Our excursion to Jamaica Bay’s East Pond during the 2nd Annual Shorebird Festival this past weekend was certainly instructive, yet it was hardly the first time I learned something about birds and birding there.
August 2003 represented the Core Team’s veritable initiation into shorebirding. While visiting the East Pond of the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge on a walk led by Don Riepe and Lloyd Spitalnik, Sara and I had the privilege of witnessing an incredible bird. This huge waterfowl was entirely black, with a bill colored white and vibrant magenta. Amidst a sea of white Mute Swans, this ebon marvel stood out dramatically.
Lloyd informed us that we were looking at a Black Swan. This bird was an escapee of some manner of avian imprisonment, maybe a zoo. It is in fact a native of Australia, so common there that it is the emblem of the state of Western Australia. He also mentioned that, although we could enjoy observing this bird, we could not put it on our bird list.
Couldn’t put it on our list?!? We were shocked. Were there actually rules governing what birds count for bird watching purposes?
Actually, yes. The American Birding Association is quite clear in this regard. The ABA Recording Rules state that, among other things, the bird in question must be currently accepted by the ABA Checklist Committee for lists within its area and must be wild. Wild has a very specific definition in this instance. Our Black Swan may have been an annual visitor to the East Pond for at least a few years (though it doesn’t turn up anymore.) Regardless, Rule 3.B.iv indicates that “a bird that is not wild and which later moves unassisted to a new location or undergoes a natural migration is still not wild.”
We were intially outraged at the idea that some group might presume to legislate lists. Yet, over time, I’ve come to not only accept, but appreciate the ABA guidelines; they’ve undoubtedly given a lot more thought to listing rules than I have. After the Black Swan encounter, I determined that I wanted to one day be taken seriously by other birders so I purged my list of exotics, including an unflappable Indian Peafowl that had gone native in Potter County, PA.
One does not have to follow ABA Recording Rules. Many suggest that you’ll be happiest as a birder when you keep the list that matters to you. With this, I agree wholeheartedly. But a common set of listing conventions does make it easier for birders to share sightings. The ABA rules also trigger unexpected insights into what wild really means.
Of course, just because a species doesn’t make the list doesn’t mean the bird was not seen. We really did spot a peacock on the loose in rural Pennsylvania and we really did observe one of Australia’s favorite birds wild and free within the boundaries of New York City. We might not be able to count them, but we can still enjoy them.
There is one catch however.
If two non-wild Black Swans were to nest and rear young and those young in turn were also able to rear young (with the help of a few more escaped Black Swans) for about ten years, then the birds could actually get on the lists as having an established breeding population.
This is argument that came up in the NYC Audubon Birding Challenge concerning, Wild Turkey which is a pain in the south part of Staten Island. It has now bred on that island for over ten years now and can finally be counted. Other birds include, European Startling, House Sparrow, Rock Dove and Monk Parakeet and the now extripated European Goldfinch.
So you just gotta wait a few more years before you can count it.
Or you can keep one list according to ABA rules or the local listing rules and a supplement for yourself. With the frequency that exotics get dispersed, it is probably a good thing if birders are keeping track of them. It’s for your own satisfaction, for future listing decisions (as Will mentioned), and also for keeping tabs on distribution and population size.
Here in central NJ we have a small group of Egyptian geese that have persisted in the “wild” for close to ten years now. It’s not really a self-sufficient population at this point, but it’s possible that may be the case in the future.
Well, if we’re gonna be technical about it (is there any other way?), if a population of Black Swans were to stick and eventually reach the point that they could be considered countable, you’d have to see the birds again before they could be counted on your ABA list. The provenance of any pre-listable sightings would be unclear and not certain to be what the Checklist Committee considers a self-sustaining population. It’s all very confusing. ; )
The study of introduced species and how they turn self-sustaining is pretty interesting in itself though. What is the history of life on Earth if not the story of expanding and contracting ranges?
What if e.g. I see a banded California Condor now (which doesn’t count), and a few years later the species is turned into a “countable” one with my individually recognizable Condor still alive and kicking out in the wild?
So then we have individual birds that used to be “un-countable” and now are “countable”. I suspect I would then have to go there again to re-observe that individual to make it count?
Oh, the games people play…
Oh, I just saw that Nathan beat me regarding this point!!
Now we just need to get the Black Swan that was hanging out in Cohoes to travel back in time and down to Jamaica Bay and we can get going on a viable population!