Speaking of lists....rules for yardbirds?

[Thomas Heinrich]

The discussion regarding listing rules got me wondering about which rules we choose to follow for yardbirds. How many of us use the ABA model as opposed to the Big Sit model, or some other perhaps?

What do you count? If you happen to be returning from a walk around the neighborhood, see a Northern Goshawk fly directly over your house, but you’re not actually standing in your yard, does it count? What do you do when you hear a flock of 150 migrating Sandhill Cranes off in the distance, or maybe see the 23 Am White Pelicans through your scope five miles distant over the Valmont complex, or find the motion triggered night vision camera in your backyard captured an image of a Boreal Owl? Not that all of these have happened to me...yet. But one can still hope. I actually had two new yardbird owl species (N Pygmy Owl and E Screech Owl) in one day back in August, one at dawn, the other at dusk.

I tend to like and use something similar to the Big Sit model (whatever you can see and accurately identify from within a boundary) mainly because it greatly expands the potential list (e.g. Lewis’s Woodpecker, Clark’s Nutcracker, Pinyon Jay up along the Dakota Ridge behind my house), which I guess is a bit greedy, but also more fun. I do also try to get photo records for all yardbirds, and have been successful in all but 5 species out of about 120. After IDing the bird from the yard sometimes I will hike beyond the property to get better shots.

Anyway, I’m curious to hear other approaches, thoughts, etc.

—Thomas



Thomas Heinrich
Boulder, CO
Nyc...@aol.com

[Joe Roller]

Thomas,

Here are the guidelines for keeping a yard list on eBird- similar in some ways to Big Sit rules, with key differences.

from eBird Help section: 

What birds count? For eBird yard and patch lists, feel free to count anything seen or heard from within your yard or patch. Fly-overs are fair game. In other words, the bird need not actually be in your yard or patch, as long as you are. Thus, if you have a small city apartment with no actual trees or grass, you can still count anything you see or hear from your property. 

The one difference I noticed is that Big Sit rules provide for a team or group of birders to 

combine their sightings into one list. Yard lists on eBird are personal lists and are limited to what the you alone observes. 

However, please note that birds that you do not record personally (i.e., a friend sees it in your yard, you record it on a feeder cam, or use microphones to record birds from your yard),should not be counted.

Another difference is that Big Sit guidelines allow a team member to walk or drive away from the Sit Site to

check birds seen far away from that spot. And I believe that birds seen from that ectopic site can be added

to the Sit list. Joey Kellner will know all about that, having organized the Chatfield Big Sit for many years.

In contrast Yard lists include birds seen or heard from within your yard. That guideline seems NOT to 

allow adding species present IN your yard even if you are OUT of your yard, eg, walking home from 

a stroll. Which seems like a silly constraint to me. 

Just as with Life Lists or any other list, one can make up your own rules if your yard list. It's only important 

to follow standard guidelines when you choose to document your yard totals on eBird or the CFO site described 

in my post of 2/3.

And eBird also encourages "Patch Lists" which might include your whole neighborhood or a nearby park.

But that is another topic.

Please weigh in on whether I got this straight or not.

Joe Roller, Denver

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[Ira Sanders]

I agree with Joe except that I would count birds I saw flyover my house even if I wasn't in my own yard.

Ira Sanders

Golden, CO

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Ira Sanders

Golden, CO

"My mind is a raging torrent flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives."