Top 20 favourite birds you’ve seen & top 15 birds you want to see.

List:

Your top 20 favourite birds you’ve seen in the wild in your home country/sovereign nation

and

Your top 15 birds you want to see in the wild in your home country/sovereign nation.


Rules:

• You must have seen them in the wild, not in captivity.
• You must have seen them with your own eyes (seeing them through a camera lens or binoculars is also accepted). Merely hearing them does not count.
• You must have seen them in what you consider your home country/sovereign nation.
• All birds listed must be residents of, or visitors to, your home country/sovereign nation.
• The American states of Alaska and Hawaii are to be treated as separate to the US for the purpose of this thread.
• Any overseas territories of any country/sovereign nation must be treated as separate.
• Associated states and autonomous regions of any country/sovereign nation must be treated as separate except if they border one another.
• The three Crown dependencies count as part of the UK for the purpose of this thread.
• You can list the birds, in either list, in no particular order or rank them if you wish.
• They can be rare or common, it doesn’t matter.
• They can be birds you see regularly or have only ever seen once.
• You can explain why you have chosen a particular bird in either list if you wish.
• Please stick to listing a maximum of your 20 favourite birds you’ve seen and a maximum of 15 you want to see. These are not intended to be lists of every bird you’ve ever seen and every single bird you want to see. You can list less than these numbers if you wish.

I’ll start…


My home country/sovereign nation: United Kingdom.


My top 20 favourite resident or visiting birds that I’ve seen in the wild in my home country/sovereign nation…

(in no particular order)

1. Pied wagtail **
2. Nuthatch **
3. Treecreeper *
4. Kestrel **
5. Buzzard **
6. Little owl *
7. Cormorant ***
8. Grey wagtail **
9. Blue tit ***
10. Wren **
11. Collard dove **
12. Swift ***
13. Blackbird ***
14. Bullfinch **
15. Pied flycatcher *
16. Great spotted woodpecker *
17. Long-tailed tit ***
18. Wheatear *
19. Kingfisher **
20. Peregrine falcon *

*** = birds I see regularly.

** = birds I see occasionally.

* = birds I see rarely or have only seen once.



My top 15 resident or visiting birds that I want to see in the wild in my home country/sovereign nation…

(in no particular order)

1. Barn owl.
2. Long-eared owl.
3. Lesser spotted woodpecker.
4. Crested tit.
5. Firecrest
6. Bittern.
7. Osprey.
8. Bearded tit.
9. Golden eagle.
10. Dipper.
11. Montagu's harrier.
12. Capercaillie.
13. Nightjar.
14. Tawny owl.
15. Snow bunting.

 

As a UK birder I’ve seen everything on your list; here on Wirral today you could have seen 8 snow buntings, a Firecrest and a bittern (and the first and last are basically guaranteed!)

 

Wirral sounds like the place to be. Where did you see the bittern? - I didn't think Wirral had any large reedbeds.

 

I didn’t see it today, but nightly it is flying in to roost in Neston Reed Bed, visible from the south end of Parkgate promenade.

 

Alright, I hope I'm following all the rules correctly on this.


20 favorites that I've seen in the wild?

By taxonomic order,
1. Canada goose- I have two geese friends that I call Clackers and Chappers, they follow me throughout the states! (Not really, But I like to think they do).

2. Trumpeter swan- I've seen these before in Minnesota, just not frequently. Last week I got to see a mob of very tame wild swans at a park, It was a wonderful experience.

3. Northern Bobwhite- Saw these very cute birds on the side of a road while camping in Pennsylvania. (When I still lived there)

4. Wild Turkey- I was happy to see a family and their chicks at a park months back before Quarantine.

5. Rock Pigeon- I think their plumage is quite beautiful, I loves me Some City pigeons! Seen these pretty much everywhere in all the Cities I've been too.

7. Common Loon- A stunningly beautiful species, I kayaked while following one briefly last year.

8. Green heron-One of my favorite heron species to date, and my favorite as a child! Luckily a Specific bird-watching area near me has lots of these clumped together in the summertime!

9. Great Blue heron- Another heron, My friends like this species too so Its nice to see one while taking a bike ride.

10. Golden Eagle- An awesome experience to see one, always.

11. Great Horned owl- My Grandparents have one in their yard, and I go outside and see it flying in and out all the time!

12. Great Gray Owl- I love owls by the way, and there are some here in MN, so I was happy to see one a couple years ago in the Fall.

13. Red-Breasted Sapsucker- Only seen this Bird once in the wild, But I was really happy to see one in Washington, since it never really seemed scare of me when I approached one.

14. Pileated Woodpecker- I love piciformes A lot. And this one is really large in person!

15. Peregrine falcon- Awesome!!!

16. Woodhouse's Scrub jay- Saw this one briefly before It flew away in Idaho, But it counts!

17. House Wren- A tough little guy, I really like the Cheeriness of them even though they may be a little plain-looking.

18. European Starling- The Main form of awe and Entertainment on the School playground, I love seeing mobs of these guys whenever I can!

19. House finch- Despite their very common population, they have actually a pretty ornate array of feathers that can be appreciated by watching them long enough

20. Northern Cardinal- One of the Prettiest birds in my area

And for ones that I want to see,

Any of them.
I love seeing new species, and to me having one goal to see one specific species isn't my main goal when I go outside every morning, its whatever I see and whenever I see it, and Mainly my happy experiences with animals happen out of luck or accident, something determination can't work towards when You die to see a bald Eagle, You just find one!
So yeah, I would like to see anything else if I have the chance!

 

Nice list @CheeseChameleon2007 . Just remember to state your home country/sovereign nation that the birds in your list are all from (presumably the USA)

 

U.S.A. Then, (obviously).
The Emporium of Cheese is in the U.S. (Or at least I perceive it to be)

 

Home Country: Australia

No particular order of some of my favourites.

1) Crested Shrike-tit, Falcunculus frontatus, a very unique and beautiful bird I saw last year for the first time very unexpectedly feeding in the undergrowth. I haven’t seen one since but I loved the parrot-like bill and bold colouration.


2) Wompoo Fruit-dove, Ptilinopus magnificus, these big beautiful birds seem to be common enough in the right conditions (tall fig trees). I will never forget the first time I saw one in flight as the sunlight hit its vivid green colouration. Marvellous creatures.


3) Forest Kingfisher, Todiramphus macleayii, I am really quite fond of kingfishers and one of my favourite memories was seeing a forest kingfisher only a metre away from me perching near a small body of water. Most kingfishers bolt as soon as they see humans but this one stuck around for a while.


4) Red-backed Fairywren,Malurus melanocephalus, I tried to select only one of the fairy-wrens for my list and it was a juggle between Variegated and Red-backed but I selected Red-backed as the black and red colouration of the males is just so striking. Fortunately fairy-wrens are generally very vocal and usually bold birds so they easy enough to find.


5) White-cheeked Honeyeater,Phylidonyris niger, a really nice honeyeater with gorgeous markings. The only place I have ever seen a wild one was at Australia Zoo feasting on some bottlebrush in a koala enclosure.


6) Green Catbird, Ailuroedus crassirostris , awesome-looking bird with an even cooler call. I have seen it only once but have heard them many times in some of the local subtropical rainforests.


8) Pacific Baza,Aviceda subcristata, I have seen this species several times but I love the barred markings. I have fond memories of watching one devour a stick insect as they form a large part of their diet.


9) Torresian Kingfisher,Todiramphus sordidus, I can’t keep my list to only one kingfisher species. Torresian Kingfishers are mangrove specialists and seem to be pretty easy to find in this habitat. They have a really sharp and penetrating call so I usually just follow the sound.


10) Eastern Yellow Robin,Eopsaltria australis, these birds are really common in most regional areas and in the forest fringes of Brisbane but they are still a classic bushland bird I never get tired of seeing.


11) Scarlet Honeyeater,Myzomela sanguinolenta, another relatively common bird but a stunning one at that. I especially love seeing them in the height of spring feasting on flowering bushes in large groups.


12) Striated Pardalote, Pardalotus striatus, I like pardalotes a lot but I rarely seem them. One of those species you hear a lot more than you see.


13) Eastern Whipbird,Psophodes olivaceus, this species produces one of the classic calls of the Australian bushland. I always love seeing these mainly ground-dwelling birds.


14) Spectacled Monarch,Symposiachrus trivirgatus , a nice looking bird, love the mask and the orange colouration.


15) White-bellied Sea Eagle,Haliaeetus leucogaster, an impressive species especially when flying down to the water to catch prey. I haven’t got a good photo of a wild one unfortunately.

16) Red-browed Finch,Neochmia temporalis, my favourite Australian estrildid finch. I am glad they are relatively common to find. Their colouration isn’t as showy as other similar species but I like the strong red brow and the olive yellow/grey colouration. Just a nice complement of colours.


17) Channel-billed Cuckoo,Scythrops novaehollandiae , common birds with a very harsh call. A pair are currently living in the neighbourhood and they begin their squawking at 5am every day. I find their call quite pleasant (I seem to be in the minority about that though) and they are closest birds that look like a hornbill in Australia.


18) White-necked Heron,Ardea pacifica, really cool birds that are a bit bigger that the more common White-faced Heron. They don’t seem to be in captivity (?) but they are very striking animals. I haven’t got a photo of one unfortunately.

19) Nankeen Night Heron,Nycticorax caledonicus , these are relatively common birds in the right conditions but I really like them. A lovely set of white head plumes in breeding plumage as well.


20) Whistling Kite,Haliastur sphenurus , my list wouldn’t be complete without this species. A kite with a very distinctive and evocative call that I have always had a soft spot for. I don’t have any good photos of any of the ones I have seen in the wild (surprisingly).

Honourable mentions: Azure Kingfisher, Varied Triller, Mangrove Honeyeater, Eastern Spinebill

Birds I want to see:
I will stick to birds I want to see in my local area (south-east Queensland) as if I list other Australian birds my list would be too difficult to keep short. I came up with 10 main species but I would be happy to see any new species. None of them should be particularly hard to see I just have to be in the right spot at the right time (e.g. Lamington National Park, Mt Glorious or one of the rainforests in the Sunshine Coast).

1) Paradise Riflebird, Ptiloris paradiseus
2) Rose-crowned Fruit Dove, Ptilinopus regina
3) Black-necked Stork, Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus
4) Regent Bowerbird, Sericulus chrysocephalus
5) Topknot Pigeon, Lopholaimus antarcticus
6) Noisy Pitta, Pitta versicolor
7) Comb-crested Jacana, Irediparra gallinacea, this one is particularly frustrating because I have certainly been in the right habitat for them
8) Australian Owlet-nightjar Aegotheles cristatus
9) Mistletoebird Dicaeum hirundinaceum
10) Red-necked Avocet Recurvirostra novaehollandiae

 

I can give you reliable locations in South East Queensland for many of the birds on your wanted list. I know we have private messaged in the past about this but if you would like I can send you locations for many of the birds.

Also where did you see your Eastern Spinebill? That’s a bird I really want to see.

 

Sounds good. I saw the Eastern Spinebills at a Gold Coast (Coomera) train station would you believe it! There was a small group of them getting nectar from a few of the Grevillea plants opposite the main platform. Only time I have ever seen this species.

 

This was pretty fun, as I got to explore which birds really were my favorites after a massive year of local birding in 2020. In no particular order these are my favorite species I have seen in the United States. Some like the catbird or bald eagle are rather common, although they are just personal favorites. Others like the RCW and storm petrel are rarities where I just happened to be right place at the right time.

1. Red-Cockaded Woodpecker
2. Black Skimmer
3. Wilson's Storm Petrel
4. American Three-Toed Woodpecker
5. Pine Grosbeak
6. Tundra Swan
7. Greater Roadrunner
8. Peregrine Falcon
10. American Woodcock
11. Anhinga
12. Bachman's Sparrow
13. Prothonotary Warbler
14. Burrowing Owl
15. Ringed Kingfisher
16. Gray Catbird
17. Bald Eagle
18. Piping Plover

Now for birds I want to see. Many of these species were goals for 2020, although that didn't work out. Living in Texas now some of these species will be easier, while others not so much

1. Lesser-Prairie Chicken
2. Whooping Crane
3. Green Jay
4. Roseate Spoonbill
5. Atlantic Puffin
6. Surf Scoter
7. White-Tailed Ptarmigan
8. California Condor
9. Merlin
10. Snowy Owl
11. Vermilion Flycatcher
12. Kentucky Warbler
13. Painted Bunting
14. Cerulean Warbler
15. American Dipper

 

I forgot my top target species of 2021 That being the golden-cheeked warbler, the only bird to breed exclusively in Texas. Gonna go out as many days as it takes to hear its song. Black-capped vireo are found at many of the same sights as well.

 

Golden-cheeks are beautiful species for sure!

 

I feel like the home country rule is a bit of a weird one, but here goes... Many of mine will be (very) rare vagrants, not because those are inherently better-looking or more interesting, but because you spend so much time hyping them up, thinking you'll never get to see one, and then when you do finally get one in your binoculars the sheer excitement is incredible.

1) Brown shrike, Lanius cristatus
Very rare vagrant (1st) in Belgium, beautiful adult male of the subspecies lucionensis which only has a few European records. Absolutely one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen here.

2) Dusky thrush, Turdus eunomus
Very rare vagrant (2nd) in Belgium, really good-looking adult female in one of the nicest nature reserves in the country. Rare thrushes are fantastic, and this is one of the best!

3) Eurasian wryneck, Jynx torquilla
Scarce migrant in Belgium. One of my favourite birds overall, very good looking and very unique. I try to see these at least once a year because they're just so incredible!

4) Black woodpecker, Dryocopus martius
Uncommon in Belgium. Woodpeckers are the best birds, but the big ones are definitely some of the most magical to suddenly see clinging onto a distant tree.

5) Pallas' leaf warbler, Phylloscopus proregulus
Scarce migrant in Belgium. Might be a weird choice, but they just incapsulate my love for small passerines (especially leaf warblers!) perfectly - great looks, and really hard to find!

6) Little swift, Apus affinis
Very rare vagrant (1st) in Belgium, and one I was never expecting to be able to see. A swift hanging around for over an hour, amazing! Very cute, as well, and bizarre to see in November.

7) Wallcreeper, Tichodroma muraria
Rare vagrant (14th) in Belgium. There's just absolutely nothing in the world remotely like this species, and seeing this extremely cool mountainous bird in the Ardennes is still just so crazy!

8) European roller, Coracias garrulus
Rare vagrant (28th) in Belgium. One of the most colourful European birds. Refinding this bird after its presumed departure was a thrill, and many others enjoyed it after!

9) Isabelline shrike, Lanius isabellinus (/phoenicuroides)
Rare vagrant (7th) in Belgium. Overall a superb bird that gave amazing views, and even though I can't count it because juveniles are technically unidentifiable, one of the best I've seen.

10) Woodchat shrike, Lanius senator
Annual vagrant in Belgium. Third shrike on the list, don't care! One of the best-looking shrikes overall and the first rare shrike I saw here, so I couldn't leave it out of Top 10!

11) Black grouse, Lyrurus tetrix
Rare resident in Belgium. Would have been in the Top 10 if I had better views, but seeing these at dusk in one of the most incredible places in the country... Wow!

12) Dark-eyed junco, Junco hyemalis
Very rare vagrant (1st) in Belgium. American passerines are definitely something special, and all three I've seen make the list. This was my first of the three, and probably the best-looking.

13) White-throated sparrow, Zonotrichia albicollis
Very rare vagrant (2nd) in Belgium. Completely unexpected bird, showed up at a Siberian rubythroat I was just twitching! Did get the sparrow, not the rubythroat unfortunately...

14) Red-eyed vireo, Vireo olivaceus
Very rare vagrant (2nd) in Belgium. Everything about vireos taxonomically screams 'American bird', even more so than the previous two, and that's just so weird to see in mainland Europe!

15) Pallas' grasshopper warbler, Helopsaltes certhiola
Very rare vagrant (1st) in Belgium. First bird I ever left class for (I waited until the break, I promise!), that started the weekend in which I also got Red-eyed vireo and Isabelline shrike.

16) Desert wheatear, Oenanthe deserti
Rare vagrant (7th) in Belgium. My first ever real twitch, and the first very rare bird I had to look for all by myself with limited location info. Seeing it probably started my entire twitching career.

17) Rosy starling, Pastor roseus
Annual vagrant in Belgium. I had no idea most of the birds on this list showed up in Belgium before I birded, but unlike many others I did know these well from in zoos. Very attractive birds!

18) Leach's storm-petrel, Oceanodroma leucorhoa
Scarce migrant in Belgium. Seawatching is a very fun aspect of birding, and unfortunately something very situational that I don't get to do often. Leach's' water-trappling is adorable!

19) Middle spotted woodpecker, Dendrocoptes medius
Uncommon in Belgium. After 3 shrikes and 3 American passerines, woodpeckers join the birds with three representatives, because I just love seeing these!

20) Ring ouzel, Turdus torquatus
Uncommon in Belgium. Just really, really good-looking birds that I don't see nearly as often as I want to, which is a shame because they're incredible.

-

My list of most-wanted species... Well, there's obviously some insanely rare stuff I'd love putting on here that are unrealistic to expect ever making it to Belgium in the first place... I'll limit myself to annual vagrants (or more common stuff). The first 10 are the 10 easiest lifers I can still get here (none of them easy at all, all of these are rare migrants/residents, or annual vagrants), the last 5 are birds I've seen elsewhere but I'd love to get in Belgium as well.

1) Red-flanked bluetail, Tarsiger cyanus
2) Tengmalm's owl, Aegolius funereus
3) Balearic shearwater, Puffinus mauretanicus
4) Little auk, Alle alle
5) Long-tailed jaeger, Stercorarius longicaudus
6) Sabine's gull, Xema sabini
7) Pallid swift, Apus pallidus
8) Great snipe, Gallinago media
9) Red-footed falcon, Falco vespertinus
10) Ortolan bunting, Emberiza hortulana
11) European bee-eater, Merops apiaster
12) Grey-headed woodpecker, Picus canus
13) Atlantic puffin, Fratercula arctica
14) Short-toed snake-eagle, Circaetus gallicus
15) Griffon vulture, Gyps fulvus

 

Home country: USA

Top 20 birds I’ve seen (in no particular order):

1. Roseate spoonbill
2. Sandhill crane
3. California condor
4. Swallow-tailed kite
5. Glossy ibis
6. Bald eagle
7. Cedar waxwing
8. Wood duck
9. Osprey
10. Great blue heron
11. Little blue heron
12. Pileated woodpecker
13. Black-crowned night heron
14. Limpkin
15. Killdeer
16. Common raven
17. Purple gallinule
18. Snowy egret
19. Least bittern
20. Brown pelican

Top 15 birds I’d like to see (in no particular order):

1. Whooping crane
2. Golden eagle
3. Scissor-tailed flycatcher
4. Fulvous whistling duck
5. American flamingo
6. Painted bunting
7. Sage grouse
8. Common loon
9. Trumpeter swan
10. Great horned owl
11. Harlequin duck
12. Loggerhead shrike
13. Steller’s jay
14. Northern gannet
15. Peregrine falcon

 

This is a very interesting concept so I thought I'd try to do it myself. I have to say that ranking between hundreds of very good birds is a hard task but I tried. I will only consider species I've seen in my home country, namely Morocco.

Out of the 196 species I have seen to date in Morocco, this would be my top 20 of them today (though I'm pretty sure the list changes each day as it's a hard thing to make):

1 - Brown booby - (Sula leucogaster) - vagrant
Seawatching with one of the best birders in Morocco back in October 2020 (probably my best month birding by far), was a really fun experience as it was my first time seawatching and thus my first time seeing a lot of really cool species I dreamt of seeing (my first jaegers, scoters, phalaropes and my first shearwaters in Morocco etc...). The best of it all though, by far, was when my friend noticed a weird Sulidae species flying in the distance with a few Northern gannets that looked good for a Brown booby! Brown boobies are a very scarce species only occasionally seen during pelagics or seawatching in migration, proof being this would only be Morocco's 6th record of the species ever if accepted by the Moroccan rarities committee.

2 - Laughing gull - (Leucophaeus atricilla) - vagrant
When the 7th Laughing gull for Morocco was reported about 3h from my hometown in February 2020 while I was away in Spain, I deemed that my chances of seeing it were scarce as it would probably be gone by the time I came back. It was even more unlikely considering that nobody was willing to pick me up to go there which meant that a month after it was reported I still hadn't tried for it. The 8th of March, however, I decided that I would still try for it even if my chances were low because you never know what could happen first of all and also because Essaouira, where it was reported, has a lot more to it than just this vagrant. I first checked the river estuary by the entrance of the city where there were a lot of gulls but not the one I seeked for until moving to the city harbour, where it was originally reported: once again hundreds of gulls but not Laughing gull so I gave up on it. Low and behold, on my way back to the car, it was standing near some Yellow-legged gulls and gave perfect views!

Laughing gull - (Port d'Essaouira) by Mehdi posted 9 Mar 2020 at 12:40 AM

3 - Common loon - (Gavia immer) - vagrant
My first ever successful (or at least countable) twitch! The 16th record for Morocco and once again I really thought my chances of getting were slim, even if I tried to twitch only one day after it was reported. A great bird which I could observer for some good minutes preening itself and diving, and obviously my first loon (as all loon species are vagrants in Morocco).

Common loon - (Champs d'Aghorimze) by Mehdi posted 10 Jan 2021 at 2:59 PM

4 - Cream-coloured courser - (Cursorius cursor) - native
Probably one of my favourite species that I've seen if not my favourite (just down in the ranking because it's not a rare species compared to the four above). Just an absolutely amazingly beautiful bird that I've sadly only seen once (hoping to fix that this year!).

5 - Black-crowned tchagra - (Tchagra senegalus) - native
Another amazing species that I'm blessed to see rather often and which always gives great looks even if it can be hard to see at first.

Black-crowned tchagra - (Issen) by Mehdi posted 10 Jan 2021 at 2:59 PM

6 - Red-necked nightjar - (Caprimulgus ruficollis) - native
Nightjars are just special birds so I was very happy to see my first one a few months ago. This one gave rather good views too, showing us how weird their flight is.

7 - Eurasian wryneck - (Jynx torquilla) - native
A species I've only seen twice (and the same year at that) but what a species! Definitely one of the most unique I've ever seen.

8 - Fulvous babbler - (Argya fulva) - native
A very vocal species that is nearly always in small groups. I just love the way they jump on the ground. Our only species of laughingthrush too, which is a fantastic family of birds.

9 - Great spotted cuckoo - (Clamator glandarius) - native
A colorful species and one of the few where the juveniles look, in my opinion, much better than the adults. As with all cuckoos, their brood parasitism behaviour is also very intriguing.

10 - Rufous-tailed scrub-robin - (Cercotrichas galactotes) - native
Another really nice looking passerine, especially the males and their reddish tails that they flick often. One of the species that mark the arrival of spring as well.

Rufous-tailed scrub-robin - (Issen) by Mehdi posted 10 Jan 2021 at 3:22 PM

11 - Maghreb magpie - (Pica mauretanica) - native
One of the most common species here but also one of my favourite, these very active birds differ from their European counterparts notably by their patch of blue skin behind their eyes, which adds a nice touch of colour to an already great genus.

Maghreb magpie - (Embouchure de l'Oued Souss) by Mehdi posted 10 Jan 2021 at 4:04 PM

12 - Moussier's redstart - (Phoenicurus moussieri) - native
The males of this species are simply some of the smartest birds there are. The females are really cute too! I'm always happy to see this common species in any case.

Moussier's redstart - (Champs d'Aghorimze) by Mehdi posted 10 Jan 2021 at 2:59 PM

13 - Eleonora's falcon - (Falco eleonorae) - native
A species I've seen a few times now and by far my favourite species of falcon I've seen. Rather rare, gorgeous (especially the all dark form), mostly found in one of my favourite cities (Essaouira), it ticks all the boxes.

14 - Bonelli's eagle - (Aquila fasciata) - native
A really large raptor which I see quite often at my local spot. They're nearly always in flight and as such taking pictures of them is tricky but they sometimes can give great view:

Bonelli's eagle - (Forêt d'El Mzar) by Mehdi posted 23 Jul 2020 at 9:39 PM

15 - Northern bald ibis - (Geronticus eremita) - rare native
Northern bald ibises, unlike what people may think, are super easy to see if in the right place. Nonetheless, it is always a pleasure to see these peculiar animals, especially knowing that Morocco has played a huge part in their conservation.

Northern bald ibis - (Estuaire de l'Oued Massa) by Mehdi posted 10 Jan 2021 at 4:45 PM

16 - Red crossbill - Loxia curvirostra - native
A mountain endemic (except in winter sometimes where in irruption years they get to the lowlands to find food), I've only seen this species once, about three weeks ago actually. A really nice species of which the local taxon (ssp. poliogyna) might be split in the near future.

17 - Black stork - Ciconia nigra - native
An unexpected find while birding at Tamri one day, a few juvenile black storks were one of my best finds in 2018. A really nice species that is quite hard to see in Morocco, especially where I live.

18 - Marbled teal - Marmaronetta anguirostris - native
For a very, very long time, my nemesis species: I tried to see this globally rare duck (but actually quite common in Morocco) for four years, to no avail until I got mediocre views, twice, of some of them in July and August 2020.

19 - House bunting - Emberiza sahari - native
This species could honestly be much higher on my ranking seeing how much I love them. They're the epitome of cuteness in Moroccan birding and make great sounds. I'm really happy to see them nearly daily.

20 - West African crested tern - Thalasseus albididorsalis - native
This place could've honestly gone to many other species but I finally decided to choose this one. Terns are some of my favourite birds and one of my favourite species of terns is this one: a recent split of Royal tern, they're the second largest tern in Morocco behind Caspian and are also one of the harder ones to see, so I was happy to see one of them at my local spot last year!

Honorable mention (yes I'm cheating a little):

# - Steppe grey shrike - (Lanius excubitor pallidirostris) - vagrant
My only true rare find to this day, I noticed a really pale and unusual great grey shrike while birding at my local spot last October which I thought could've been something interesting (Steppe grey shrike did come to my mind but I always try to measure my expectations when I see something weird) and indeed, according to some of the best birders in the country, it does look like one! I have now sent a report to the Moroccan rare bird committee about this bird, which would become the first record for the country ever if accepted (though chances of it being accepted are honestly not so high). This isn't in my ranking however because as of now, it's only a subspecies and also because I didn't get sheer excitement from it on the field, not knowing what it is until I analyzed pictures (and also because it might end up being rejected by the rarities committee anyway).

As for the species I want to see most here, this is once again a really really difficult task, but I came up with this top 15 nonetheless:

1 - Marsh owl
2 - Houbara bustard
3 - Golden nightjar
4 - Greater hoopoe-lark
5 - Little crake (a crake species in general)
6 - Andalusian buttonquail
7 - Sudan golden sparrow
8 - Namaqua dove
9 - Lichtenstein's sandgrouse (a sandgrouse species in general)
10 - Levaillant's woodpecker
11 - Blue-cheeked bee-eater
12 - Bearded vulture
13 - Double-spurred francolin
14 - Desert warbler
15 - Streaked scrub-warbler

 

Hmmm this seems fun

I've seen close to 370 bird species in my home state of Victoria, Australia. While I am a twitcher and do love vagrants/rarities, my top 10 favourite birds aren't all rare. Some of them are just species I've had the best experiences with or find the most beautiful. They are in no particular order...

Satin Bowerbird
Ignoring rarity, bowerbirds are absolutely my favourite birds. They're incredibly charismatic and vocal and quite beautiful as well with their striking purple eyes. Probably best known for their bower-building and decorating behaviours, one of the things that interests me most about bowerbirds is their mimicry. When displaying, they dance around and mimic with quite an impressive vocabulary. Unlike the better-known lyrebird which belts out the calls of every other species in the bush, bowerbirds are much more subtle. They tend to mimic birds at the same volume as they hear them... So, when you listen to a bowerbird from close range, you can hear them whispering a kookaburra laugh or you could hear them performing a perfect mimic of three or four cockatoos calling at once while flying overhead.

Apostlebird
Another bird I love for its hilarious behaviours, Apostlebirds are one that initially doesn't seem like much from photos, being grey birds with no interesting patterns or colours. However, I have rarely been more entertained by birds than when watching families of apostlebirds roam around the campgrounds of Hattah-Kulkyne National Park. These birds are so insanely playful and curious - you can tell that they believe they own the campgrounds. When you're camping, you really have to make sure they don't get into your tent when you're not watching.

Striated Grasswren
Once you've had good views of a grasswren, you'd be crazy not to include it on a list of favourite birds! This genus is one of the most highly sought-after groups of birds in Australia because of the fact that every species has a fairly restricted range in a remote part of the country and the fact that even within their range they are incredibly hard to detect because of their skulky behaviour. The typical view of a grasswren is of a rodent-like bird running away in the distance with its tail sticking out behind it, but I've been lucky enough to have excellent views of a striated grasswren at my feet just metres away. When you get views like that, you can really appreciate their striking plumage and quirky movements!

Mallee Emuwren
I've seen mallee emuwrens a few times now but you just can't go past these tiny birds with their extravagantly long tails, which resemble the feathers of an emu. An Endangered species which is now Victoria's only endemic bird species (they were historically found in South Australia), these guys are also one of the smallest birds in Australia at just 4 grams. Walking around big patches of Triodia spinifex in the mallee, it's always quite exciting to hear their soft contact calls or get a glimpse of one of them flying between the spinifex clumps. I've also found that they're quite accommodating and will often sit up for you once you find them, which makes it fairly easy to admire their beauty.

Eastern Ground Parrot
Prior to seeing this species a few months ago, they were right at the top of my most-wanted list. Following the bushfires this year, most of their habitat in Victoria has disappeared and I thought I might have missed my chance of ever seeing them here. There had been a small number of post-fire records, but birds at most of these spots seemed to have disappeared once grasses stopped seeding. I got the opportunity to do some work in Howe Flat and during this time, we flushed three ground parrots from some unburnt heath! You rarely get good views of this species and even my views were just the back of the bird... But because they are a fairly large (maybe slightly smaller than a rosella), bright green parrot and flush with such an explosiveness, seeing these birds was one of the biggest thrills I've ever had while birding!

Plains-wanderer
One of the weirdest birds in Australia, this species is Critically Endangered and very hard to find. In Victoria, the entire population lives in Terrick-Terrick National Park - a strange park made up of a number of fenced paddocks which are managed by frequent sheep grazing to keep at a length that is suitable for the birds. Even though plains-wanderers are diurnal, to find them you have to spotlight the paddocks at night. Walking around open paddocks for several hours on a cold night is one of the strangest and most testing experiences, but the reward is absolutely worth it! I've put in ~20 hrs of effort searching for this species and have seen them once - a male bird with a couple of tiny chicks!

Pied Honeyeater
You can't have an Australian bird list without a honeyeater. Honestly, it was a little hard to choose a species given there are so many beautiful and interesting honeyeaters that I've seen. In the end, I went with pied because this species is one of the rarest honeyeaters in all of Australia. During a massive influx of dry-country species in Victoria during spring last year, I saw pied honeyeaters at several locations. In one spot where a private property was growing huge numbers of flowering eremophilas, one birder found 50 pied honeyeaters together, which was likely one of the largest counts of this species in the state ever. Being surrounded by a species that is essentially a vagrant to the state (it is recorded maybe once a year on average) was such an incredible birding experience.

Splendid Fairywren
Not a rare bird in the Victorian mallee by any means, but every time I see a male splendid fairywren in breeding plumage I am blown away by how breathtakingly blue they are. Having seen a fair few bright blue birds both in captivity and the wild, I can honestly say nothing compares to a splendid! These little guys look like they glow, especially when standing on the orange sand in their arid habitat. That, combined with the fact that fairywrens are always fun to watch, makes them one of my absolute favourites!

Southern Fulmar
A striking white seabird, the Southern Fulmar makes my list for the experience of twitching them and their rarity. Normally found around Antarctic waters, large numbers of these birds were showing up on the southern coast of Australia in winter last year after heavy storms. I was sea-watching on the last day of southerlies (probably the last chance I had to see them!) near a lighthouse east of Melbourne with seven or eight other birders when one of the birders got a distant fulmar in his scope after about two hours of waiting. Frustratingly, he couldn't get anyone else onto the bird because it was so far away. Fortunately, within half an hour, a second fulmar flew past the coast less than 50m from shore and we all had excellent views... or so we thought! There had been one birder who was watching from the top of a sand dune separate from the rest of the group. Shortly after seeing the second fulmar, a friend and I climbed the dune to talk to him and it was only then that we realised he had been looking too far out through his scope when the bird had flown past. We were pretty devastated for him but luckily at the exact moment he was telling us he'd dipped, I looked out at the sea and pointed out a white seabird flying close to shore... It was a third fulmar!

Ground Cuckooshrike
This species is a rare bird that is almost never twitchable so I really never thought I'd see it in Victoria. Honestly, it's a species that's hard enough to come across in all of Australia. So when a group of birders found a nesting pair during lockdown last year, I was absolutely itching to get out there! After a four month wait, desperately hoping the birds were still around, I went with a few friends to have a look and sure enough there were FIVE cuckooshrikes: two adults and three juveniles. Going back at the start of this year after the adults had nested again, I was fortunate to have excellent views of SEVEN of them together! Seeing a full family of such a beautiful, rare bird is a memory I'll never forget.

Special mentions go to Chestnut Quailthrush and Spotted Quailthrush, which are some of the coolest birds in Australia the first time you see them. Only reasons they missed this list is that they're hard to split and I've now seen both quite a few times!

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As for my top 10 most-wanted, I'm gonna restrict it to Victoria once again... King Penguin is on the list here even though they're extremely unlikely to show up anywhere north of Tasmania. I can always dream though! One of the crested penguins is a far more likely vagrant here and I would love to get the chance to twitch any penguin eventually.

Australian Painted-snipe
Inland Dotterel
Beach Stone-curlew
Sooty Albatross
Regent Honeyeater
Grey Falcon
Black Bittern
Painted Buttonquail
Redthroat
King Penguin