A commentary on the first attempt of a Big Year in the Western Palearctic region

A Big Year
 

The Big Year WP team - Mårten, Claes and Erik. © Big Year WP

In late September of 2016 exciting news got birders in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East talking: 3 Swedish guys would set out and try to see or hear as many bird species in the Western Palearctic (WP) and in one calendar year as possible, something called a Big Year. Big Years have been very popular in North America for decades, with contestants on an almost yearly basis, whose final scores are published by the American Birding Association (ABA). In North America clear rules and boundaries have been defined and the records are continuously being broken. There’s even a movie about this, loved by many birders around the globe, starring Jack Black, Steve Martin and Owen Wilson. The current record holder in the ABA region is John Weigel, an Australian guy who managed to record a staggering 783 species in 2016 (835 species using the new ABA boundaries, which now include Hawaii). He outcompeted a few other Big Year birders by just a handful of birds. Interestingly he is also the record holder for Australia, where he observed 725 species in 2012.

In recent years the idea of Big Years has spread to other parts of the world. Thus more or less elaborate attempts have been made in a number of countries or regions. In 2015 and 2016 two birders separately attempted to do worldwide Big Years and both were very successful. The record set in 2015 by American birder Noah Strycker (6042 species) was immediately and impressively surpassed by Dutch birder Arjan Dwarshuis in 2016 (6852 species). While in the past Big Years were often done in secret to avoid competition, it is now becoming increasingly common for contenders to blog about their experiences and thus interact with the birding community, which usually follows these attempts with a mixture of awe and friendly jealousy. While every step is carefully monitored and mistakes are exposed mercilessly, this community also informs the Big Year birders about the latest rarity sightings and gives travel advices, information about recent developments in science or simply cheers for their idols to crush the old record.

A Big Year in the Western Palearctic seemed a likely scenario for the near future, but few people probably expected this was to happen in 2017 already. No previous attempts have been published anywhere, so there was no real target to surpass. In fact nobody really knew what number could be possible during a Big Year in the WP, so estimations varied from 600 to 800 species. 

I had been really intrigued by previous Big Years and the fact that I would know most of the birds this time got me really invested in this upcoming attempt, thus I started to inform myself. In January I estimated that they might record around 760 species. I deemed this to be a rather conservative guess, but most others believed this number was much too high. Now at the end of 2017 I know that I was right with both my assumptions: That they could get around 760 species and that this number was rather conservative. I actually believe that maybe one day a truly dedicated and deep-pocketed birder could reach 800 species during a Big Year in the WP. As I hope that many more attempts are to follow, let’s analyse this remarkable first attempt and make some predictions for future attempts.

The framework

The three Swedish birders Claes (Klacke) Wikström, Erik Rask and Mårten Wikström set out to observe as many species of birds as possible in the WP.

• As a systematic basis they used the IOC taxonomy (after originally considering to use the taxonomy set by netfugl.dk),
• The definition of the WP was taken from the Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa: The Birds of the Western Palearctic (BWP).
• To record their observations they chose the IGoTerra App over much wider used sites such as ebird.org or observation.org.
• Furthermore they added a rule that all three of them had to have seen or heard the species to be able to count them.

I believe using IOC as the taxonomic basis was the right thing to do. It’s one of the most widely used and accepted taxonomic lists used in birding circles and gets updated on a very regular basis. The netfugl list has many caveats: Many widely accepted splits and lumps aren’t implemented and some species are omitted entirely from the list. This, coupled with the small number of users and a rather non-transparent decision making makes it rather unsuited for a Big Year. In the ABA area the Clements taxonomy is used, but this is a more conservative approach. Personally I feel the IOC checklist with its quick and transparent decision making is the checklist of the future.

