Bird recap 2022

[Fahoodie1852]

Bird recap 2022. These are the birds I saw this year. What are yours?

Excludes the house sparrow (Passer domesticus), Indian mynah (Acridotheres tristis), White-eared bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis), Rock dove and domestic variants (Columba livia), Eurasian collared-dove (Streptopelia decaocto), and the laughing dove (Spilopelia senegalensis)

January 5th

-Great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor)

January 15th

-Crested lark (Galerida cristata)

February 14th

-White wagtail (Motacilla alba)

February 19th

-Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)

-Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)

February 26th

-White wagtail (Motacilla alba)

-Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos)

-Common sandpaper (Actitis hypoleucos)

-Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

March 12th

-White wagtail (Motacilla alba)

-Greater hoopoe-lark (Alaemon alaudipes)

-Desert lark (Ammomanes deserti)

March 18th

-Grey francolin (Ortygornis pondicerianus)

-Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)

March 27th

-House crow (Corvus splendens)

March 31st

-Crested lark (Galerida cristata)

April 1st

-western reef egret (Egretta gularis)

-Little tern (Sternula albifrons)

-House crow (Corvus splendens)

-Caspian gull (Larus cachinnans)

April 6th

-Crested lark (Galerida cristata)

-Alexandrine parakeet (Palaeornis eupatoria)

-Pallid swift (Apus pallidus)

April 7th

-Common rock thrush (Monticola saxatilis)

-Indian silverbill (Eudoice malabarica)

-Pallid harrier (Circus macrourus)

April 21st

-European bee eater (Merops apiaster)

April 29th

-Bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica)

-Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata)

July 26

-Greater sandplover (Charadrius leschenautii)

October 15th

-Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)

-Crested lark (Galerida cristata)

October 22nd

-Whimbrel (Numenius phaeopus)

-Ruddy turnstone (Arenaria interpes)

-Common sandpiper (Actitis hypoleucos)

-Western reef egret (Egretta gularis)

-Striated heron (Butorides striatus)

October 27th

-House crow (Corvus splendens)

November 28th

-Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica)

-Great grey shrike (Lanius excubitor)

-Hoopoe (Upupa epops)

December 4th

-Lesser black backed gull (Larus fuscus)

-Tern (Laridae sp.)

-Kentish plover (Charadrius alexandrinus)

-Grey plover (Pluvialis squatarola)

-Dunlin (Calidris alpina)

-Curlew sandpiper (Calidris ferruginea)

-Little stint (Calidris minuta)

-Bar-tailed godwit (Limosa lapponica)

-Crested lark (Galerida cristata)

December 7-8th

-Lesser black backed gull (Larus fuscus)

-Armenian gull (Larus armenicus)

-Caspian gull (Larus cachinnans)

-Black-headed gull (Chroicoceohalus rubribundus)

-White-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)

-Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

-Caspian tern (Hydroprogne caspia)

-Western reef heron (Egretta gularis)

-European robin (Erithaca rubercula)

-Slender billed gull (Larus genei)

December 10th

-Lesser black backed gull (Larus fuscus)

-Black-headed gull (Chroicoceohalus rubribundus)

-Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

-Western reef heron (Egretta gularis)

-Grey heron (Ardea cinerea)

-House crow (Corvus splendens)

December 11th

-White-breasted kingfisher (Halcyon smyrnensis)

-white wagtail (Motacilla alba)

-Spotted flycatcher (Musciapia striata)

-Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica)

December 13th

-Black kite (Milvus migrans)

December 14th

-Lesser black backed gull (Larus fuscus)

-Black-headed gull (Chroicoceohalus rubribundus)

-Great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo)

-Western reef heron (Egretta gularis)

-Slender billed gull (Larus genei)

-Greater flamingo (Phoenicopterus roseus)

-White-tailed lapwing (Vanellus leucurus)

-Great spotted eagle (Clanga Clanga)

-Booted eagle (Hieraeetus pennatus)

-White-tailed sea eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla)

-Western marsh harrier (Circus aeruginosus)

-Eurasian curlew (Numenius arquata)

-Common moorhen (Gallinula chloropus)

-Common coot (Fulica atra)

-Ferruginous duck (Aythya nyroca)

-Northern shoveler (Spatula clypeata)

-Gadwall (Mareca strepera)

-Little grebe (Tachybaptus rufficollis)

December 28th

-Namaqua dove (Oena capensis)

[fffffffff]

Here, worse than the last year, but 65 lifers.

