Life Bird List

New bird sightings: annual summary

Year	Annual number			Cumulative
	U.S.A.	Latin America	Total	U.S.A.	Latin America	Total
pre-1996	32	1	34*	32	1	34*
1996	39	0	39	72	1	73
1997	46	1	47	118	2	120
1998	46	0	46	164	2	166
1999	21	0	21	185	2	187
2000	10	0	10	195	2	197
2001	7	0	7	202	2	204
2002	14	0	14	216	2	218
2003	12	24	36	228	26	254
2004	4	31	35	234	57	291
2005	3	70	73	237	127	364
2006	5	0	5	242	127	369
2007	6	0	6	248	127	375
2008	11	0	11	259	127	386
2009	15	0	15	274	127	401
2010	2	0	2	276	127	403
2011	1	0	1	277	127	404
2012	3	0	3	280	127	407

The list of "life birds" shown below, which is summarized in the adjacent small table, is based on regular field observations that I have been recording since 1996, as well as on memory for years prior to that. I also saw some Mute swans in (West) Germany in 1977, not included in the U.S.A. or Latin America subtotals. Latin American subtotals include birds seen on trips to Peru (1994, 1997, and 2004) and Mexico (2003). However, I only count birds that I can confidently identify as new species. (For example, I saw several Oropendulas in Mexico in 1985, parrots in Guatemala in 1989, and Hummingbirds in Peru in 1994 but am not sure which species they were.) Whenever I make a definite sighting of a bird formerly listed as "probable," I revise the first date but still include the earlier "probable" date in the "Notes" column. The dates for the abundant birds that nearly everyone sees (such as Robins) are of course mere conjectures.