The Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival compiles a list of all the bird species observed during the festival. Click on the image to open the January 2009 list as a pdf file.
Posted by David McRee at BlogTheBeach.com
If you enjoy shells, coins, or stamps, you can maintain a collection. But what if your hobby is wild birds? You can’t really collect them can you? At least not legally or ethically.
So what do birders do? They make a list. The first time they see a new species they refer to it as a “life bird.” It gets added to the “life list.” Some birders simply make a notation in their field guide while others use a formal checklist.
According to Pete Dunn, prolific author on birding and director of the Cape May Bird Observatory:
Many birders go beyond daily checklists to keep cumulative lists of the birds they see. Some birders keep a yard list–a list limited to the birds seen in (or from) their yard. Some maintain state lists or county lists. Others keep a year list–a list of birds seen during the calendar year–or month lists or trip lists. –From Pete Dunne on Bird Watching.
I’ve never been a list-maker. But maybe it would be fun to keep a list for a year. Serious birders contribute valuable knowledge about bird distribution and range which helps advance the science. As you might have guessed, computer software is available to compile a list that can be sorted in various useful ways.
The American Birding Association offers birding checklists.
Have a look at the list of birds seen last year at the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival.
Here’s a list of the seabirds seen on the 2009 Pelagic Trip.
FTC Disclosure of Material Connections: I receive compensation from the Space Coast Birding & Wildlife Festival for writing about the 2010 Festival.