[egordon88]

I saw a few lifers in France this year, but I didn’t specifically look for them and I’m sure I missed many more. Two new yard birds in the USA - Bewick’s wren and Juniper titmouse. Everything else was normal birds in Colorado and New Mexico.

[Ajott]

I am not a huge birder due to equipment limitations, so I was surprised to see that I got a bit over 60 species this year anyways. But then again, that is probably nothing in a country like Colombia.
Ajotts birds 2022

[jasonhernandez74]

Wow, long list – and that is with skipping entire months (April 29th, then July 26th, then October 15th).

I honestly don’t do birds that often, because I don’t work with telephoto. I’m limited to those that let me get close enough to shoot with a regular camera. In fact, it turns out that of my 14 bird observations this year, 12 were taken during a one-week vacation to French Polynesia. Discounting second observations of a given species:

Polynesia, April 23-30:
-Common Mynah
-Zebra Dove
-Chestnut-breasted Munia
-Feral Pigeon
-Brown Noddy
-Great Crested Tern
-Red-vented Bulbul
-Pacific Golden-Plover

San Francisco, August 28:
-Western Gull

Raleigh, November 30:
-House Sparrow

[egordon88]

First 4 birds of 2023 were Northern Flicker, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Mountain Chickadee, and Common Raven

[mmmiller]

I’m not sure if anyone would care to read a list of my 2022 birds. But it was our best year ever. We traveled further than in the previous 10 years, I’m getting better at field identification (and taking good notes for later identification), and our outings often serendipitously overlapped times/places when/where rare or uncommon birds were present.

I saw 194 species (or cross species) - and three additional subspecies within that count. I also heard-only 2 species. That brought my own personal reckoning to 199. I tried in the final days, to get one more species but didn’t. There were 14 were life firsts for us.

I would be surprised if we beat that this year. But I wasn’t expecting to get that many this year so who knows?

[wildwestnature]

Our iNat list is shorter than our ebird list because we could not get audio or photos of some species, most notably Bohemian Waxwing, which was our nemesis bird but we have now heard and seen but not recorded for iNat. Also, the adult Northern Goshawk flew before the camera could focus on it. And Whimbrel flew over us before we could record them.

Great Gray Owl (2 seen) on Dec 30 was our highlight, even though it wasn’t a lifer.

Yellow was the color of the year for lifers for us:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2022-01-01&place_id=any&user_id=wildwestnature&verifiable=any&view=&iconic_taxa=Aves&taxon_id=4622&page=

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?d1=2022-01-01&place_id=any&user_id=wildwestnature&verifiable=any&view=&iconic_taxa=Aves&taxon_id=4999&page=

Top observed bird for 2022 is Green Heron, followed by Bald Eagle

[Raptor_Huss3]

2022 will be a year I remember as a milestone in my knowledge of birds and the natural world in general. I went to Africa (Somaliland), for the first time, and there I encountered an amazing myriad of birds that I have never seen before, as I started birding in the UK and was more used to the birds there. I wrote a two-part post on my trip to the horn of Africa, as there are not many people from the nature community who extensively upload observation or birding checklists. Hopefully, I could go there again and could add more detailed data to Inat and ebird.

