Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (1 Viewer)

[foresttwitcher]

Black-vented Shearwater - Santa Barbara Channel, California.

 

[hookem2010]

Successfully chased #524 hermit warbler, the first record for Travis County, Texas. Brief, not super satisfying views of an immature at the local migrant trap, but a lifer nonetheless, and I always love adding a new warbler.

 

[Farnboro John]

Magnolia Warbler!!!
Cheers

John

 

[Swindon Addick]

Forster's Tern. My first lifer of the year, other than an armchair tick from a taxonomic change. Finally convinced myself that since it isn't a gull my aversion to travelling a couple of hours to see a gull that looks like all the other gulls doesn't apply. So off to Arne I went, and very nice the bird was once it kindly flew in to the spot I was watching.

 

[Bewick]

Pallid harrier- 14th lifer in the last two months, 12 in France (not including the three in may) and two English twitches.

 

[KC Foggin]

It's been a couple of years since I've had the pleasure of a lifer.

 

[Mysticete]

Actually managed to squeeze another life bird in this year (Although who know, if that flamingo flock (!) shows up again in WI when I return maybe I can get another!)

#1708: Tundra Bean Goose, at Earvin Magic Johnson Park in Los Angeles.

Probably the single easiest bean goose that has ever shown up in the ABA, given it's been there for a full year, including the entire summer, and you can practically walk up to it. Still took an hour and a half to actually find though...it's a surprisingly large park full of a surprisingly large number of different geese. Also cancels out my loss of Cordilleran Flycatcher with the lump of Pacific-slope and Cordilleran on my ABA list.

 

[Julie50]

Bar tailed godwit and razorbill for me😁

 

[MelospizaMelodiaFan]

Downy woodpecker. It is fairly small, so I barely noticed it hugging a willow branch at my local creek in Sonoma County, CA. I got a raw photo and deleted it before I was able to process it 😞. Hopefully I will see one again.

 

[paulantony]

I know that we have birders of all ages and number of years participating in this
pastime we all enjoy.

But, I thought that it would be interesting to see when it was that you observed your last "life" bird. *A "life" bird is one which you now have seen, but have never seen it in the wild before.

What was it? When? and Where?

My last "life" bird was:

Sharp-tailed Grouse seen in Sax-Zim bog area of northern Minnesota, USA, January 30, 2005

Hi Larry,
My last life bird was a Brown Hawk-Owl Ninox scutulata seen in Madhya Pradesh, India on June 3, 2023.

 

[YuShan]

Rock Sparrow in Spain last week

 

[Nightjar61]

Northern Black-throated Trogon, an armchair tick, with today’s four-way split of Black-throated Trogon.

Dave

 

[WACCOE]

Sharp-tailed Sandpiper at Blacktoft Sands.

 

[in vitrio]

Had a quick break in Cyprus, which the guides said would be great for birds, but it was intensely disappointing. I was there more for the archaeology, but even on that sort of trip I usually get something fun, like hoopoe in North Macedonia or green bee-eater in Egypt. I think I only saw about half-a-dozen species in toto, and very few birds overall, out in the countryside it was eerily silent. I usually spot more species walking to Sainsburys. I saw more species of lizard. Has there been ecocide there?

The only new one I got was a whinchat up in the Troodos Mountains...

 

[Bewick]

Had a quick break in Cyprus, which the guides said would be great for birds, but it was intensely disappointing. I was there more for the archaeology, but even on that sort of trip I usually get something fun, like hoopoe in North Macedonia or green bee-eater in Egypt. I think I only saw about half-a-dozen species in toto, and very few birds overall, out in the countryside it was eerily silent. I usually spot more species walking to Sainsburys. I saw more species of lizard. Has there been ecocide there?

The only new one I got was a whinchat up in the Troodos Mountains...

I had the same experience- the farm yards were eerily empty- I stayed in paphos. This was when I had only been birding for a couple of years so I was not as experienced but I only came back with a couple of birds. A blue rock thrush, crested lark, chukar, black kite and apparently a “bonellis eagle” which I highly doubt I properly identified.

It’s really strange- in France we live in an area with mostly vineyards and a few corn fields however the amount of wildlife I’ve seen there trumped the amount I saw in paphos. I do plan on going to Cyprus again to give it a proper try as a more experienced birder though.

Edit- also I saw an alarming amount of dead birds being hung from ropes in agricultural areas including one that I remember being a species of heron.

 

[YuShan]

When I was in Spain/ Portugal recently, I did notice that the birds there are much more shy /easily spooked compared to the same species at home in England.

 

[wheatearlp]

Magnolia Warbler in Briton Ferry on Wednesday 🙂

 

[hookem2010]

I heard about this bird on the American birding association podcast, so it must be a big deal.

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

Brown Booby up in Cleveland and Magnolia Warbler at St Govan’s Head for me.

 

[Strontium Dog]

Three new ones today, the last of which was Squacco Heron.