BirdingNZ.net

Without even a photo those "sandpipers" could be just about anything.

A lot of false checklists get dumped onto hotspots that start with 'Auckland'. Here are some of my favourites from the Auckland Domain where a whopping 77 species have been recorded: https://ebird.org/checklist/S53698075 https://ebird.org/checklist/S15842929 https://ebird.org/checklist/S31849067 https://ebird.org/checklist/S16151428 https://ebird.org/checklist/S26310128

Hasn't been confirmed, but there's a report of a NZ quail
https://ebird.org/media/catalog?region= ... land%20(NZ)&regionCode=NZ&includeUnconfirmed=T,O

...or the 50-species list from Massey Uni campus:
https://ebird.org/checklist/S53868861

Ringed Plover record despite being removed from the NZ list: https://ebird.org/newzealand/checklist/S26767356
Great-winged Petrel records? No UBRs since they aren't yet on the NZ list: https://ebird.org/australia/checklist/S16650492 https://ebird.org/newzealand/checklist/S4267366

Oscar

These are both issues with changing taxonomy rather than identification. The Ringed Plover record dates from a time before Ringed and Semipalmated Plovers were split. Looking back I don't think the right details were recorded to clearly identify it now but it was a first record of something. Grey-faced and Great-winged Petrels were also regarded as conspecific by most until they were recently split (viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5663).

If ebird used local names properly we probably wouldn't get this kind of problem.

Ian

Yes that was quite a day on 7th December 1970 for a young birder, being me!!!
"Ringed Plover record despite being removed from the NZ list: https://ebird.org/newzealand/checklist/S26767356"
several first records on a great day birding with Ross Mckenzie and Beth and John Brown and others.
the Ringed Plover record was submitted and approved by the Rare Bird Committee at the time.
I did notice that a few years ago this had been overturned and called a SemiPalmated Plover, but had not gone back and corrected my sighting.
it leaves me with a problem though. Should I just delete the Ringed Plover sighting altogether? or replace it with Semi Palmated?
It was clearly one of the two. I was taking about this a couple of weeks ago, because I believe John Brown got photos, which should still be around somewhere.
I would value some feedback.

An anonymous ebirder has reported a whimbrel ( in comments stated as 'Short billed curlew with bold eye-stripe') but no photo, at Orewa Estuary on 3/1/2020. I've since been looking for this bird amongst the 120 or so godwits currently resident in the estuary but not yet seen. Not sure if 'obviously incorrect' or a transient bird. This is the first ebird record for whimbrel in the estuary.
Edit: I see in the Orewa Estuary Te Ara Tahuna Community Restoration Plan that whimbrel have been recorded here before sometime between 2003 and 2016. Source quoted as nzbirdsonline.

A newish pamphlet on seabirds to be seen around Banks Peninsula and Akaroa Harbour has omitted the most abundant shearwater locally (Huttons) and included one which occurs, but in relatively very low numbers (Fluttering). The result is a lot of confused overseas birders arriving by land and cruise ship. Some have told me that they're seeing Huttons and thinking such, but they look at the pamphlet and then lose confidence in their identification. I wonder if this is showing up in ebird reports?

An incorrect list for Achilles Point, Auckland. https://ebird.org/checklist/S52756051
These birds could occur together as "area" or "random" observations from around Achilles Point, but there is no information on how wide the "area" was or the timespan and the observations are recorded as "incidental". Impairs the data from Achilles Point unless rectified.

eBird needs to add the ability to report checklists that don't have photos. https://ebird.org/checklist/S53868861