Life List

My Life List

What is a life list you may be asking yourself. It is definitely the first question I had when I stumbled across my first birding blogs when I was trying to figure out "how people start birding." A life list, simply put, is a list of birds a person has seen in their lifetime. Now, most people don't come out of the womb mentally check-listing every bird they see along the way so I personally think a more reasonable explanation of life list is a list of all the birds you have identified since you started birding. I started actively birding in late 2024 so my list is in no way exhaustive of every bird I have seen in my life but tracking the birds I see now has brought so much joy to my life. Everyone approaches their lists differently but I have a few self imposed rules for mine. I only add birds that I have physically seen and can identify or birds I have photographed for later identification. Many people are skilled enough to bird by ear but I am not one of those talents and I am too paranoid to simply find the Merlin app reliable enough to "just go with it." Currently, I employ the Birda app to track my list but find eBird to also be a great resource for digital tracking. A pen and paper is also a great way to do it. Birding is not a competition and there isn't a high score (unless that is your thing) but a lot of joy can come from watching your list of spotted species grow.