The list partitioning into rare and common birds is basically illusory. NJ makes a go of it but most of the rare birds are carried on the "general" list, and often get there first. If you compare the rarity reporting this spring, BTBlue seems to have covered very few of them. Some have been reported here (NYSBirds) or eBirdsNYC (most).
What a lot of birders don't get is that it takes effort to do the rare/common partitioning. Jack Siler wrote software on birdingonthe.net to pull species out of RBAs, but that's simpler since RBAs have a fairly structured format. Nevertheless that was clearly some hours of coding to create that. To run a rare bird list would require an effort during migration that dwarfs the minimal effort needed to clobber 20 emails. But rather than complain about current lists, ante up and put in that effort. Ben C and Karen F take a certain amount of time out of their lives to make sure that the RBA now appears online. Then there's the RBA compilers themselves, etc. This stuff does not magically appear. Probably one's best bet for someone that wants to put in no effort would be something like the BirdsEye smartphone app, which relies on Cornell's eBird reporting and can pull out unusual sightings in local areas. Of course, people have to report to eBird in the first place, which circles back onto requiring some sort of effort. Most people on lists join and read and do not post. I understand why this happens, but those people also need to understand that people that *do* post take time out of their lives to do so. And lost in this whole discussion is one point: I think it's fair to say that Ruby-throated Hummingbird is not a widespread breeder in NYC, although perhaps someone will tell me if I'm wrong in that. Phil -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/nysbirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
