Just curious – how many birds are on your life list?
I have it on good authority that it’s three - the English Sparrow, the Rock Dove and the Blackbreasted Puffleg :p.
- Tamerlane
Not that many, as these things go. I think I’m getting close to 2800. I have 805 for Panama. I don’t have my list handy, since I am birding in Oaxaca at the moment. I added 6 more lifers the last 2 days, the best being the spectacular Red Warbler.
I’ll give you an update when I get back next week.
Oh, and Tamerlane, 
yourself. 
“Only” 2800? :eek:
Have you seen an oil bird or a whooping crane? I have, but I don’t have a list. How much you want for them?
Colibri. While I love nature and support it with money, etc, I’m a sentient lifestyle person.
Does the discovery of http://news.mongabay.com/2006/1010-ci.html a new bird exicte you that much?
Just asking as an observer.
I’m not Colibri (though I do have a massive Dopercrush on him) – but as someone with a total layperson’s fondness for birds, I gotta say – Cool! That news brings a smile to my face.
I just got back. I was birding in Oaxaca, around the towns of Valle Nacional and Ixtlan de Juarez. It’s a very interesting area, with pine-oak forest and cloud forest on the mountains and arid scrub with cactus in the valleys. Lots of endemic species. With the 11 lifers I just got on this trip, my total stands at 2,797 (which includes 1,178 for North America, 804 for South America, and 680 for Africa). I have a couple of friends who have 4,500 plus, and I once took a guy out birding here in Panama who had over 7,000.
My best species were:
Unicolored Jay (Unfortunately, no images in the web. It’s bright blue all over.
I’ve seen Oilbirds in Trinidad, at the cave at the Asa Wright Reserve (where you no doubt saw them). Trinidad was the place I first worked in the tropics; I was an assistant on a hummingbird project at the Simla Field Station in 1975. I’ve also seen one in Panama, where they are much rarer. We are still trying to figure out where the nest cave is.
I haven’t gotten around to seeing Whooping Cranes yet, though I have gone to Nebraska for the Sandhill Crane migration, which is pretty spectacular, with tens of thousands of cranes along the Platte River. Two weeks ago we had a stray Jabiru Stork near Panama City, which was pretty exciting (even though I have seen it elsewhere). Those things are damn near the size of a horse.
I’ve always had the impression that you were quite sentient. 
Of course it’s always exciting. What’s even more exciting is to find one yourself. A few years ago the team I led in Gabon discovered a new species during our surveys. Although similar to other known forms, it has some significant plumage differences, and genetic analysis has proved it to be distinct. We are now in the process of writing up the species description. But I can’t say too much more about it until it’s published.
Sounds like a really cool trip!
swoons in an excess of Dopercrush geekiness