Bucket List of Birds

Not sure if this has been done before, but I did a quick search for bird bucket list and could not find a thread.

I would like to know generally where people live and what is on their bucket list of birds to photograph before they kick the bucket.
The birds do not have to be local to you.
Feel free to add to or check off your list as you go.

Below is my list of ten to start this thread off.

I reside in New York, United States

1. Black Skimmer

2. King Eider - Male

3. Condor

4. Any hummingbird other than ruby-throated.

5. Peregrine Falcon

6. Puffin

7. Black-necked Stilts

8. Painted Bunting

9. Yellow-headed Blackbird

10. Eastern Meadowlark

Wow - what a great thread, Shawn! We share a bucket-list bird, the King Eider.

I live in Washington state, but spend a significant amount of time in the Mid-Atlantic each year. The species on my bucket list are either very difficult due to low populations and secretive habits (Mountain Quail), or they're difficult for me simply because they live far away, or in areas which are difficult to access.

1. Spruce Grouse (the Taiga phase or Taiga/Franklin's intergrades)
AK, N.W. Territories, Yukon, northeastern corner of B.C., northern Alberta

2. Mountain Quail
OR, CA, southwestern ID

3. Attwater's subspecies, Greater Prairie Chicken
Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge, eastern Texas

4. Rock Ptarmigan
AK, western B.C., Yukon, N.W. Territories

5. Willow Ptarmigan
AK, western B.C., Yukon, northern N.W. Territories

6. King Eider
southern coastal AK, northern coastal B.C.

7. Steller's Eider
southern coastal AK, northern coastal B.C.

8. Spectacled Eider
southern coastal AK, northern coastal B.C.

9. Inca Dove
TX, AZ, NM, southern CA

10. Ruddy Ground-Dove
AZ, NV, southern CA

11. Common Ground-Dove
FL, SC, GA, TX, AZ, southern CA

12. Emperor Goose
southern coastal AK, coastal B.C.

My lifetime goal would be to get a picture of every Heron and Egret or related species out there.

Right now my search has been, and will be until I succeed, the White Morph Reddish Egret.

There's one here in Naples at Eagle Lakes. He's very shy and have yet to get a really nice shot of him.

There are a couple of huge hawks that live in my neighborhood. I would love to photograph them, they are very beautiful. But they are shy and quick and I'll probably never manage it.

I want a good gull in flight shot (I've got dozens of mediocre ones) and a good eagle shot. That's all.

The California condor is the largest land bird in North America.

you haven't lived a full life until you've photographed a cassowary in the wild.

:P

Indeed an interesting thread topic Shawn. I've been thinking about this for some time now and it’s still very hard to narrow it down to just 10 birds. Although I was lucky enough to see a couple of my bucket birds over the last couple of months. I currently live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area of Texas but I was born and raised near the coast close to Houston.

Edit: I can scratch #2, #3, #4 and #9 off my list now.


1. Atlantic Puffin
(Northern Atlantic)

2. Golden-cheeked Warbler – endangered
(Texas Hill Country)

3. Black-capped Vireo- endangered
(Texas Hill Country)

4. Whooping Crane – endangered
(Southeast Coast Texas, Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and, FL, LA, WI & Canada)

5. Attwater’s Prairie Chicken – endangered
(Southeastern Coastal Texas Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge)

6. Green Jay
(South Texas)

7. Harris’s Hawk
(Southwest U.S.)

8. Great Kiskadee
(South Texas)

9. Chestnut-sided Warbler
(Eastern U.S. & Canada)

10. Pileated Woodpecker
(Eastern U.S. & Canada)