LIFE-LIST
A life-list is a fancy term for a list of birds. More specifically, it includes every single species of bird a birdwatcher has ever recorded seeing.
This one's mine.
I'm lucky enough to live in a city with a ton of parks, so I have seen most of these birds at-home in Alberta, Canada, though there are a few I have seen abroad. Some of these I have seen repeatedly and some I have only seen once or twice.
I have also included a short list at the end of non-bird animals I have seen while birdwatching, which isn't typical of life-lists. But this is my website and I do what I want.
Admittedly this list is not organized too well. I've sorted the birds into groups and sub-groups, some of which are generically taxonomic and some of which are more-or-less arbitrary. Hopefully they make enough sense, but if not you can always CTRL+F.
On that note, I do not follow any taxonomy but my own. I use old birdwatching guides from used bookstores (some date back to the 70s) and don't care to follow what rich kids with useless degrees have decided to arbitrartily lump or split or rename for no reason (hello, gray jay who is now Canada jay!) this year. I got better things to do with my time.
So far, I have seen
102
species of birds!WATERFOWL AND WADING-BIRDS
- Mallard Duck
- Wood Duck
- Common Goldeneye
- Bufflehead
- Common Merganser
- Red-Breasted Merganser
- Hooded Merganser
- Lesser Scaup
- American Wigeon
- Northern Pintail
- Blue-Winged Teal
- Northern Shoveler
- Redhead
- Tufted Duck
- Mandarin Duck
- Ruddy Duck
- Canada Goose
- Cackling Goose
- Graylag Goose
- Egyptian Goose
- Mute Swan
- Eared Grebe
- Western Grebe
- Great Crested Grebe
- Red-Necked Grebe
- Common Loon
- American Coot
- Eurasian Coot
- Eurasian Moorhen
- White-Faced Ibis
- Great Blue Heron
- Gray Heron
SEABIRDS
- American White Pelican
- Double-Crested Cormorant
- Great Cormorant
- Common Tern
- Franklin's Gull
- Numerous unidentified seagulls
SHOREBIRDS
- Solitary Sandpiper
- American Avocet
- Killdeer
- Willet
- Black-Necked Stilt
- Greater Yellowlegs
WOODPECKERS AND NUTHATCHES
- Northern Flicker
- Pileated Woodpecker
- Downy Woodpecker
- Red-Bellied Woodpecker
- Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
- Red-Breasted Nuthatch
- White-Breasted Nuthatch
BIRDS-OF-PREY AND VULTURES
- Bald Eagle
- Osprey
- Cooper's Hawk
- Swainson's Hawk
- Red-Tailed Hawk
- Merlin
- Prairie Falcon
- Black Vulture
CORVIDS
- American Crow
- Carrion Crow
- Common Raven
- Black-Billed Magpie
- Eurasian Magpie
- Blue Jay
BLACKBIRDS
- Red-Winged Blackbird
- Yellow-Headed Blackbird
- Brewer's Blackbird
- Brown-Headed Cowbird
- Common Grackle
- Western Meadowlark
SONGBIRDS, SPARROWS, AND THE REST
- House Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Fox Sparrow
- Savannah Sparrow
- Dark-Eyed Junco
- White-Crowned Sparrow
- White-Throated Sparrow
- House Finch
- House Wren
- American Goldfinch
- Yellow Warbler
- American Robin
- Cedar Waxwing
- Eastern Phoebe
- Western Wood-Pewee
- European Starling
- Northern Cardinal
- Eastern Kingbird
- Rose-Ringed Parakeet
- Rock Pigeon
- Mourning Dove
- Wood Pigeon
- Black-Capped Chickadee
- Eurasian Blue Tit
- Golden-Crowned Kinglet
- White Wagtail
- Least Flycatcher
- Tree Swallow
- Bank Swallow
- Cliff Swallow
- Costa's Hummingbird
- Greater Roadrunner
NON-BIRDS
Other animals I've seen while out birdwatching.
- White-Tailed Deer
- Richardson's Ground-Squirrel
- Coyote
- Striped Skunk
- Muskrat
- Raccoon