Grocery lists, to-do lists, bucket lists.\u00a0 Making lists is a common human behavior.\u00a0 Birders engage in this practice, keeping lists of birds seen on trips or birds seen at their feeders.\u00a0 But the most common such list is the life list, a compendium of all the species of birds one has seen in one\u2019s lifetime.<\/p>\n
Some birders keep a life list but don\u2019t even bother to count how many species are on their list. Others keep close track but keep their totals to themselves. Yet others are interested in publishing their list totals and comparing their lists to others.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s step back in time to 1970. Jim Tucker of Texas had envisioned a birding publication that would focus on the publication of top species lists for different areas, identification tips for hard-to-identify birds and descriptions of sites where rare species might be seen. The first issue of his brain-child, Birding, was published in February, 1970 and soon thereafter the American Birding Association (ABA) was created with Birding as its flagship journal. The early members of the ABA thought Birding should not contain articles on ornithological research or on conservation efforts but rather should fill a perceived void for competitive birders and birding hobbyists.\u00a0 Thus, a formal mechanism for competitive listing began. \u00a0Birders submitted their list totals and could see how they stacked up against other birders. The game was on!<\/p>\n
The ABA has thousands of members now.\u00a0 The mission has expanded considerably to cover avian conservation, book reviews and ornithological history. However, maintaining members\u2019 list totals is still a mainstay of the organization.<\/p>\n
You can check out list totals at the Listing Central page on the ABA website (http:\/\/listing.aba.org\/<\/a>). For Maine, the top lifetime lister is Doug Hitchcox with 374 species seen.\u00a0 The top year list for Maine (the total birds seen in a calendar year) is also Doug Hitchcox for his 2011 effort.\u00a0 Frank Paul has the largest life list for Cumberland County.<\/p>\n