Have You Seen These Birds?

The Wilson's Snipe has never been missed in the 41 years of the Tucson Valley CBC. Yet some years only one was reported, and the last one reported from with the circle to eBird this year was November 15.

You might notice the newer BirdTrax gadget to the right. These are all the species that people have posted to eBird within the Tucson Valley CBC circle (actually a slightly smaller circle of only 12 km in radius) within the past 12 days.

The 145 species fall a bit short of last year's total of 153 (which was an all-time record by the way!), so I was curious what's missing. What have eBirders not reported that should be in the circle?

I compared last year's CBC list with the eBird list from BirdTrax, and I found 3 categories of birds that have not been eBirded yet.

1. Vagrants from last year that are quite possibly not even in the circle this year. Most of these were staked out, though the ibis (probably a White-faced but seen only in flight by two different teams) was a complete surprise.

American Redstart

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Northern Parula

Ovenbird

Plegadis sp.

Solitary Sandpiper
Yellow-throated Warbler

2. High-elevation species that have a very good chance of being reported by the teams hiking into the Catalina Foothills (one team going all the way to Mount Kimball).

Arizona Woodpecker

Bushtit

Crissal Thrasher

Mexican Jay

Olive Warbler

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Western Scrub-Jay

Whiskered Screech-Owl

Yellow-eyed Junco

3. Those species that aren't exactly rare here but also aren't common. Some vary in numbers greatly from year to year and others are just scarce enough to be overlooked, even by 100 birders combing the Tucson Valley.

HAVE  YOU SEEN THESE? Please eBird if so!

Ash-throated Flycatcher

Brewer's Sparrow

Bronzed Cowbird

Hooded Merganser

Horned Lark

Neotropic Cormorant

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Pine Siskin

Red Crossbill

Redhead

Savannah Sparrow

Western Meadowlark

Wilson's Snipe

Wood Duck

While we don't have any of the vagrants from last year's list staked out, some of them might be found on count day – American Redstart, Northern Parula, and Chestnut-sided Warbler are in particular are good possibilities. Furthermore, we do have some rarities staked out that we also got last year – Common Merganser, Summer Tanager, Wilson's Warbler, Pime Warbler, and Yellow Warbler for example.

And then considering what has been seen lately but missed last year, we might be in for a whopper of a CBC this year!

Barn Swallow

Black Scoter

Burrowing Owl

Common Goldeneye

Fox Sparrow

Golden Eagle

Greater Pewee

Greater White-fronted Goose

Louisiana Waterthrush

Lewis's Woodpecker

Merlin

Red-shouldered Hawk

Ring-billed Gull

Violet-crowned Hummingbird

Western Screech-Owl

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker