Your Most Recent "Life" Bird (8 Viewers)

[Lerxst]

Lifer 5,000 was a singular experience.... countless distant Yelkouan Shearwaters seen from a rooftop restaurant in Istanbul.

 

[Lerxst]

Pygmy Cormorant, Istanbul

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

Lifer 5,000 was a singular experience.... countless distant Yelkouan Shearwaters seen from a rooftop restaurant in Istanbul.

My kind of birding 👍

 

[DuckNorris]

American Bittern
Green Cay Wetlands
Boynton Beach, Florida USA

 

[in vitrio]

In my attempt to get the least impressive tick in the thread, with a poor sighting of a very common bird...sparrowhawk. Now am wondering if I've seen them before and assumed they were kestrels.

 

[Euan Buchan]

Yesterday I saw my first Dotterel in Balranald in North Uist. There were some birders there to see it as well as the Corncrake.

 

[foresttwitcher]

Rufous-tailed Tailorbird - Windsor Nature Park, Singapore.

 

[Val35]

Yesterday (17/05/23), White Winged Tern, a beautiful adult in breeding plumage near Ajaccio in Corsica.

For some reason I had never seen this one...never been to the good places to see it at the right time of the year.

Apparently it used to be a regular visitor to Corsica but few records in recent years (as for Black Tern, which is very rare in Corsica nowadays) so it was a great find.

Bird gave amazing views and I could take pics with phone + binoculars as I had no camera with me...

My Corsica list now stands at 245 species with several nice additions this spring (Great Spotted Cuckoo, Eastern Black Eared Wheatear, Great Snipe, Calandra Lark).

 

[hookem2010]

#518, black-billed cuckoo! Finally!!!! Nemesis bird that was pretty much my last "expected" spring migrant passerine for the eastern half of Texas. I decided on a whim to take a quick loop through a small stretch of woods that's typically very quiet. There was a raucous elementary school field day happening on the other side of the fence, so really didn't expect much. While trying to discern if I had a red-eyed vireo, which would be new for my patch, I saw a pretty bland cuckoo fly into view. Was pretty sure what I had, then it flew even closer, and I was able to get long looks, even with a 100-lb doberman tied to my waist and a one year-old in a stroller. As you might be able to tell, I was as ecstatic as those kids running around at their field day!

 

[ambduck5]

Common Rock Sparrow, Slender-billed Gull, Gull-billed Tern and Marbled Duck; Mallorca, Spain.

Hi, where did you see the Common Rock Sparrow in Mallorca. Thank you.

 

[Jeff Hopkins]

Red-legged Kittiwake - SW Point, St.Paul Island, Pribilofs.

Also picked up 5 additional ABA birds - Brambling, Hawfinch, Eyebrowed Thrush, Common Snipe, & Long-toed Stint.

 

[TerryL]

Temminck's Stint

 

[Dutchbirder64]

Menetries's Warbler on a Georgia trip.

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

Iberian ChiffChaff. Forest of Dean

 

[Lerxst]

#518, black-billed cuckoo! Finally!!!! Nemesis bird that was pretty much my last "expected" spring migrant passerine for the eastern half of Texas. I decided on a whim to take a quick loop through a small stretch of woods that's typically very quiet. There was a raucous elementary school field day happening on the other side of the fence, so really didn't expect much. While trying to discern if I had a red-eyed vireo, which would be new for my patch, I saw a pretty bland cuckoo fly into view. Was pretty sure what I had, then it flew even closer, and I was able to get long looks, even with a 100-lb doberman tied to my waist and a one year-old in a stroller. As you might be able to tell, I was as ecstatic as those kids running around at their field day!

I really feel this one. It was a long time torment for me as well. In fact, even though I have seen and heard this bird, I am still counting it as an Honorary Nemesis, because it continues to be elusive. In 30 years of birding I have crossed paths with only three of them. And cuckoos are my favorite bird family, ever since the mechanical one in my grandparents' ancient clock mesmerized me as a child.

 

[hookem2010]

Didn't expect two lifers in a week, but when a yellow-green vireo showed up 75 miles from home, I happily woke up at 5 AM to chase it. It turned out to be one of those stress-free chases, with another birder on it when I arrived, as it sang constantly from the precise coordinates it was found at yesterday. #519!

 

[DuckNorris]

House Finch
Boca Raton, Florida USA

 

[Nightjar61]

Just got back from a week in Ghana, where I picked up 122 lifers. The last one was Maxwell's Black Weaver on Friday morning.

Dave

 

[DuckNorris]

Least Tern
Green Cay Wetlands
Boynton Beach, Florida USA

 

[lmans66]

Five-striped sparrow.... Box Canyon outside of Tucson, AZ