Red-footed Booby, Photo courtesy of Andy Bankert
Andy, Alex and I walk across the
concrete floor which is covered in slippery pelican excrement. We peer into cages
along either side of the walkway and view an assortment of injured birds
undergoing rehabilitation: Magnificent Frigatebird, Masked Booby, Northern
Gannet, Wood Stork. A crowd of pelicans follows close on our heels, hoping for
a handout. Inside the cages are more pelicans. One of the employees at the
rehab center gives us a tour. He explains that most of the pelicans here are victims
of fishing nets and tackle. They are found with hooks embedded in their fleshy
pink legs or with their wings bound up in fishing line. Our target bird, a
Red-footed Booby released two weeks ago, perches outside one of the cages,
expecting to be fed. Rehabilitators now only feed the booby a single fish each
day, leaving the booby to fish on its own.
The ABA rules for counting birds (on a
life list or Big Day list) say captive birds are not countable, but released
birds are countable if they meet certain requirements: “A bird is considered under the influence
of captivity after its release until it regains the activities and movements of
a bird which has not been captured.” The rules further clarify, “A bird is
under the influence of captivity during its initial flight away from its
release point and during subsequent activity reasonably influenced by the
captivity, such as initial perching and preening or early sleeping or roosting
near the release point.” On one hand, the booby is a wild bird. It was born in
the wild, found in the wild, and, if all goes well, will leave the vicinity of
the rehab center and be 100% wild (whatever that means) again.
So what do you think? Would you
count this bird on your personal life list (or any list)…is this playing fair?
It didn’t arrive there naturally. Therefore I would consider that cheating and non-countable.
Or, if it was already a vagrant in that area and was taken in for rehab and released in the same area, then I’d count it. Otherwise, not.
Then it would be countable when they stopped feeding it (or 24 hours later).
I think it shouldn’t count because it is not in the wild.
I would say that it is currently uncountable; agreeing with Ali that some time after it is no longer being fed, it could be counted.
Given that it returns to a location that it was brought to, and is “expecting to be fed”, I would say that it has not “regained the activities and movements of a bird which has not been captured.”
The only list I think this could be put on is “Nemesis Birds”
Does this mean that hummingbirds that are captured at a feeder, then return to the same feeder expecting to be fed are also not countable?
Those hummingbirds were already there though, so when they return to those feeders they have regained activities/movements from before capture.
Thats just my interpretation, might not be right.