Bird Lists

“When thou seest an eagle, thou seest a portion of genius; lift up thy head!” — William Blake

To list or not to list — this is a question that every birder must answer sooner or later. Here at 10,000 Birds, we are definitely listers. Birders maintain bird lists for a variety of reasons, most of which we explore through this website. For examples, we explore the concept of twitching here, delve into the perilous thrills of Big Listing here, and analyze why birds are the perfect organisms to tick here.

You can learn a lot about a birder’s travels (and depth of madness) by reviewing his assorted lists. Here are ours, maintained, for the most part, in accordance with the American Birding Association Recording Rules.

MIKE

COREY

THE BEAT WRITERS

Browse around our site if you’re looking for information about specific birds or birding locations. If you want a list of birds for a certain country, you’ll find Avibase Bird Checklists of the World to be an irreplaceable resource.  Of course, listers choose a variety of different checklists on which to play their counting games.  We largely use the International Ornithologist’s Union checklist for world listing while using the American Birding Association checklist for our North American listing needs.  There are many ways to keep a list now besides printing out a checklist and checking off boxes.  The best of them all is eBird. Use it.