The Western Palearctic biogeographic region as defined by Cramp (1977) and used by the Big Year WP team

Several proposals have been made to divide the world in different biogeographic regions, based on species that are endemic to these regions and can be distinguished from other such regions. One of these regions is the Palearctic, which is furthermore divided into the western and the eastern Palearctic, roughly along the Ural ridge. The western Palearctic (WP) is usually defined as Europe, most of the Middle East and northern Africa, but more often than not it is impossible to draw clear lines where one region begins and the other starts, as birds (and other species) just don’t care about this theoretical construct. Therefore some political or geographic boundaries need to be used to define the WP. The boundaries used in BWP were defined in 1977, but have recently been challenged by some authors. A new definition has been proposed by D. Mitchell in Birds of Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. A Checklist (BENAME). The current boundaries lie roughly along 21° N latitude in the Sahara, exclude most of the Arabian peninsula and head north at the Iraq-Iran boundary. The newly proposed boundaries run along 20° N, include the whole Arabian peninsula and Iran. Even though this new definition has its drawbacks, I suggest this should become the new definition to use, as I’ll outline in a different commentary. However this new definition was only just published in 2017, so it wasn’t available and popular among birders, when this Big Year started.

The choice to use the IGoTerra App was a surprising one. Previous attempts used either ebird.com or observado.org, to submit their sightings. Both of these are free to use and have apps that make it easy to both enter sightings in the field and later view the records. They actively decided against these options and explained this in their blog. However this decision has had its drawbacks and sparked some smaller controversies. The data accumulated in IGoTerra isn’t available to the general public and therefore can’t be filtered by non-members. Also during the year there were several issues with IGoTerra, where observations weren’t displayed, normally involving introduced species. Also the Big Year team started to record the mammals they saw, but unfortunately only did so very unfrequently and incompletely. It was not possible to see, which species these were. Even though IGoTerra might be a great choice for the ordinary birder, it doesn’t seem this was the right choice for someone who blogs about their sightings and wants others to have a look at the observations. 

It seemed like a bold statement at first that birds would only be counted if all three of them got onto them. But it became apparent soon enough that this wouldn't cost them many birds (or in fact any birds at all). During the first half of the year only a few scarce and shy migrants weren’t seen by all, but no species that wouldn’t be retrieved on later trips. This rule was a fun little extra for them and implied that the person with most species not seen by the rest of the group would get the worst sleeping place until the score was equal again. Of course this meant, that everybody would try to get the others onto each and every bird and maybe it was meant to strengthen the group cohesion. Without this rule, possibly there would have been only one record holder instead of three in the end. Or worse (?) they might have split up at some point, as apparently there was some frustration in the group at a few points (ahem*Corvo*ahem).

Their approach

The birding community has been spoilt in recent years with the blogs about record-breaking Big Years. People like Noah Strycker, Arjan Dwarshuis, John Weigel, Olaf Danielson and others somehow managed to virtually bird for 365 consecutive days AND blog about this on a very regular basis. They all had specific records to chase and surpassed them long before the year was over. However they all kept going until the very last day and some of them added new species even in the last hours before New Year’s Eve. They went to the absolute maximum to set records that would be nearly impossible to beat for future contenders and to get the most out of their year. 

With no record to beat and apparently a different mindset, this was not the aim of the BYWP team. They ended with a very respectable number of 761 species, but didn’t try for the absolute maximum. About one third of their year wasn’t spent birding at all and many rarities (and even some rare regulars like Shikra and Caspian Tit) were left untwitched. Many of the rarities they observed were longstayers and easily gettable even weeks after their original discovery (e.g. Black-browed Albatross which they only went for 3.5 month after its initial turning up!). These decisions weren’t always logical to me as a follower: They often hesitated to twitch birds even at close range (e.g. Caspian Plover, Stejneger’s Stonechat), left out staked out rarities (e.g. White-throated Bee-eater, Slaty-backed Gull), gambled for later chances to get birds (e.g. Ivory Gull, Pine Bunting) and even aborted their stay on Corvo without clear reasons. 

