Thanks for all participants! I will now aggregate the results. Now we'll move to
Birds discussion #2 - Waterbirds - groups to discuss, with links to wikipedia for ease:
- Shorebirds (Gulls, waders, auks, puffins...)
- Suliformes (Cormorants, gannets, frigatebirds, darters)
- Petrels (Petrels, albatrosses, and relatives)
- Loons
- Oddballs: Sunbittern, Kagu, Tropicbirds
These are the groups of waterbirds remaining that we did not discuss in previous discussions. In each discussion I will put the focus on one big groups and some smaller niche groups or individual species. Results will be aggregated in the main post.
People who wish to contribute to the previous discussion can do so and I will add their input.
Going from bottom to top:
I do not think a Kagu, Tropicbird, Loon or Petrel is essential or even that worthwhile for the game. The kagu is a gimicky ground bird that competes with and fails utterly against the victorian crowned pidgeon and the rest are all not present in captivity and would all be heavily outclassed by a duck. Ofcourse this is a taxonomy list, but if id rather have duck number 7. instead of animal x, i doubt that id call it nessecary for the game.
The
sunbittern on the other hand is pretty cool. A rarely flying bird from tropical south and central america with 93 holdings and a subtle yet distinct plumage? Yes please.
The sunbittern is a great choice for a roaming bird in a tropical house or an additional species in a wetlands display with for example capybaras and has not just an easy but obvious place in the game.
Regarding suliformes, while not nessecary a
Cormorant would be cool, everybody else again looses to duck number 7. Talking just numbers, the great cormorant is not just the most vanilla choice, known in many countrys as just cormorant, its also the most common in captivity by far, with just the eurasian subspecies having 75 holdings and thats just one of its 6 accepted subspecies. And yeah, look at this, this is its range, this is bonkers. Ofcourse across multiple subspecies but the eurasian cormorant covers all of asia, central and southern europe, the mediteranean and parts of africa. Its still absolutely insane. For an honorable mention, the little pied cormorant looks rather distinct by being much smaller with a mostly white colloration and is found across indonesia, australia and newzealand with 15 holdings, 11 of them in oceania, offering a nice regional sidegrade.
Now for the shorebirds, did i just say the cormorant range is crazy?
Yeah the
pied advocet heard that and stacks 122 holdings to boot on top of being an incredibly unique looking bird with its curved beak and black and white feathers. I could talk longer but they are viable for general african aviarys, shore bird aviarys, central asia, india, arabia, the sahel and even one of the most iconic inhabitants of the waden sea. Yeah id say they earned a spot on the roster.
Keeping on theme of basic wading bird with an amazing range we got the
oystercatcher. Not only do they live on shores worldwide, settling every continent besides antarctica, they also look very similar, so besides some minor differences in size and coloration (some subspecies have white bellies, some black) getting one would give us a great choice for literally everywhere. If we have to choose a specific subspecies, the eurasian oystercatcher is not only the most numerous in zoos with 76 holdings, it also has the furthest range across 3 continents and many different biomes, making it an easy choice. Also doesnt hurt that as far as i can tell it looks identical to the australian and new zealand subspecies, leaving only the americas lacking.
Next up, the spotted thick-knee (africa), the eurasian stone-curlew (eurasia and northern africa) and bush stone-curlew (australia and tiny bit new guinea) are all equally valid candidates to represent stone-curlews/thick-knees, the propaply weirdest named birds so far, especally when the german name is just "Triel". These guys are interesting, as while waders, they are nocturnal groundbirds that largely prefer open enviroments, with many of them specialising in arid and semi arid enviroments. They might not be on everyones radar, but i genuinly think that one of them would be a great addition as just a very different type of ground dwelling bird, with all 3 species being common in zoos and no species obviously a better pick then the other two in my opinion.
A much easier choice is picking a plover species, as theres one that stands head and shoulders above the rest with the
masked lapwing. Its not only the largest plover, not just the plover with by far the largest and most global presence in zoos with 120 holdings with atleast one on every continent, its also among the most visually unique with its bright yellow wattles. Have i also mentioned its from oceania? 10/10 animal right here. For an honorable mention, the northern lapwing is a great choice to flesh out eurasia with a very distinct colorsheme of greens, purple and the usual white and black with a nice headcreast and a respectable 44 holdings in zoos, but it would be a very europe centric pick, meanwhile the masked lapwing would be great for literally everyone. It would be nice to have both though.
For sandpipers, we have two neat options. One is the common redshank, another eurasian species of wading bird with an insane range, decent holding of 45 and a look thats both generic to represent its whole family well but with one standout feature in its red leg. It would be a perfectly fine addition to the game, even if its a little boring one.
But the redshank is just my honorable mention, cause my real contender is the
ruff. Its range is pretty great, covering most of subsaharan africa, india, a bit of europe, the middle east and even australia and new guinea, but all those blue zones are just where they go of to when not breeding, as their breeding range is the northern european coast and eurasian tundra. Its a tundra bird that likes to breed in marshes across the eurasian tundra, thats also a grassland and coastal bird of the temperate, tropic and suptropic. Wanna go even better? Its highly sexually dimorph, with the females looking like a pretty standard sandpiper and the males are not only larger but have a colorfull breeding display with bright orange faces surrounded by a big fluffy mane or collar of long white feathers that lends them their name. So we got two for one, the boring and the bonkers. Combine that with the fact that they are found in 35 zoos across 3 continents and are among the most prominent birds of the waden sea, the only area in the world where they live year round and we got an s tier 10/10 contentder for the game at our hands.
So far this list has been very oldworld focused so to represent the americas they will not just get the obvious and deserved
Inca tern, but also the
grey gull as our gull representative. These two birds both share a range consisting of more or less all of the western coast of south america, a criminally underrepresented region in game. The inca tern is a must include, as its not just a very colorfull bird and the only tern with a decent captive presence, but also adds a true cliff and open ocean bird to our collection that we have been missing so far. Its also the by far most common in zoos with 85 holdings, most of them in europe and north america but also 9 in asia and 1 in south america. It adds something truly unique to the bird roster with many different ways to present it, from tropical beach to a high cliff to sand dunes to a guano island in the open ocean. And the same goes for the grey gull, thats also among the most commonly kept gulls in captivity with 13 holdings, 8 in europe, 4 in NA and 1 in SA. Afaik only the black headed gull is more common with 26 holdings and my honorable mention, with a bonkers range of everywhere in eurasia, tipps of greenland and canada and all oceans of the old world north of the equator more or less and a cute black head. The grey gull mostly succeeds by proxy of no more common or more interesting gull, as a desert breeding south american gull that has inherent synergy with the inca tern is just a bit more interesting then the black headed gull.
Overall its a shame that we do not have any shore birds in the game, as its just such a diverse and common group to see. Theyd also finally offer something completly new with wading bird aviarys which atleast here in germany are quite common and often beautiful displays that just make no sense to build for in the moment without mods, pretending or callums great fake birds. Theyd also fill in nicely lacking spots in the roster and effortlessly improve the rosters of many different regions, as theyd add something totally different to build for no matter where they are added and greatly synergies with each other for mixed displays. Just an overall wonderfull group, id gladly buy an animal pack of the 7 i ended up choosing, what a perfect little number for a perfectly awesome group of birds
