Many people have hobbies that involve collecting things or keeping track of certain goals. For some it’s the number of miles jogged, games won, or points scored. For others it’s collecting teacups, stamps, or shoes. It’s probably not surprising that many birders engage in this behavior, in a sense. In particular, many birders like to keep lists of the species they see in a given time period within a particular geographic region. The list may be of the number of species seen in the backyard each year or maybe over the time lived in a particular place. Many people keep a “life list”—a list of all the bird species seen in their lifetime.

Here in Maine, the list of all species that have ever been found in the state is considered by the Maine Bird Records Committee to be 445. Over a lifetime of birding, how many of these species could you be likely to find yourself in the state? The official highest tally that we could find on the American Birding Association website for Maine is 366 species, although through the grapevine we’ve heard that at least one person may have a total closer to 400 species! Seeing that many of the possible species that occur in Maine takes some dedication because it means having to quickly travel to see each and every rare bird that shows up and that may not be found again in the state. We remember a few years back when we traveled over to the Hatch Hill Landfill in Augusta one cold winter day to look for the first slaty-backed gull ever found in Maine. Sure enough, most of the birders that have the highest total life lists for Maine were already there, searching diligently but unsuccessfully, as the bird had disappeared.

Another list birders like to keep is the total number of species identified in a calendar year. Again, a check of the American Birding Association website gave the highest tally for Maine as 314, with most of the other reported year lists for the state being in the 200’s. Any number over 200 is quite an accomplishment in our state and requires putting more than a few miles on your car as you need to see lots of the rare and uncommon birds that pass through the state in order to get a number that high. Some birders are now enjoying staying closer to home and doing year lists for their town or county, or even just for the backyard. We keep ours on our refrigerator!

The ultimate list for birders who enjoy pushing the limits is to see how many species one can find in a 24-hour period. Years ago the thrill was to accomplish a “century day”—a day in which you identified at least 100 species. Today’s birders have pushed beyond that to the point where in some U.S. states the benchmark is to find at least 200 species in 24 hours. Here in Maine, “big day” competitors regularly find 120-140 species, though the record (we think) is an impressive 187 species found on a single day in May a few years ago.

The thing about keeping these lists is that once you start, it can be hard to stop. So be forewarned—and enjoy!

Jeffrey V. Wells, Ph.D., is a Fellow of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Dr. Wells is one of the nation's leading bird experts and conservation biologists, and author of “Birder’s Conservation Handbook.” His grandfather, the late John Chase, was a columnist for the Boothbay Register for many years. Allison Childs Wells, formerly of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, is a senior director at the Natural Resources Council of Maine, a statewide nonprofit membership organization. Both are widely published natural history writers and coauthors of the book, “Maine’s Favorite Birds.”