Shikra was one of the species they missed. After having tried hard but failed in January they neither went to Azerbaijan, where the species breeds nor returned to Kuwait in December, where a bird was seen on a regular basis. © Armin Kreusel

In contrast, they cleaned up extraordinarily well on the regular species of the WP. Of the 706 species that breed, winter or migrate in the WP, they only missed out on 10(-15*) difficult species: Goliath Heron, Magnificient Frigatebird, (African Darter), Verreaux’s Eagle, Shikra, Pin-tailed Snipe, (African Skimmer), Caspian Tit, Algerian Nuthatch, (Hume’s Wheatear), (Pygmy Sunbird), Red-billed Firefinch, (African Silverbill), Scottish Crossbill and Pallas’s Reed Bunting. In such a politically and geographically diverse and challenging region as the WP this is extremely remarkable. They visited some of the remotest parts of the WP, including Mauritania and Svalbard to get as many of the regulars as possible and most times cleaned up on the first try, even with very difficult species. What makes this even more special, was the fact that they found all birds on their own and without guides (at least where possible). If they missed a species however, they wouldn’t return to the country in most cases. 

*records of the species in parentheses were not submitted to any of the internet sites I checked in 2017

Future Big Years: How to beat 800

Anybody trying a Big Year in the WP in the future should use this attempt as a starting point to plan their approach. It gives great insight into the distribution of native and introduced birds in the region. However all in all the twitching could have been stepped up by up to 30-40 species. 15-20 species could've been added with a better Corvo strategy alone (see post #2778)!

Bird species #758 was this Dwarf Bittern from the afrotropics that appeared on Fuerteventura in December © Big Year WP

To maximise numbers and beat the current record there are some obvious changes to be made. First of all the whole year should be used for birding. Of course there will be some days where nothing can be chased, but more often than not there were several vagrants in the WP that could’ve boosted the BYWP team’s list, even in the seemingly less exciting winter and summer months. It seems sensible to start the year off with a twitching spree and sack as many vagrants as possible so you won’t have to worry about them later in the year. In 2017 these would have been e.g. Ivory Gull, Red-necked Stint and Pine Bunting. I'd recommend to do the same with species that are easier to get in winter (e.g. Snowy Owl, Geese, Loons, Grey-cheeked Chickadee, Lesser Redpoll) and if there isn’t much of interest use the often rather quiet winter days to visit remote regions, where finding rarities is much more likely than in central Europe. The different Macaronesian island groups (Azores, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Madeira) seem like a safe bet, with the benefit of already adding all their endemics (except for maybe some pelagic species). Doing early and extensive trips to Kuwait and Morocco/Western Sahara/Mauritania will add many species that reach the limits of their range and might only be rare seasonal visitors (e.g. Indian Roller, Buff-bellied Pipit, Pacific Golden Plover in Kuwait or vagrants from the Afrotropics like Abyssinian Roller, Kelp Gull, Royal Tern, Pied Crow or rarer birds in this heavily underwatched region).

When this is done and prime migration time still hasn’t begun you could either return home and wait for the next vagrant to twitch - the UK or Spain seem like a good home base as many vagrants are discovered and the infrastructure allows for quick twitching elsewhere – or you could start checking off some introduced species. A trip to the Netherlands and nearby Germany (which can surely be combined with some vagrants) would yield Snow, Swan, Canada, Cackling, Bar-headed & Egyptian Goose, Black Swan, Mandarin & Ruddy Duck, Pheasant, Yellow-headed Amazon, Alexandrine & Ring-necked Parakeet and Vinous-throated Parrotbill. Trips to Italy, France, Spain, Portugal or the UK would add Muscovy Duck (IT), Northern Bobwhite (IT, not sure if already calling), Reeves’ (FR) & Golden Pheasant (UK), African Sacred Ibis (IT, FR), Monk Parakeet (SP, PO), Red-billed Leiothrix (SP), Crested Myna (PO), Black-headed Weaver (PO), Yellow-crowned Bishop (PO), Common Waxbill (SP, PO), Red Avadavat (SP, PO) and Indian Silverbill (FR). 

By now migration time should have started and this should be the main factor of your decision making. Get to migration hotspots like Israel, Kuwait and Gibraltar, where additions to your yearlist should come as a steady stream with high potential for further vagrants. Also try to squeeze in as many twitching trips as your schedule and wallet allow you, as vagrants will turn up all over the WP. Always prioritize megas over more regular ones (e.g. go for the Short-billed over the Long-billed Dowitcher, or for the Oriental Plover over the Lesser Yellowlegs) as these might not turn up a second time during the year. It seems easiest if you just leave 2-5 days of spare time between your different trips.

