Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

General birdwatching discussion, help with bird identification, and all other things relating to wild birds and birding in NZ that don't fit in one of the other forums.
User avatar
David Riddell
Posts: 959
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2009 3:46 pm

Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby David Riddell » Thu Mar 28, 2019 9:43 am

eBird is the main system used for compiling bird records in NZ and many other countries these days - see https://ebird.org/newzealand/home

Guinea fowl, as you might infer from the discussion here and elsewhere, are one of those species whose status as a wild bird in NZ is debatable, hence uncertainty about whether records of them should be included.
User avatar
RussCannings
Posts: 1216
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 5:23 am

Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby RussCannings » Thu Mar 28, 2019 12:54 pm

Many of you will have NZ field guides showing guineafowl as a possible feral species. ebird allows the entry of guineafowl if there is a suspicion of genuine 'wildness'. While this may seem overly liberal it allows us to track them for better or for worse and all can be easily hidden from the public dataset if it becomes clear that there are no genuinely wild populations. No one is studying them or writing up papers/proposals so maybe a project for someone!
User avatar
hen
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2019 8:43 pm

Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby hen » Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:14 pm

Thank you, David Riddell, for the reply and link re. guinea fowl and eBird. It is as expected, but somehow I could not find the link on Google at first. Too much haste, maybe. Will definitely check out eBird.

Should I post one or two photos of our wild guinea fowl (South Africa) to the forum here? Or of our version of any NZ bird under discussion? Not sure it is appropriate.
(A few years ago I was invited to post bird / wildlife pictures to https://www.discoverlife.org/ and still do so intermittently - https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20p?see=I_HEN )
User avatar
RussCannings
Posts: 1216
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 5:23 am

Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby RussCannings » Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:00 am

With respect hen,

This forum is intended for NZ-specific bird discussions (eg NZ bird distribution and identification). There are other forums and Facebook groups that are more appropriate for general photo sharing.

I'm sure SA would have loads of bird photo groups yes?

Russ C
Morrinsville, NZ
User avatar
hen
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Mar 20, 2019 8:43 pm

Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby hen » Fri Mar 29, 2019 10:26 pm

Dear Mr Cannings, pardon for the misunderstanding. I never intended to discuss local birds on the NZ forum, nor did I want to do any general photo sharing.

hen
User avatar
RussCannings
Posts: 1216
Joined: Wed Sep 24, 2014 5:23 am

Re: Guinea fowl, Lake Ellesmere

Postby RussCannings » Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:55 pm

No worries hen, were you then asking if it would be okay to post photos of South African birds on ebird? If so then definitely yes--ebird is global and the more people using it the better the data :)

Return to “General Birding Discussion”