Regardless of what geographical area a birder confines themselves to during a big year, a lot of planning is required. Take Ontario for example, every year roughly 365 birds are spotted in the province. Even with a private jet (no, I don't have one of those) it would be impossible to see every bird. The reason for this is that the province is quite large and you simply can't be in two places at the same time. Also, some rarities are seen in flight on lakewatches never to be refound, or at private residences and reported months after the sighting. So try as hard as you will and there will be misses.
For his 2012 big year, Josh Vandermeulen ranked all 491 species that have been recorded in Ontario from 1-6, with code being common and code 6 being an insane mega rarity. His codes were designed for a birder attempting a serious big year while being based from southern Ontario. The codes have been tweaked a bit (moved a few things from 2 to 3 etc), since some birds have gotten more or less common since his 2012 big year (Neotropic Cormorant for example). Also the provical list now stands at 501, so that is edited as well. Josh's explanation of the codes are great, so I'm going to paste them below.
Code 1 birds include everything from exceedingly abundant (like European Starling) to common (like Stilt Sandpiper, Snow Bunting, or Chestnut-sided Warbler). There are 203 species listed as code 1.
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| Red-breasted Nuthatch (Code 1) |
Code 2 birds are also very common, though they may be a little tough to get. This includes everything from annual winter specialties (like Pine Grosbeak and Snowy Owl) to uncommon breeding birds (like Sedge Wren, Acadian Flycatcher, and Prairie Warbler), to uncommon migrants (Red-necked Phalarope). There are 73 birds listed as Code 2. This makes a total of 276 birds which are Code 1 or 2.
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| Sharp-tailed Grouse (Code 2) |
Code 3 is when it starts to get a little tricky. None of these birds are guaranteed on a big year though, if one is persistent enough one should get nearly all of these species. These include regular spring overshoots (Worm-eating Warbler, Summer Tanager), rare breeding birds (King Rail), some of the owls (Boreal Owl), some of the rare gulls (Black-legged Kittiwake, Pomarine Jaeger), etc. Some species on this list, like Cave Swallows, are common some years but absent other years. There are 46 Code 3 birds.
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| Black Vulture (Code 3) |
Code 4 birds are generally OBRC birds, usually birds that show up 1-5 times annually (like Western Grebe). Some on this list however (like Black-throated Gray Warbler, or Mountain Bluebird) occur less than annually. Basically, all the Code 4 birds are genuine rarities and it can’t be counted on that any of them will show up. There are 40 species which are categorized as Code 4. The “easiest” Code 4 species are probably Laughing Gull, Townsend’s Solitaire, Black-headed Gull, and Kirtland’s Warbler. There are 41 code 4 species.
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| Say's Pheobe (Code 4) |
As expected, Code 5 and 6 birds are the rarest of the rare. Most Code 5 birds on my list have shown up between 5 and 20 times EVER in Ontario (like Gray Kingbird, or Slaty-backed Gull), while others (like Ivory Gull with 29 accepted records) have shown up more often. I placed Ivory Gull as a Code 5 as opposed to Code 4 because if one shows up, the chances of it hanging around long enough for me to see are very small! There are 63 species as listed as Code 5.
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| Barnacle Goose (Code 5) |
Finally, Code 6 birds. These ones have usually been seen less than 10 times in Ontario. Out of the 59 species listed, I’ll be doing really well if I see more than 3 in this category! These include extinct species like Eskimo Curlew, crazy vagrants (Bachman’s Sparrow, Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher), and one-hit wonders (Black-capped Vireo, Audubon’s Shearwater, etc). There are 73 birds listed as code 6.
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| Great Kiskadee (Code 6) |
So to recap there are;
203 Code 1s
73 Code 2s
46 Code 3s
41 Code 4s
63 Code 5s
74 code 6s
.....
As you've read above, there are 276 code 1 and 2 species occur every year and for a successful big year missing even 1 of these birds is not an option. The Boreal Chickadee (code 2) isn't rare provincially, but I could spend 365 birding in southern Ontario and never see one. Appropriately named, Boreal Chickadee is a year round resident of the boreal forest and requires a special trip to see. There are also Upland Sandpipers in grassy fields, Acadian Flycatchers in southern Ontario forests and Black-backed Woodpeckers lurking in northern Ontario forests.. and I can't miss any of these birds.
Timing is also a major factor on a big year. Some birds are only around in the winter, so you have to get them out of the way quickly. Others are breeding species and can be found all summer long, but migrate out of the province in the fall, so seeing them in their "window is essential. Others yet are only migrants here, and may pass through Ontario in a window as short as a few weeks. I'll go on about this more in future posts.
2021 is forecasted to be a Lã Ninã year (click here for the definition of Lã Ninã), which could bode well for an Ontario Big year. What does Lã Nina have to do with birding? Well in general it means a warmer winter, so think overwintering rarities. Also, if it holds until the spring it means more storms and "rarity weather" for the Great Lakes region. I'll do a more in depth blog post on this in the future, but yeah.. could be sweet..
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