(A shameless plug to my two-part blog post, hope you guys enjoy it) :
https://wildlifehq.org/trip-report-somaliland/
https://wildlifehq.org/trip-report-somaliland/

The list of birds of 2022 :

95% of those birds are lifers!

[fffffffff]

Your ebird link is not specified to you.

[Raptor_Huss3]

It is, I listed 101 species for the year 2022…
I had birded in several different locations, maybe that’s what is confusing. But I could assure you it is.

[fffffffff]

No, it’s not confusing, the link shows “mine” lists, so for you it shows yours, but for me it’s blank.

[Raptor_Huss3]

yes you are right, sorry about that, I will fix that mistake.

[swampster]

My global year list on ebird (profile here) was 263 species, making 2022 my biggest year yet! (I only beat my 2021 list by a single species, but I traveled much less in 2022, never leaving the southeastern U.S.)

Lifers of 2022: Red Knott (how has it taken this long?), White-winged Scoter, Brown Booby, White-rumped Sandpiper, Snail Kite, Bahama Mockingbird, Red Crossbill, Bell’s Vireo, Alder Flycatcher, Wilson’s Warbler, & Nashville Warbler.

Additionally, I got two species new to me for the U.S.: Black-headed Gull and Eurasian Widgeon (in two different states, VA & FL).

I also came in 3rd in the state (FL) for number of species on Global Big Day (trip report here).

On iNaturalist, I have 90 species and 123 bird observations for 2022.

[swampster]

@wildwestnature

most notably Bohemian Waxwing

@wildwestnature

Northern Goshawk

@wildwestnature

Great Gray Owl

Awesome! I would love to see these some day.

[WildEdges]

86 species for 2022 for me. I was hoping for a few more but sickness over Christmas and New Year killed my plans for visiting some nature reserves. I usually set myself a target of 120 species every year and I’m happy if I get over 90. The best I’ve ever managed was 103 back in 2017 before we had kids and had more freedom to travel.

[wildwestnature]

Sax-Zim Bog in Winter

The bog is a patchwork of public and private lands. Fly into Minneapolis-St. Paul and drive about 3 hours north. If one is not an experienced winter driver, a guided tour that picks up in the city and does all the driving might work more effectively.

[fffffffff]

Are waxwings rare in the US? Cause I thought as they live both in Eurasia and NA I kinda expected them to be as common there in similar climate zone, waxwings are one of signs of winter (cause they breed further north in taiga) and it’s hard not to see them at least once a year. For goshkawks you don’t even need to wait for winter, they breed in city parks.

[wildwestnature]

Cedar Waxwings are commonly seen in Minneapolis-St. Paul (where we are) year-round, though we personally don’t see them much between Jan-Apr (possibly from a lack of looking). We had a flock of about 40 while doing the Christmas Bird Count (CBC) in town last month.

Bohemian Waxwings, by contrast, are rarities in southern Minnesota. Occasionally one will be mixed in with Cedar Waxwings. In northern Minnesota, which borders Canada, they are on only about 2-6% of checklists at their most abundant. So it’s safe to say they are a colder-weather species here and not as frequently observed. They are best observed at ornamental fruit trees with berries in the winter. Once the berries are gone, so are the Bohemians!

Northern Goshawks are pretty reclusive here by reputation. First-year birds are known to winter in city parks (which we had near us a few years ago). Even less frequently reported than Bohemian Waxwings, Northern Goshawks are on 2% of checklists at their most abundant up in Lake County, Minnesota (Lake Superior near Ontario, Canada). Rarely, they will nest in a city park in our region.

[swampster]

Bohemian Waxwing and Northern Goshawk are absent from my life list mostly because I haven’t ever seriously birded the northern part of the country. As @wildwestnature said, Cedar Waxwings are far more widespread in the U.S. I hear them daily outside my apartment in Georgia in the winter (we have fruiting hollies that draw huge flocks in).

Bohemian Waxwing range map. Source: All About Birds

Northern Goshawk range map. Source: All About Birds