Date: 3/11/25 12:21 pm From: Shaibal Mitra <Shaibal.Mitra...> Subject: Re: [nysbirds-l] TODAY IS THE DAY!!! County Listing Final Reminder
This year Patricia Lindsay and I have made a special effort to edit and verify our various county, regional, and other lists for the NYSOA project. It can be surprisingly difficult to achieve accurate lists, especially for Regions 1, 2, 3, and 5, whose boundaries don't align with county lines. But that is not the subject of this email.
There are various reasons why list totals will not align among one's personal list, one's list according to eBird, and one's list as reported to the NYSOA project. At the most trivial level, one should take care not to include species added to a list since the end of the previous year, and similarly, there will often be potential first state records that have not yet been formally approved by NYSARC. But there are some other nuances that are genuinely difficult, involving non-native species whose statuses are uncertain or changing. I am sharing my interpretations for several such examples, in case these may be useful to others.
Northern Bobwhite
An abundant, widespread native species until fairly recently, it is now debatable whether any natural populations at all survive anywhere in New York State. In most places, recent records will be reviewed in eBird as exotic, and records will not be summed in eBird totals, but the date cut-offs for different places are very uncertain, and it appears that invalidation in eBird is being done by hand, on a case by case basis. In any case, I see records reviewed as exotic from former natural strongholds (North and South Forks of LI) as early as 2012. So, care needs to be taken to infer whether according-to-eBird records are summing appropriately (or not) on one's lists.
Ring-necked Pheasant
Non-native but formerly abundant and widespread in established natural populations, this species is following a few years behind the Bobwhite in its slide toward extirpation, and is similarly frequently encountered in many places due to released captive birds. As with Bobwhite, one should include it on NYSOA lists on the basis of records from natural populations, but one can't assume that eBird totals are including/excluding these perfectly.
Hooded Crow
The June 2011 bird at Great Kills Park on Staten Island was probably ship-assisted but otherwise a naturally occurring wild bird from the Palearctic. It seems to be coded as "provisional" in eBird, which is reasonable, but note that this means it sums in Ebird totals, even though the record has not been accepted by NYSARC and it therefore should not be included on lists submitted to NYSOA. Confusingly, even though Hooded Crow is marked as provisional on individual checklists, the species appears on eBird's all-time NYS list without any qualification:
This is in contrasts to European Goldfinch, which appears below the main series of species and is clearly marked "provisional."
European Goldfinch
Although formerly established in southwestern Long Island, those populations are regarded by NYSARC as extirpated, and the species should only be reported on a list to NYSOA if it is based on a record from the Massapequa/Bablyon area during the period ca. 1910-1960. The low but steady occurrence of this species in Region 10 since 1960, which has increased in the past decade, has been consistently much greater than those of other non-native finches popular among aviculturists, raising the possibility of re-establishment—or even possibly persistence throughout the whole period. Thus, the species is treated as "provisional" in eBird, for instance in Brooklyn. When aligning one's own records with eBird totals, it is important to note that European Goldfinches eBirded from Brooklyn will count towards one's King's and New York State lists, and that these lists must be adjusted before reporting to NYSOA. On the other hand, the species is deemed exotic (not provisional) in Suffolk, so records from there will not be summed in eBird totals.
Shai Mitra
Bay Shore
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From: <bounce-128644851-11143133...> <bounce-128644851-11143133...> on behalf of Carena <warblette...>
Sent: Saturday, March 1, 2025 6:02 PM
To: <nysbirds-l...> <nysbirds-l...>
Subject: [nysbirds-l] TODAY IS THE DAY!!! County Listing Final Reminder
* This email originates from a sender outside of CUNY. Verify the sender before replying or clicking on links and attachments. *
Hello again, fine feathered listers!
Today is the deadline for your 2024 NYSOA State and County Listing
report! If you are really struggling to get those numbers in, please
drop me a line (<carena...> AND <warblette...>) and let me
know so we can figure something out. Sometimes life gets in the way,
and I want to include you if at all possible.
ALSO, if you submitted your report already but did NOT get an email
"thank you" note from me, please let me know so I can make sure your
data was captured on the server.
Thank you to all participants! I'm looking forward to getting the big
compile going and done with! It's one of those jobs I really enjoy,
and I know you all enjoy seeing the results too!
Carena / NYSOA
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Carena <warblette...>
Date: Fri, Feb 21, 2025 at 6:12 PM
Subject: PSSSST! State & County Listing DEADLINE is Saturday, March 1st!
To: <nysbirds-l...>
Hey Listers!
If you want to get your numbers into the 2024 report, don’t miss the
March 1 deadline (ONE WEEK FROM TOMORROW!!!).
In case it is not possible for you to enter your data online, there is
also a link at the top of that page for the printable form you can
send me via snail mail.
If you choose this option, PLEASE MAIL PAPER BY WEDNESDAY, 2/26.
As always, keep in mind that species not yet on NYSOA’s official NYS
Checklist of the Birds of New York State should not be included in
your counts.
Quick reminder -- no reports submitted in previous years are
automatically carried into the next. If you want to be listed in the
2024 compilation, you must submit your numbers, even if they haven’t
changed since the last report you sent in.
Background and details are below my signature.
Please also renew your NYSOA membership if you have not yet done
so....thank you!
Carena Pooth / NYSOA
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BACKGROUND & DETAILS
NYSOA’s County and State Listing Project is a fun, friendly
competition. Started in 1992, it continues to attract new participants
every year. Some of our first county listers have not missed a single
year since the beginning (watch out, you might get hooked!). Here’s
how it works:
After the close of each calendar year, participants send in as many of
the following as they wish to share: their LIFE list totals for all
of NYS, the 10 Kingbird regions, the 62 counties, and the PELAGIC ZONE
(PZ).
In addition, we have one YEAR LIST category – for the entire state -
and a SELF-FOUND list category (the number of species you found in
2024 without being alerted to them by others or by eBird alerts -- or
by any other bird alert systems.
