Rare birds

[Dr. John]

Just came back from a trip to California. Although we did not specifically focus on birding, we did manage to see 3 California condors in one day on the Big Sur coast. This was a real thrill, given their rarity in the wild. I'm curious to hear about other people experiences of seeing rare birds i.e. very few in the wild anywhere. The other similar thrill we had was seeing nene in Hawaii a few years back.

-John

[Kin Lau]

Very cool. Big Sur is a great place to visit.

Haven't had the luck to see something that rare yet.

My rarest birds so far are the Long-billed Curlew, Hudsonian Godwit and Piping Plover.

We did see a few birds in Jamaica that are only in Jamaica, such as the Streamer tail and Jamaican Owl.

[Leslie Kinrys]

Back in Spring 2005, we visited the Grand Canyon. Now there is a WOW place to visit. I went hoping to see the Condors, which hang around there. We saw three flying over the canyon! We didn't want to leave and the tour guide had to come looking for us or we'd have missed the bus back.

This past November, we visited Aransas Wildlife Refuge in Texas. The goal was to see a Whooping Crane. We went to the observation tower and saw two way off in the distance. I thought I'd have to be happy with that, but later on the driving loop, we saw a lone bird 150 yards from the road. We sat in the car and enjoyed the view.

[Halton Hills]

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When I was doing some work in Borneo, I was fortunate enough to observe a Blue-banded Kingfisher on a couple of occasions.

A trip and a bird I won't soon forget.......the heat was staggering ......   :shock:

P.S.  My wife is a "Rare Bird" .......though I get to see her daily ......  

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[Dr. John]

Thanks for the replies. Would love to see whooping cranes one day. I don't even know what's rare in other areas of the world but neat that people have been spotting rarities elsewhere.

-John

[GStuart]

Well, I saw a "rarity" in the Wet Woods of the Leslie St. Spit on Saturday, but I don't think I can count it.

Just before the wettest part, picking at some dandelions was a European Goldfinch.  But not the "standard" kind... the Asian kind (the so-called Grey-headed Goldfinch).  I don't think there are any legitimate records for Toronto for a European Goldfinch, and I'm not going to bother submitting this one as it, too, is likely an escapee.

[AaronAaron]

The 3 best Toronto sightings of birds I've had were as follows, Oct 1988  3 sandhill cranes, two adults and their juvenile, landed in Humber Marsh evening of Oct 27 1988, gone next morning, Atlantic Gannet seen off Humber Bay west in Nov 1989 and Heerman's gull in winter of 1998.

         The rarest bird I have ever seen in my life was back when I was 17, footloose in India, I was south of Delhi in a park called. Keoladeo, there were many waterfowl and hundreds of demoiselle cranes, among them were three white cranes which to my untrained eyes looked like huge white ibises, an Indian gentleman explained to me that these were Siberian cranes which migrated down from central Siberia. This was in 1980 I have never been to India since, read in a recent article that the population of Siberian cranes which wintered in India has since been extirpated, no birds have been seen there since 2002. I realized later how lucky I was to see them.
         I'd like to hear more of other peoples rare sightings, esp if from a long time ago.
              Aaron

[mr.sharp-photo]

the resplendant quetzal in Monteverde, Costa Rica.
took some incredible pictures of it.
my fiancee took a picture of it regurgitating an avocado pit.