To tick or not to tick – Birding in Limpopo

Posted by Ben De Boer on 23 March 2009

I have recently been lucky enough to spend a few days with a group of journalists on a trip through Limpopo showing off some of the great birding sites and bird guides Limpopo Province has on offer.

As far as birders go, it was a mixed group with some serious birders and some novices, and fairly soon the question came up: when can you ‘tick’ a bird for your ‘life list’?

As we travelled around, the experienced birders would glance out the window and say, ‘Brown Snake’ without much enthusiasm. The journalists who were being introduced to birding would whip their heads around and search the ground frantically and, seeing nothing, would look confused until someone pointed out the distant silhouette of a raptor on the horizon and identify it as a Brown Snake Eagle. ‘Yeah, sure! How can you tell?’ they would say skeptically. We would then go through the various ID features of the bird and they would look in their newly purchased bird books and ask if they could tick it.

The easy answer is, it’s your list so you can tick whatever you feel happy with, but the general rule is that the bird needs to be seen free flying and in the wild before it can be ticked. Sounds straight-forward enough but this can become a complex question and one that keeps some ‘listers’ very busy on various discussion forums.

Some birders, often from Europe are extremely strict about what constitutes a ‘wild bird’ and they will not tick any birds that have been re-introduced into an area where they became extinct, birds that have been ‘lured’ to feeders, or birds that have been flushed out of a bush by someone. There are even some that will go to the extreme of not ticking a bird that has had a data ring put on its leg, because it has been ‘tampered with’ or disturbed by man.

Most of us are not this discerning and will tick a bird that is free flying and is not in the hand (meaning when you catch birds to put the data rings on, you will be holding them to do so) Many birders have no qualms about birds on feeders or birds attracted by a bit of whistling or ‘spishing’ (that strange noise some birders make that sounds like they are trying to call a cat with a speech impediment). But even this straight-forward kind of approach can get complicated. Some listers wanted arbitration on the following:

  • Does this mean that I can’t tick the Narina Trogon that flew into the window? It survived and I saw it fly away!
  • Can I tick the neighbor’s escaped blue and yellow Macaw that landed in my garden for a few minutes?
  • What about the Pygmy Kingfisher my cat brought in? I saved it!
  • Can I tick the blur that the guide assured me was a Barrett’s Warbler?
  • How about the distant spot that all the experienced birders in the vehicle assure you is a Brown Snake Eagle?

And the answer is depends on how seriously you want to be taken in the birding world. If it is just for you, then sure, go ahead and tick away.

There is a great story that our guide, Joe Grosel told us about four ‘twitchers’ who set off to find the rare Spotted Crake, and while they were creeping along the edge of a wetland in their vehicle, a local farmer came dashing past them in his bakkie and ran over the very bird they had driven miles to find. Three of the birders leap out the vehicle and saw the bird breathing its last, but by the time the driver got there, the bird was dead. Now could three of them tick it as they saw it alive? What about the driver?

Each person needs to be happy with their ‘ticking’ rules. One of the group had a rule that later they had to be able to visualize the bird with their eyes closed before it got ticked, while another group would be happy to take the guide’s word for it as they had done their research, learned the call, heard the call and seen a bird that could only be that bird flying from bush to bush. So I say it’s your list, tick whatever you feel happy with but just get out there and start ticking!

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