Finish off groups...

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Andy Avram
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Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

So in the lifer thread we were discussing finishing off certain groups of birds. I thought it would be a cool thread (might bring it over to the herp part of here too).

The criteria are yours to set.

So what groups of bird would you like to finish off?

And/or...

What groups have you finished off?

Andy
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

My own personal criteria, which ncludes US and Canada birds only, I don't care to get true accidentals (yearly foreign regulars I include though), and exotics (which I only care about when they are being removed from the environment).


So with that in mind, I would enjoy finishing off:

Ducks/Geese/etc... I am missing: Greater White-fronted Goose, Emperor Goose, Fulvous Whistling Duck, Eurasian Wigeon, King Eider, Spectacled Eider, Steller’s Eider and Masked Duck <--bitter about that one.

Game Birds: Have a ton to get there yet, but being a hunter, these would be fun to see.

Raptors: Mississippi Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite, Common Black-Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawk, Aplomado Falcon, Gyrfalcon

Wrens: Pacific and Canyon Wren

Warblers: Missing all the western and SW (including Texas) species, along with Conneticut and Swainson’s.

Icteridae (blackbirds and orioles): Shiny Cowbird, Bronzed Cowbird and Tricolored Blackbird



Some of those groups I have enjoyed finished off:

Herons: My first big group to finish. This was a fun one. Reddish Egret was the last hold out. For that matter I am just a few away from killing off the order Ciconiiformes, only missing Greater Flamingo and California Condor.

Kingfishers (Wow, all three!)

Orioles

Andy
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Antonsrkn
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Antonsrkn »

Cool, I like this idea. Andy, Those are some impressive stats there, I'm jealous.

Hmmm well I have almost finished of US cranes. I only have one left to go! Haha
I have seen sandhill cranes and have yet to see a whooping crane.

I think I have seen all the raptors (Owls excluded) found in WI even if many of the species I have only seen outside of WI. The peregrine falcon was the last one left but now I see one or 2 almost daily as I walk to class as they picked one of the buildings on campus to nest on and have returned for several years now.


As you can see I'm not much of a birder, but I do have fun seeing and photographing them when I'm out and about.
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

Anton,

I have finished the cranes (sa 2 Whoopers in Texas) and I am really only Black, Yellow and King Rail away from finishing off the Gruiformes. I think I may actually try to finish that one if I ever get a Black Rail, but until then that group is on the back-burner.

I would like to see more Owls, but they are just accidential finds for me, and I have A LOT to see yet.

Andy
millside
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by millside »

question for you, your birding finds, how do you count them,
Is it that you have seen and id'd the bird, or is it a picture like herps.
my finds on birds are accidental, but I still enjoy them.
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

millside wrote:question for you, your birding finds, how do you count them,
Is it that you have seen and id'd the bird, or is it a picture like herps.
my finds on birds are accidental, but I still enjoy them.
A bit of potential derail, but I keep a lifelist of Fishes, Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds and Mammals and all have the same criteria. I have to view (I don't do calls for frogs or birds) a wild living specimen in the field.

For me to count a lifer (for anything), I have to either:

A) Be able to ID it (or see an identifying characteristic).

B) But if I can't make out an ID character (say for some of the Flycatchers) and someone else is able to properly ID it I will count it if I got a good look at it.

That's it. I can care less who spots it first, who picks it up, who flips the tin, etc... I just have to observe it in the wild. Photographs are just for fun.

Lastly, everyone sets there own criteria for lifers.

Andy
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Curtis Hart
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Curtis Hart »

My listing guidelines are the same as Andy's, except I travel to more than just the ABA. I will also count trapped small mammals, because that is the only realistic way to see/id many of them. I don't have any big groups closed out. I've seen all the Oystercatchers that normally occur in the ABA as well as the 1 Dipper. I would like to close out ducks, owls, warblers, and raptors.
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chrish
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by chrish »

OK, using Andy's criteria....(and ignoring Alaska only stuff)

