Very interesting. I really enjoyed reading this data - thanks very much for
putting it together and sharing it on Birding-Aus Laurie!
Marie
On 22 February 2016 at 21:05, Laurie Knight <>
wrote:
> I’ve been looking at the statistics from the GBBC, which ran from 12-15
> Feb 2016 - http://ebird.org/ebird/gbbc/region/world
>
> So far, 5,456 species were reported via 155,877 checklists. 127,103 of
> those lists came from the United States (a very high turnout). As
> expected, Australia came in 8th position.
>
> Basically, the rankings are
>
> 1. India 735 species, 7,119 checklists
> 2. Mexico 697 species, 978 checklists
> 3. Ecuador 682 species, 122 checklists
> 4. Columbia 666 species, 150 checklists
> 5. USA 663 species, 127,103 checklists
> 6. Costa Rica 612 species, 387 checklists
> 7. Brazil 555 species, 181 checklists
> 8. Australia 529 species, 1,727 checklists
> 9. Panama 479 species, 249 checklists
> 10. Argentina 437 species, 145 checklists
> 11. Thailand 431 species, 86 checklists
> 12. Sth Africa 420 species, 86 checklists
>
> 24. Portugal 201 species, 287 checklists
> 30. NZ 141 species, 276 checklists
>
> 144. Albania 1 species.
>
> The bottom line is that 8 of the top 10 countries were in the Americas -
> the exceptions were India and Australia. The USA had almost wall to wall
> coverage in the lower 48 states. The neotropics are the real top spots -
> Ecuador came in third with 682 species from just 122 checklists (close to
> 5.5 species per checklist).
>
> Australia’s total of 529 species is fairly good given there were limited
> checklists submitted from outback locations (no grasswrens reported, no SW
> WA skulkers, no Cape York species). That is not surprising given that
> February isn’t a good time to be out and about in the outback. There were
> also limited pelagic observations - only a dozen species reported.
>
> New Zealand came in 30th with 141 species - same number observed in South
> Australia. As one might expect, Qld came first in Australia with 337
> species, followed by 272 species from NSW and 267 species from Vic. Tassie
> came in with 106 species.
>
> The top Australian hotspots were the WTP with 108 species, and Gold Scrub
> Lane, Samsonvale (SEQ) with 96 species.
>
> On the individual front, the top birder, Prashant Kumar observed 310
> species from 31 checklists. The threshold for the top 50 in the world was
> 157 species and 138 species for the top 100.
>
> The top Australian observer was Sue Lee who came in 85th with 143
> species. The threshold for the top 50 was 74 species, eminently doable,
> given that I cracked it, and 58 species for the top 100.
>
> Looking ahead, it is quite conceivable that if the birders who live in
> outback Australia submitted lists to the GBBC, that the Australian total
> could crack the 600 species mark. It is also possible that the GBBC could
> develop into a bird race (or a dry run for people competing in
> twitchathons). The key difference is that it takes place during the
> Austral summer and runs over 4 days rather than 24 hours.
>
> It would be interesting to see how many species a birder could observe in
> Australia in mid-February (without undertaking risky travel). Something to
> think about.
>
> Regards, Laurie.
>
>
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--
Marie Tarrant
Kobble Creek, Qld
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