By late April you can focus on the localized breeders of the WP and visit northwestern Africa, Egypt, the Caucasus area (Azerbaijan could add Caspian Tit and Shikra to the list compiled by the BYWP team), Turkey and Cyprus, just like the BYWP team did. By June it seems sensible to visit northeastern European Russia and Kazakhstan. By going even further north than the BYWP team did you could add a few more species like Pin-tailed (& possibly Swinhoe’s) Snipe and Siberian Accentor plus everything you missed before.

The BYWP now added in a trip to Svalbard, which seems like a rather costly thing to do, but is surely an unforgettable trip. While Ivory Gull might be the only bird species you couldn’t get elsewhere, there are many marvellous mammals that could be added to a mammal list in addition to the surely impressive landscapes and icebergs. If this is too expensive, then Varanger should deliver the same species (plus Steller’s Eider) for a fraction of the cost. 
Afterwards would be the time to add those species that are still missing from your list. These probably include some species from the Mediterranean region, from Iceland and some pelagic species. If you can clean up on these until September you should basically be done with the regular species of the WP and will only have to worry about vagrants for the rest of the year. 

September is the prime month for american vagrants, however much of it was left unbirded by the BYWP team

When September starts, try to get to Corvo and leave only if other rarities turn up elsewhere. You should get many yank vagrants in this time and at first sight it might seem that you could miss out on Siberian vagrants. However you’ll have bagged most of these during the Russia trip and stuff like Radde’s or Dusky Warbler, Pechora Pipit or the real eastern megas are normally still being reported after the Corvo season is over by late October. 
You can now concentrate fully on twitching rarities and whatever you may have missed before. The same regions as in January are now worth a visit, as these are the places you are most likely to get additions to your list. If you want you could also add a trip to Algeria (get the visa in time!), which is still frowned upon by many birdwatchers but yields goodies such as Algerian Nuthatch and Red-billed Firefinch.

In short here’s what I believe you should or could do different from the BYWP team:

• Start off with a twitching spree
• Twitch anything that doesn’t seem unlikely to stay
• Twitch immediately after discovery
• Leave days between your travels for twitching
• Prioritize MEGAs
• If you’ve got time clean up early on more common vagrants and introduced species
• Visit the Macaronesian Island groups early in the year
• Visit Azerbaijan for Shikra and Caspian Tit. (You could do this instead of visiting Georgia as the species are mostly the same)
• Extend the Russia trip to the north
• Visit Gibraltar or southern Spain for Rüppell’s Vulture and migration
• Visit Iceland in summer
• Visit Algeria
• Get earlier to (and certainly don’t leave) Corvo
• Do more pelagics
• End your year in a remote place like the Azores, Western Sahara or Kuwait
• Use the whole year
• Use the newly defined Greater Western Palearctic as a basis
• Record all mammals (and other animal groups) that you see

Conclusions

The BYWP team has achieved something great. Only few people would have thought that 761 species in a single year would be possible in the WP. However this attempt has shown that indeed the bar can be set even higher. Maybe 800 species could be the target to chase for future attempts. Much was done very right by the Swedish birders, who managed to record almost all of the Western Palearctics regular species, even some of the scarcest birds of the region like African Grey Woodpecker, Black-headed Penduline Tit or Yellow Bittern. Very few regular species like Goliath Heron or Shikra could’ve been added to this attempt, however the vagrant game could’ve been stepped up. In addition to the Corvo incident many possibilities to twitch rarities were left untouched. In this commentary I tried to summarize the steps necessary for an even bigger list. Of course this will be strenuous and expensive, however attempts in other parts of the world have shown that such Big Years are possible. 
There is great interest within the birding community to follow Big Years and any future attempt would be followed by hundreds if not thousands of followers. For such future attempts or anybody interested in WP birding I attach a spreadsheet of all the bird taxa recordedas wild in the WP, with comments and remarks on status, distribution, occurrence, taxonomy, etc.

I am also currently working on a spreadsheet that covers the birds of the newly defined ‘Greater WP’ as defined by D. Mitchell (2017). Even though this new definition has its drawbacks, I suggest this should become the new definition to use, as I’ll outline in a different commentary.