrow I might say something different!

John

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

As James said - good luck with the Bitterns.

I think I’m off to Norfolk again soon and the youngest and I were talking about what we’d really like to see. We came up with Barn Owl, Yellowhammer and Grey Partridge. I’m also hoping the Montagues sticks around.

Rich

 

[Mysticete]

Very locally...I would like to pick up Red-headed Woodpecker for my county list. Lots of people have been seeing them in the last couple of weeks, but I have yet to see one this year, and have never seen one in Winnebago county. I am going to a spot tomorrow where they have been reported, so fingers crossed.

At the state level, I don't have a SINGLE target, but there are a short list of birds that would be lifers or ABA birds I need that are regularly present in the state. These include Nelson's and LeConte's Sparrow, Worm-eating and Kentucky Warblers, Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Bell's Vireo, and European Goldfinch. None of these are easy birds and all of them probably require at least a weekend trip.

At the National level, Ruddy Ground Dove has continued to vex me, however I've seen them in Panama so they are a bit less urgent then they used to be.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

At the moment, Red-legged Kittiwake. If all flights go well I should get it Thursday or Friday.