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Some stats from the Great Backyard Bird Count

To: Laurie Knight <>
Subject: Some stats from the Great Backyard Bird Count
From: Marie Tarrant <>
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2016 20:12:44 +0000
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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