A site at which birders who have observed 150 or more wild bird species in the Australian Capital Territory may have their totals listed.
Why 150 species? Because the ACT list contains 292 species, and 150 is just over half that number.
| Observer’s name | ACT life list | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | ||
| No. of species | Most recent addition |
No. of species | No. of species | No. of species | No. of species | No. of species | No. of species | No. of species | No. of species | ||
| Peter Milburn | 275 | Oct 14 | 220 | 176 | 181 | 175 | 202 | 216 | 231 | 233 | |
| Steve Holliday | 260 | Nov14 | 191 | 195 | 189 | ||||||
| Harvey Perkins | 258 | Aug 14 | 161 | 179 | 161 | 142 | 147 | 154 | 193 | 141 | |
| Marnix Zwankhuizen | 256 | Aug 14 | |||||||||
| Frank Antram | 253 | Dec 13 | 188 | 108 | 114 | 147 | 183 | 192 | 195 | 112 | |
| Ian Fraser | 254 | 2014 | |||||||||
| Anthony Overs | 252 | Jun 14 | |||||||||
| Martyn Moffat | 251 | Aug 14 | 186 | 175 | 176 | 158 | 155 | 164 | 158 | 162 | |
| Sue Lashko | 246 | Jan 14 | 171 | 144 | 57 | 131 | |||||
| Yarden Oren | 244 | Dec 13 | |||||||||
| Martin Butterfield | 244 | Oct 14 | 169 | 155 | 166 | 126 | 102 | 111 | 138 | 140 | |
| David McDonald | 243 | Oct 14 | |||||||||
| Noel Luff | 241 | Nov 14 | |||||||||
| Paul Taylor | 236 | Jan 12 | 175 | 130 | |||||||
| Damien Farine | 232 | Apr 14 | 196 | ||||||||
| David Landon | 232 | Nov 14 | |||||||||
| Benj Whitworth | 226 | Oct 07 | |||||||||
| Mat Gilfedder | 225 | Mar 13 | |||||||||
| Maurits Zwankhuizen | 224 | Jan 15 |
|||||||||
| Rosemary Bell | 223 | Feb 09 | |||||||||
| Andrew Cockburn | 223 | Jan 08 | |||||||||
| Michael Wright | 223 | Oct 07 | |||||||||
| Philip Veerman | 223 | ||||||||||
| Jeannie Gray | 220 | Nov 14 | |||||||||
| Brendan Sheean | 209 | Dec 12 | |||||||||
| Hazel & Allan Wright |
209 | Jan 07 | |||||||||
| John Leonard | 206 | Nov 11 | |||||||||
| Ian McMahon | 203 | Mar 05 | |||||||||
| Cath Gilfedder | 201 | Feb 10 | |||||||||
| Phil Hansbro | 199 | May 05 | |||||||||
| David Rosalky | 197 | Jun 04 | |||||||||
| Matthew Frawley | 193 | Oct 10 | 173 | ||||||||
| Julie McGuiness | 193 | Sep 05 | |||||||||
| Rhonda & Lindsay Hansch | 192 | Apr 13 | |||||||||
| Phyl Goddard | 192 | Apr 03 | |||||||||
| Pete Cowper | 186 | Oct 06 | |||||||||
| Jochen Brocks | 181 | Nov 07 | |||||||||
| Scott Gilmore | 180 | Oct 04 | |||||||||
| Bruce Ramsay | 152 | Apt 09 | 106 | 104 | |||||||
Records and challenges
Alastair Smith set himself the challenge of observing 200 wild bird species in the ACT in one year, a target not previously known to have been attained.
Between 1 Jan and 31 Dec 2006 he actually observed 208 species in the ACT.
This provided the benchmark for others embarking upon an ACT Big Year. The details are in Smith, A. 2008, ‘A record of the first Big Year for the Australian Capital Territory’, Canberra Bird Notes, vol. 33, no. 3, pp. 125-35.
Peter Milburn took on the challenge for 2007. On 30 August he reached the 200 mark and on 4 October passed Alastair’s 208 for the 2006 year. Milburn’s 2007 ACT total was 220 species, a fantastic achievement.
In 2013 Milburn reached the coveted 200 mark as early as 3 May. His total for the year was 231 species. This pattern continued into 2014 when he attained a total of 233.
With the widespread adoption of Eremaea eBird as the preferred tool for maintaining and sharing bird observers’ lists, few observers are now providing data for inclusion on this page. As a consequence it will not be updated past 2014, unless circumstances change.
Eremaea eBird curently shows 272 of the 292 species on the ACT checklist.
You can view the current ‘Top 100 eBirders in the ACT’ here.
Rules
Here are a few simple rules covering the inclusion of your total so as to obtain consistency between the totals listed:
1. All species counted should be seen alive and in the wild within the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Please note that the Jervis Bay Territory is not part of the ACT.
2. Taxonomy should follow BirdLife Australia’s current Working List of Australian Birds.
3. Submissions should be honest, accurate and dated.
To have your total added to the list on this page, please email David McDonald.
Related lists
The national list, maintained by Tony Palliser (upon which this list is based, with Tony’s agreement) is here.
An annotated ACT checklist, produced by the Canberra Ornithologists Group, is here.