Quail - done (as of this March)
Grebes - done
Tropicbirds - done (just not in the US :-))
Boobies/Gannets - only missing Blue-footed (which I've seen in Mexico 50 miles south of the US border)
Pelicans - done :-)
Herons/Egrets - done (I've seen them all in one day)
Ibises/Spoonbills - done
Anhingas - done (actually I'm done for the world in this group - seen all four species)
Rails -done
Shorebirds - all except Gray-tailed Tattler and Rock Sandpiper
Pigeons/Doves - done (except I haven't ticked Red-billed for the US)
Hummers - missing Allen's (I have 15 species in the US)
Trogons - missing Eared Quetzal (actually it and the Replendent Quetzal are the only North American Trogons I'm missing)
Kingfishers - done (didn't get Amazon in the US, but I've seen it too)
Vireos - missing Thick-billed and Black-whiskered
Swallows - done
Nuthatches - done
Wrens - stupid Pacific Wren!
Warblers - missing Bachman's, Kirtland's, Connecticut (Lucy's and Hermit I only have from Mexico)
Tanagers - done (including seeing Flame-colored in AZ)
North American Buntings - done (haven't seen Blue Bunting in US though)
Orioles - done with the normal ones, need Spot-breasted to finish the accidentals

God we bird listers are geeks!
I just noticed I might be able to cross another milestone this year - 1700 species worldwide. I've had seven new species for they year so far, and I only need 6 more.
millside
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by millside »

wow, I have to agree with Chrish, you birders really are geeks.
but I really like the idea. I don't think I have any groups finished off :oops:

I think finishing off the warbler group would be a major achievment, looking in the bird books I have it blows my mind how many different ones there are.

could be another interesting thread of adding pics to your groups.
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Tim Borski
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Tim Borski »

Chrish, that's a pretty darn impressive list! Kudos!!

You've seen both Black AND Yellow rails?!

I once saw SEVEN Connecticuts walking around my yard at the SAME TIME during a September, tropical storm down here.

I've got all the owls east of the Mississippi. The Boreal was WAY east. (Poland.) I think they are called Tengmalm's?

'Bachman's gonna be a tough one. :lol:

Great job, lot's of birds I'm jealous of.
Tim
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chrish
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by chrish »

Tim Borski wrote:You've seen both Black AND Yellow rails?!
I got my lifer Black, Yellow and Virginia Rails on the same day in about 2 hours. A guy down here runs Rail walks across a grassy marsh area of Anuhuac NWR during the late spring where they drag a long rope across the marsh with plastic bottles full of rocks attached. The rails jump up (or fly) over the rope when it comes by them so you just have to watch the rope carefully to see what pops up. Their target is Yellow Rails, but we got a bonus quick glimpse of a Black Rail about 2 feet from us. I saw Clapper and Sora walking around the same refuge the same afternoon. If I could have found a King that day, I could have got the whole group within a day.
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

A bit of an old post resurface, but since this posting I have added a few more.

Grebes are done!
Also, with a recent out of place Say's Phoebe in my city, I finished off Phoebes, a group within a group.
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by cbernz »

chrish wrote:Warblers - missing Bachman's...
I think we all are :)

The group I think the most about finishing is the owls. Counting heard birds, I need Hawk, Great Gray, and Flammulated, but I also need to see both Pygmies and Whiskered and Western Screech. My most satisfying finish was non-owl raptors, with a Ferruginous Hawk near San Francisco eating a rabbit.
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chrish
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by chrish »

Another group I would love to finish off is the frigatebirds.

I have three of the five (and have had them since 1987)

Christmas Island Frigatebird
Lesser Frigatebird
Magnificent Frigatebird

After I got those three in just 4 years of birding, I figured I could get the Great somewhere and just have the one really hard one left (Ascension Island Frigatebird), but I have whiffed on Great Frigatebird over and over again since then. Great Frigate has a huge range, but whenever I get into its range all I see is Lessers :x .

