London Zoo: Birding by numbers

In my husband's family, birding is serious business, and I fit right in. No holiday passes without bird feeders or birdseed gifts, and bird clocks, bird quilts, bird socks and bird books have all made appearances. Every one of us has, at least once, walked off the porch in pajamas and slippers to follow an elusive bird and ended up an embarrassingly long way from home considering our attire.

Birder's great moments usually involve sightings of extraordinarily rare or beautiful birds -- the Resplendent Quetzel, the Vermillion Flycatcher, the Hyacinth Macaw, the Cassowary, the Rainbow Lorikeet, the Harpy Eagle, the Elegant Sunbird, the Painted Bunting and the Banded Cotinga appear on many lists of favorites. Many who love birds also have a favorite common backyard bird such as the Mountain Chickadee, the American Goldfinch, the Tufted Titmouse or the Northern Cardinal.

For many birders, it's not just the quality of the birds spotted, but also the quantity. In a bizarre competition, birders doing a "big year" try to see as many species of birds as possible in single calendar year within a set geographic area. The record for the American Birding Association area is 745 species, which was set in 1998 by Sandy Komito. The area involved is the 49 continental U.S. states, Canada, 200 miles of bordering ocean and a complicated set of rules for nearby islands that excludes Hawaii, Bermuda, the Bahamas and Greenland, but includes the French islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon.

A valiant attempt to break this record was made by John Vanderpoel in 2011, but he fell just short with 744 birds. The total number of species that could possibly be seen in the area of the competition, including regular visitors, breeding species, accidentals, casual visitors and exotic species who are now established here is currently 970.

Read more: http://azdailysun.com/news/state-and-regional/london-zoo-birding-by-numbers/article_a2759dae-176a-5959-ba90-cdf4cff94ff6.html#ixzz20sadz4A8