Whatbird.com

I am fairly new to bird watching.  I have started a life list of birds I have seen in my backyard and on my walks by the river.  What I was wondering is do I add the unusual birds?  What I'm trying to find out is can I add the birds I see at the zoo for example?  I know I will never get to south america or africa....so can I add these birds to my list?  Is there a proper way to list them?  How do you do your lists?

again your input is always appreciated.

How you manage your life list is largely up to you. With that said, there are always gray areas.

 

I do not include zoo birds or any other captive bird in my lists as a general policy. With this policy I was still presented with a quandry. I visit our local bird banding station (Idaho Bird Observatory) two or three times each year. In this case I did not find the bird myself, but the bird was wild in that particular location. My observation was simply assisted by the experts and the netting process. I did not originally include these birds but I have started doing so.

 

So my policy has evolved to be birds that are wild and arrived in the location at least mostly in a natural way. I don't count peacocks in a captive pen, but I do count introduced species that have become wild such as the Ring-necked Pheasant.

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Rob Miller
Blog: http://wolf21m.blogspot.com/

I sort of have two lists, one contains birds that are natural, not captive and in the wild. The second list is of exotic birds I've seen in pet stores, zoo's, aviaries, or as pets. There are some birds that are on both lists. Our local aviary has many open areas that some birds are welcome to come and go from.  If the birds are able to leave the aviary, or live there of their own accord I have them on both lists. For example some kinds of ducks, when they migrate they simply use the aviary as a stopping ground. And it's not a bad idea for them! Lots of food, perfected habitats...LOL

While designing the life list feature of the Winged Explorer Handheld Interactive Guide to Birds of North America software we had to think about how to handle birds that are found in North America and yet are not native, such as the Peahen and Peacock. We finally decided after much debate that it made little sense to not include such birds on our lists. There are many many birds that have escaped from cages and proliferated in the USA, including a ton of parrots. Therefore in our online database and in Winged Explorer we include such birds. I would agree that it will work best if you make a note in the list that the bird you saw was not a normal native bird species. The hard core Ornithological Union is very strict and leaves out zoo birds as do many texts like Sibley and National Geo, but I think its better to include them and let the reader decide. Its seems contradictory that National Geo includes accidental and extinct birds and at the same time leaves out the tons of birds one finds in abundance that are not truly native, such as the peacock.