I have 6 of the 10 Sulids (boobies/gannets) as well. I would love to finish that group off, but that will require trips to the west coast of South America and Southern Africa....oh...and Christmas Island.
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nightdriver
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by nightdriver »

Two more of the owls for the ABA area and I'm done with the regulars. Boreal and Northern Hawk. Not likely to get either any time soon :(
- My goal is one ABA lifer a year.....and I hope to get to at least 775
:beer:

- nightdriver
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chrish
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by chrish »

nightdriver wrote: - My goal is one ABA lifer a year.....and I hope to get to at least 775
:beer:
Does that mean you have to live to be 776? Better lay off the beer! ;)
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

chrish wrote:
nightdriver wrote: - My goal is one ABA lifer a year.....and I hope to get to at least 775
:beer:
Does that mean you have to live to be 776? Better lay off the beer! ;)
If it was me, and going off of how many birds I have seen in the ABA area and how old I am, I could obtain that goal in only 391 years!
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nightdriver
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by nightdriver »

If I make it to my mid 80's I should juuuuuust make it. I just hope I got my grandma's DNA :beer: everything in moderation.

The other option is to get greedy and bird more. :lol:

-nightdriver
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chrish
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by chrish »

Speaking of finishing groups, here's something I just noticed coincidentally....

I've seen all four of the world's species of "Laughing" birds.
Laughing Falcon (Mexico)
Laughing Gull (US)
Laughing Dove (Africa/India)
Laughing Kookaburra (Australia)

so I could tear all the Laughing pages out of my bird books,.........except for the 41 species of Laughingthrush (only have one of those so far).

Man I'm a bird geek. :oops:
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chrish
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by chrish »

Andy Avram wrote:
chrish wrote:
nightdriver wrote: - My goal is one ABA lifer a year.....and I hope to get to at least 775
:beer:
Does that mean you have to live to be 776? Better lay off the beer! ;)
If it was me, and going off of how many birds I have seen in the ABA area and how old I am, I could obtain that goal in only 391 years!
I'll be done before you, sometime around December, 2248. :lol:
I think I may have to increase the pace.

Besides, I don't screw around trying to hash out every ABA bird. I would rather go to a new country and ring up 100 lifers in one day.
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

I stated mine wrong. I will be 391 years old when I finish, but will finish in 359 more years. The goal now seems infinately more obtainable!
chrish wrote:Besides, I don't screw around trying to hash out every ABA bird. I would rather go to a new country and ring up 100 lifers in one day.
Agreed!
I don't even keep an ABA list, I just denote which contries I see the birds in. Although as long as I remember that there are 3 species (Clay-colored Sparrow, Spruce Grouse, Upland Sandpiper) that I have seen in Canada but not the US it is easy to figure out my ABA count.

Also, I have 2 Laughing birds and 1 Laughing Thrush - still a ways to go...
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by AsydaBass »

Besides, I don't screw around trying to hash out every ABA bird. I would rather go to a new country and ring up 100 lifers in one day.
Ditto, I can't even spell ABA. I also only have two of the Laughers.

I've been thinking about this post for a while now and it made me realize that I'm nowhere close to finishing any noteworthy groups. I do have all the toucans and all the antshrikes in Costa Rica (I know, not hard). I would like to see a Gray-cheeked Thrush to finish off the group of 15 thrushes in CR. Someone pointed one out to me once, but by the time I got my binocs over to it, it had flew away.

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Curtis Hart
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Curtis Hart »

I have three of the Laughers and one Laughing Thrush. I also finished up the North American Herons last summer. I currently have 479 in the ABA, but I'm not sure how hard I'll work to see them all. I also would rather go to another country and see 100 lifers in no time.



Curtis
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

Bumping this back.

I got my lifer Harris's Sparrow the other day which closed out the world total of the Zonotrichia genus within the sparrows for me! While there is only 5 species there are pretty scattered. Two common Ohio ones, (Harris's was accidential, normally in the central part of the country) one west coaster and a Central/South American species.
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Reptiluvr »

My goodness. I don't think I have any group finished for the whole US, especially because I haven't birded in the west. I have all the herons/egrets except for Little Egret which is pretty rare anyway. The Yellow-crowned Night Heron was my last one, just got it this year. I've had all the others since I was a kid. I guess I do have both Whooping and Sandhill Cranes but a group of two hardly feels like an accomplishment. My life list is 231 including a few ABA countable exotics.
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Andy Avram
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Re: Finish off groups...

Post by Andy Avram »

Bumping this back up since I just closed out a ABA group.

I can now rip out the following pages in my field guides:
Swallows/Martins - last hold out was Cave
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