To many in the birding community, the idea of a ‘Life List’ might seem as natural as birdwatching itself. John James Audubon, a name synonymous with birding, was perhaps the pioneer of the life list concept in the 18th century. His detailed paintings and catalogs of birds laid the groundwork for what we call a life list today.

Today, technology like eBird has transformed birdwatching, making it easier for birders to record sightings and contribute to global bird population data. Using these technology tools, birders track birds that they have seen throughout their entire lives as birdwatchers.

For many birders, keeping a life list is sort of like a status symbol as those who have seen the most birds on their lists are considered experts in their domain. It’s true there is a certain competitiveness behind it, but I rather like the idea of each bird sighting lies a story behind it that lives on in your own memory banks for years to come.

My own “life list” story begins in the summer of 2002 (I have written about this specific story before) where I spent the summer observing the birds coming to our feeder with my mom. It was her idea to use an old manila folder, we literally wrote down in pen the different birds that we saw come to the feeder, be it the White-breasted Nuthatches, Tufted Titmouse, American Cardinal, or Downy Woodpecker. It was the initial sighting of the American Goldfinch, a bight yellow songbird with a black head during this time that really opened my eyes to the amazing diversity of birds and the passion that followed.

It was this experience over the summer that was the first of many “lists” I kept in my life to track the different birds I have seen. The American Goldfinch was close to the top of my list of first birds documented on my life list as opposed to the different Pigeons, Seagulls, or LBJs or “Little Brown Jobs” (i.e.,  small brown sparrows) I would see back home in San Francisco and would barely notice.

Each bird I saw and documented in my life brought a lesson about resilience, beauty, and the unexpected joys of nature. Going through each one of my birds would probably be a book in itself (and you never know, that could be something someday!) but for the sake of this post, I wanted to pick out only a few memorable birds on my life list that has a story attached to it.

So, without further ado, here we go:

Life List Bird #4 – Red-winged Blackbird

I was incredibly fortunate to be able to take an Ornithology class offered at my high school in the fall of 2001. It was during this class where one day during our many field trips we would go on (this was my favorite part of the class!), we went into San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and I observed a small black bird on the grass. As a very novice birder at this time, I had recently learned of the Brewer’s Blackbird, however when I saw the bird turn its body, I saw the bird had a bright red shoulder patch, accompanied by a very small yellow band below the red. I was so surprised by this striking contrast of Red and black, it was one of my first memories of a bird I tracked

Life List Bird #17 – Osprey

During summer of 2002 in Massachusetts, an experience I have written about, this particular bird struck me as “majestic” in the same way that one describes a hawk or our nation’s very own national bird, the Bald Eagle. This bird, almost as big as the Bald Eagle was flying over our home with a fish in its talons as there is a saltwater marsh very close to our home, where it hunts. It was one of the larger birds of prey I ever truly noticed, which soon followed the seeing common Red-tailed Hawks, Red-shouldered Hawks, Peregrine Falcons and several other birds of prey regularly.

Life List Bird #74 – Western Tanager

My wife and I were on our Honeymoon staying in a beautiful hotel in southern Utah. We drove from Las Vegas to this hotel for a few nights’ stay before driving all the way up to Yellowstone in Wyoming. While staying at this hotel, we were surrounded by mountain ranges and Buttes that looked straight out of a science fiction film – in fact, the original Planet of the Apes film was actually filmed there! One evening before dinner, I was sitting out by the pool when I noticed a bright yellow bird in the tree. I was able to get a good look at it and low and behold it was the Western Tanager, a beautiful songbird with a yellow and black body with a bright reddish-orange head. It was quite a sight to see in the middle of for all intents and purposes, a desert!

Lift List Bird #119 – Black Turnstone

This other sighting I can also attribute to the presence of my wife. For my birthday in 2019, my wife bought a sailing trip offered by the Golden Gate Audubon Society to go “birding by boat”. It turned out to be a beautiful day on the water, which started in Tiburon, CA (Marin County). The boat took our group out on the bay all the way out and under the iconic Golden Gate Bridge to look at Pelagic and shorebirds. It was there along the shoreline where I saw a shorebird I couldn’t quite put my finger on. It was dark all over with a bright white belly, which made it stand out as not the typical Willet, Godwits, and Sandpipers I would normally see. Once I turned to my trusty field guide, I saw it was none other than a Black Turnstone!

Lift List Bird #227 – Blue-grey Gnatcatcher

I had heard about this bird for a long time as many of my birder colleagues had seen this bird on different occasions, but I had never had such an opportunity. It wasn’t up until recently (April 2024), when I was able to get eyes on the Blue-grey Gnatcatcher; a small grey bird with a long tail, and a striking eyebrow as almost as they are “angry eyebrows”. It was during my Big Day when I saw this bird darting around from a bush to its nest in a tree right next to the trail, we were on in Mitchell Canyon. I was super excited to be able to add this fellow to my list!

Lessons Learned along the way

These sightings were not just ticks on a list; they were profound moments for me that taught me to appreciate the interconnectedness of our ecosystem. It was the birds that were the conduit to places I had experienced. These different experiences have taught me to stop and listen and to simply be aware of where I am in the moment. Birds were simply the ambassadors of connecting me to these places.

From there, once you start paying attention to the different birds, you start to notice the habitats where they live and what kind of food sources they rely on and the different organisms all part of the ecosystem that all depend on each other. It’s all a very delicate balance we should all be mindful of.

Community Building

The other element that really has stood out to me over the many years of building my own life list is the idea of community building and how these birds that I have seen have been tied to an element of human connection and relationship building with others. I believe these relationships have enriched my own experience as a birder as someone who values building connections with others.

I am thrilled that I have been able to build such a wonderful community of birders starting all the way back from high school, to then later joining the Audubon Society, to more recently becoming a Master Birder through the California Academy of Science and building a network of professional birders through there.

Getting into the Game

If you’re intrigued by birdwatching, consider starting your own life list. It’s not just about counting birds—it’s about capturing moments and stories that stay with you forever. I encourage you to download eBird as that is the gold standard as it relates to keeping records but also uses crowd sourced data for different birds seen by others using the app.

If this idea seems like a stretch, instead just simply start thinking about where you are and what you observe in nature. If there is something that you saw while on a walk or sitting in a park that you didn’t notice before, perhaps there is a larger story that you can always come back to and fondly remember.

So what bird memories do you fondly recall? I’d love to hear about them!