Forum Suggestion : Bird lists/bird news

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Davis
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Forum Suggestion : Bird lists/bird news

Postby Davis » Wed Aug 07, 2013 3:57 pm

Hey there!

As BirdingNZ is one of the first websites that comes up in search engines when looking this particular activity, lifestyle and obsession, i was a bit confused about absence of two things here:

Firstly a some sort of recent rare/interesting bird observation list (that is easy to find, as i can't say that for this - only after some few minutes i found this viewforum.php?f=16 forum thread. It sort of slips by when looking through recent topics). Don't know whats the best solution (maybe I'm just too much of western palearctic :D) but have a look at those two - http://www.tarsiger.com/news/index.php?sp=&lang=eng and http://latvijasputni.lv/en.html

Second would be a sort of bird list thing - the actual bird species list of observed species (up till fifty years from last sighting or smthing like that was it?), or at least putting somewhere this rare bird reporting list http://osnz.org.nz/rarebirds.htm which took some while to find. On the same idea, i've put together a list [https://www.dropbox.com/s/qsoolyl6ezdp71l/NZ%20List_SI_NI.xls] of theoretical species (north and south islands, mostly intended for personal use in field and so) and very short descriptive status, maybe any comments or suggestions?

Otherwise huge congratulations with nz birds online - thats awesome resource not only for random persons stopping by in NZ but also (hopefully) for regular people :)

Cheers!
D.d.


Davis Drazdovskis
+64 02 2345 2114
http://headoutdoors.net
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Neil Fitzgerald
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Re: Forum Suggestion : Bird lists/bird news

Postby Neil Fitzgerald » Fri Aug 09, 2013 3:32 pm

Hi Davis,
Good ideas, thanks. Recent sightings could be complied beter in some way. There are the questions though of what to include (only real rarities?) and how often to post follow-up sightings if ever. Any thoughts on that appreciated.

I have thought about the list thing occasionally. I worry it might end up duplicating what other sites already offer, such as the Lists option NatureWatch has. The OSNZ rare birds list is linked on our Links page. Could get complicated.
NZ birds online has the ability soon to produce regional species lists. Click on Location, select the area of interest, and then "Download PDF ticklist". I can't see how to select multiple regions, but you can search for locations other than the regions (e.g. North Island) and make your list.
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Davis
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Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 2:54 pm
Location: Wellington
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Re: Forum Suggestion : Bird lists/bird news

Postby Davis » Thu Aug 15, 2013 3:56 pm

Hi Neil,
as far as I know then list managing is time consuming mostly because of variable criteria, but yeah, some thoughts below:
- for twitching follow up sightings is sort of interesting,maybe in a form of first sighting plus the last date/name?
- sort of duplication i think is unavoidable, but it really depends on geographical scale, for example if all NZ (plus subantarctic islands? it doesn't seem like there is a lot of people though) then i believe it's ok if there is some duplication of local/regional sightings.
- real rarities could be like a base for list, but for phenological data also very early/late sightings and exceptionally large numbers? Yeah, it looks like the NZ geographical size is of issue with early and late sightings.
- based on late evening talks with Latvian interesting sightings moderators - in peak moments it is sort of pain in "back" because of large numbers of questionable reports. Mostly because of that part of fresh birdwatchers reports of rare rare birds (like below ten sightings in country for past ten years) are only accepted with "photo proof" which is somehow accepted as normal after longer time of dissatisfaction.

Thanks for NZ birds online list tip! It looks good and useful/handy. Just a thought that it would be interesting if nz birds online had some option of featured bird species post or something like that, thought they are sort of active on facebook.

Cheers,
D.d.


Davis Drazdovskis
+64 02 2345 2114
http://headoutdoors.net

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