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RE: A question on life birds



Hi Carolinabirders,

On Monday, I visited the Green Swamp with some colleagues, in preparation
for a field trip with our students on Saturday. No sign of the resident
Red-cockaded Woodpeckers; I heard some pecking, but it turned out to be a
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker tapping one of the Longleaf Pines. Only other
birds in residence were Brown-headed Nuthatches, but did see a flock of a
few dozen Purple Martins swirling over a gourd-house colony as we drove
away from Raleigh on I-40. Two of the martins were harassing a soaring
Red-tailed Hawk nearby.

If anyone here is also on the Georgia listserv, folks there might want to
know about a proposal to allow motorized vehicles into the Cumberland
Island National Seashore. Details have been posted to the Florida/Bahamas
listserv, archived at
http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/FLBA.html#1048542037

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Tomm Lorenzin wrote:
>
> Up until a few years ago at Tybee Island, SC, the only Gannett I had
> observed was a dead wash-ashore at Holden Beach, NC, shortly after the Great
> Storm of '93.  Since the bird was wild (not captive), and in a natural state
> (dead), I counted it as a lifer.  Was I wrong to do so?

The answer is, it depends. Listing is a game, and most of the players let
the American Birding Association act as the referee. The ABA rules are on
their website, the short version at
http://www.americanbirding.org/bigday/listrules.htm#The%20ABA%20Listing%20Rules
and a longer, more detailed version with interpretations at
http://www.americanbirding.org/resources/reslistru2.htm

So, "right" and "wrong" depend on your reasons for keeping a life list. If
you want to be able to compare it to other birders, and see where you
stand relative to other folks in the birding community, you should follow
the ABA rules, which state that counting dead birds is wrong. However, if
you keep a list for your own purposes, and don't really care whether
you've seen more species than him or less than her, you can set your own
rules. Although I'm kind of amused by the idea of calling a dead bird a
"lifer"...

On Wed, 26 Mar 2003, Helmut Mueller wrote:
>
> I have not been a lister since I was a callow youth but I am curious..if you
> trap a bird, band it & release it..does it count?

Under the ABA rules, you have to see the bird *before* it was trapped. So
if you see it fly into the net, it counts. If you put up a net or trap,
turn away, and the bird is in the net the next time you look, it does not
count, because it was not "unrestrained when observed".

On the other hand, I have had some friends who kept a "fondle list" of
birds they had held in their hands, separate from their regular life list.
Some of my other friends have kept lists of species they had seen...
ummmm... relieve themselves. So while certain birds don't count on life
lists, national lists, or state lists as sanctioned by the ABA, you can
always keep lists in other categories that count whatever birds in which
you are interested...

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/