40 replies to this topic

[Benjamin DeHaven]

If anyone else feels like another "fun" one then how about this:

What is the most common bird (for your area) that has eluded you within an area of your choice and just how rare is it in your area? Also, how many on your birds on your life list for that area?


For me it would have to be the Red-eyed Vireo in the state of Maryland. Looking at the eBird "Bird Observations" line graph "Frequency" tab I find that Red-eyed Vireos were reported on ~40% of checklists and that number is down to ~19% this week. I have seen 102 birds in the State of Maryland but no Red-eyed Vireo, or any other Vireo for that matter.

Do you have a bird that seems to know you are coming and leaves?

Benjamin DeHaven

[Melissa :)]

For me, its an American Kestrel. Yes, I know, my avatar is a kestrel picture that I took, but I can't count it on my ABA Life List cause I saw in the DomRep. Anyway, I have looked time and time again where I know they breed (in a nesting box in the middle of an open field!!), but they are NEVER there when I am!!! It's soooo annoying!! Kestrel's are my favorite bird, yet I have not seen one in the US. But I will soon, as soon as they stop avoiding me...

[GreatHorn]

Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I know they are secretive but I can't believe I haven't found one of those buggers. They are around, I have heard them before

[JimBob]

Yellow-throated Warblers! They're my nemesis and I never see them! I even hear the. Sometimes I think they're just taunting me!

[Liam]

I have all the common birds here...but I still need the Brown Creeper.

[Benjamin DeHaven]

I sighted my first Yellow-billed Cuckoo on Friday. What an awesome bird. I got to see this one for all of about 3 seconds but I got the impression I can't wait to see it again. Sorry to rub it in, but if you are like me you will flip when you see it!

Benjamin

[illin]

Birds I feel should be on my Illinois list but are not.

Black-crowned Night-heron, Long-tailed Duck, the Scoters, one of the Plegadis Ibises, Black Vulture, Mississippi Kite, Sora, Virginia Rail, Willet, Upland Sandpiper, Sanderling, Glaucus and Iceland Gulls, Black Tern, Black-billed Cuckoo, Blue-headed and Yellow-throated Vireo, Fish Crow, Bewicks, Marsh, and Sedge Wren, Black-throated Blue, Cerulean, Prairie, Golden-winged, Prothonotary, Worm-eating, Mourning, Connecticut, Kentucky, and Hooded Warblers, Summer Tanager, Clay-colored, Lark, Henslow's, LeConte's, and Harris's Sparrow, Snow Bunting, Bobolinlink, Western Meadowlark, and a Crossbill.

The most embarrassing are the BC Night-heron, Sora, Sanderling, BB Cuckoo, BH and YT Vireos, Fish Crow, Marsh and Sedge Wren, All the warblers, Summer Tanager, Lark Sparrow, Snow Bunting, and Bobolink. They are at the top of the hitlist. The Night-heron should fall tomorrow morning.

[jblakelock]

For me, its an American Kestrel. Yes, I know, my avatar is a kestrel picture that I took, but I can't count it on my ABA Life List cause I saw in the DomRep. Anyway, I have looked time and time again where I know they breed (in a nesting box in the middle of an open field!!), but they are NEVER there when I am!!! It's soooo annoying!! Kestrel's are my favorite bird, yet I have not seen one in the US. But I will soon, as soon as they stop avoiding me...

Melissa, I used to live near Salisbury, MD and I would see Kestrels all the time on telephone/electric wires next to fields driving around on back roads. Good luck!

[fisherman1313]

Like Liam, I too have been able to find all the common birds in my area. The three that I should have but don't are Vesper, Sage and Grasshopper Sparrow. All are seen in my county (in small numbers) every year but I have not been able to get them, YET. I've gotten Sage and Grasshopper in neighboring counties but not my own. I have never gotten a Vesper though, but not for a lack of trying. I've chased Vesper in and out of the county, including a flock of 10 that were nowhere to be found when I went out looking even though they were reported from the same location a few days before and a few days after.

[BarnSwallow]

Liam - go out in the woods in the winter - much easier to find the brown creeper! Last winter, I was thinking that I hadn't seen one in years. I went for a walk in the woods, and saw one after 15 minutes! I heard it first - can't really remember what it sounded like, but there's not a whole lot in the winter, so it caught my attention.

[TheBillyPilgrim]

Yellow-Crowned Night Heron...and I lived in Florida for 22 years!

[cwj2323]

I've been told my habitat and location are prime for Savannah Sparrows, but yet never have we seen or heard one. For area, I am just counting yard to the creek, about a half mile. We've seen about 80 difference species in that area, a little more than half of our life list.

JimBob, about your Vesper, that's what we dealt with this last winter, but it was the Snowy Owl. It was just nuts. We saw plenty of grocery bags in the fields though.

[folkeye]

Strangely enough Brewer's Black Birds were my bane until recently. Used to see them EVERYWHERE when I wasn't birding. But when I started, I was puzzled where they all went. Used to see them in the grass with sparrows and pigeons. They're supposed to be a year round bird, but I'm not feeling it.

[spookyjimjams]

This is a tricky one for me. I have been putting off formally ID-ing gulls for a long time because, well, they frustrate me. But they are everywhere. So I technically haven't "seen" them.

[BarnSwallow]

That's how I am with sparrows, empids and shorebirds. I just don't try very hard to ID them unless I have an unusually good look at them. If I catch a glimpse of a warbler, I'll crawl through the stickerbushes, slog through mud, and get a severe case of warbler neck trying to ID them. If I see an empid in an inconvenient area,I just go "Eh.....it's an empid....good enough!"

[cwj2323]

For the most part that is how I am with the shorebirds, Barn Swallow. I don't see flycatchers, so haven't had too much difficulties IDing them.

[Pat B.]

The two that I know I should have seen, but haven't, in Utah are the Merlin and the Blue Grosbeak.

And, of course, all of those birds classified on the Utah checklist as "Plovers & Sandpipers" that I haven't checked off because I am just too undisciplined to actually work at IDing them--they are there & I've seen most of them I'm sure. I've promised myself that I will douse myself in Cutter's, grab my scope, and get out there during fall migration, which is just starting here.

[illin]

The key to learning the hard groups like shorebirds, gulls, and flycatchers is going birding with someone more experienced. I hated shorebirds til I went with a veteran birder and we saw 14 species of shorebird in one day. Having him there to point out and explain differences helped me immensely with IDing them. Now I love shorebirds.

Now I need to get out and have someone help me with the gulls and the flycatchers.

[JimBob]

I can't find more then two species of shorebirds at a time. . . Four shorebirds on my list, so I guess that those are some that I need. . .

Shorebirds meaning Sandpiper, Plovers, Stilts/Avocets, and allies.

[SPiercePhotography]

Bald Eagle. I live in an area where there are several nesting pairs and they fly all over the place, and all the regulars at this place have seen them. but me! i've missed them by about 2 minutes before. aughhhh!