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Richard Fried spent 2011 doing a New York State Big Year and managed to top the record of 350 species which was only set in 2008 by Scott Whittle. Richard totaled 352 species, an impressive number, by seeing almost all of the regularly occurring New York birds and the vast majority of the rarities that [...]

Like some of the other beat writers around here I’ve been roped into keeping a year list this year, and inspired by the other lists I looked at I thought about what I wanted to achieve this year in birding. As opposed to my usual position of seeing whatever I see. It is a scary [...]

My name is Nate.  And I keep county lists. I realize that this admission tars me as the most obsessive and compulsive among a community of obsessive-compulsives.  I realize that listing is a reviled in birding culture as it is celebrated, and more listing even more so, but hear me out here.  I mean to [...]

Two-thousand-and-eleven was a pretty darn good year for me, birding-wise.  Sure, I didn’t leave the United States but my first trip to the Pacific Northwest allowed me to see lots of new birds and spending the beginning of the year in southern California didn’t hurt the ol’ year list either. And, as usual, I saw [...]

With the privileged opportunities that are afforded him by dint of working as an international flight attendant you might expect Redgannet’s year list to run into the thousands. His schedules are likely to include 6 continents over the 12 month, with his published roster for January alone including 4 of them. In truth, taking part in the Year List section, will simply reveal [...]

I’ve never done a year list before, beyond noting how many I have in a year due to eBird, but since everyone else is doing it and I am a sucker of peer pressure… I’m not expecting to beat anyone with my list, in spite of my early lead, as I have the New Zealand [...]

The three hundred and seventy-two injuries of Corey Finger I had borne as best I could, but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.   This is my list of all bird species seen in 2012.  The year 2012 marks the first time ever, in more than 30 years of birding, that I keep a year list. [...]

1. Some crows 2. Southern Harrier

During the year I will keep track of what birds we see, but we don’t know where we might go or what we may see! I will include all birds both here in Australia and also should we go overseas I will count those as well. I will record the date and location of the [...]

I often poke fun at listers I perceive as being more interested in ticks than birds. (Listing ticks I mean, I have yet to meet a birder who is really interested in icky parasites). Not that I don’t enjoy seeing new species myself, it’s just that they are an easy target and I am nothing if not [...]

Finally!  It took long enough but I have finally seen an Eurasian Wigeon in my home borough, at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge’s East Pond to be exact.  It was nice to add bird number 284 to my Queens life list, though it seems kind of absurd that it has taken so long to see one [...]

Were one to draw up one of those lists of “top ten x to see before you die”, a formula that is perhaps a morbid way to phrase quite a jolly question, and you were to examine which ten birds you had to see in life, I would imagine the question would divide people endlessly. [...]

While in Ohio for the Midwest Birding Symposium Christopher, Susan, and I made our way to Metzger Marsh one day to see if there were any good birds out by the lake.  We didn’t find any at first but did run into Greg Miller, who just happens to be a rather famous birder of late [...]

I’ve been birding for nearly 2/3 of my life and, until this past weekend, I’d never even sniffed a Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.  For a long time my inability to find one of the most common members of the devious genus Empidonax was a sore spot with me.  After all, I was a reasonably experienced birder.  I [...]

Mark Carter is an independent professional birding guide and wildlife surveyor living in Alice Springs, Central Australia. Originally from Scotland, Mark has lived and worked in continental Europe and North Africa before settling in Australia’s “Red Centre” to work for the Northern Territory Parks Service. In 2008 Mark founded the annual Red Centre Bird Week [...]

Yes, it is that time again!  Now that I have added ten more birds to my Queens life list we must revisit the list and predict my next ten birds in Queens (and see how my last set of predictions turned out).   Queens, the finest borough in New York City, as I may have mentioned [...]

It was Saturday afternoon.  I was chatting on the phone about blog stuff with Mike, as we tend to do, when he heard what must have been a string of incomprehensible babble before the line went dead.  What had happened? I had spotted a Turkey Vulture!  Well, I had looked out the sliding glass door [...]

Looking for a place to initiate discussion or share something random yet compelling related to birds, birding, nature, or conservation? You’ve found it. Welcome to our Weekly Wednesday Open Thread! Don’t be too rude, crude, or commercial. Otherwise, have at it! Use the comments section to tell everyone what’s on your mind today. I’ll start the [...]

“Drab, but with yellow on face” is how the Yellow-browed Sparrow is described in The Birds of Ecuador.  While that is a fair, if maybe a bit harsh, description of Ammodramus aurifrons, I prefer to describe the lovely sparrow with slightly different words.  Words indicative of devotion and desirability.  Words like awesome, astounding, and amazing.  [...]

On 3 July, just under four months ago, I published a blog post predicting the next ten birds I would add to my all-time Queens list and promising to revisit the topic when I found ten more birds.  Well, yesterday I added four more species for Queens meaning that since my last post I have [...]