BUBO Listing News
BUBO Listing is the number one online site for bird listing, supporting lists from anywhere in the world, from sites as diverse as a small UK garden to individual continents and complete world lists. We have registered users from more than 60 different countries, with the majority from the UK, USA and India.
It is our intention always to provide the core listing service of BUBO Listing as a free service to listers. In order to do this, we welcome relevant advertising on the BUBO Listing website.
By advertising on BUBO Listing you are reaching a highly targeted audience of birdwatchers who are keen to see new birds. Thus it is ideal for birdwatching tour companies, tour guides, accommodation providers, travel services, optics and other equipment manufacturers, wildlife booksellers etc.
The available advert positions are illustrated as green boxes on the web page image below. (Sorry, this image is out of date but available positions are still similar.) Do Contact Us to discuss any specific requirements you may have.
If you provide a service that you consider is of interest to birders and would like to advertise on BUBO Listing then please use the online form to Contact Us, or send an email to
Want to see more of the photos on BUBO Listing? You can now click on any photo on the website and see a larger image.
.jpg "Firecrest (Regulus ignicapilla)")
.jpg "Red-flanked Bluetail (Tarsiger cyanurus)")
.jpg "Little Egret (Egretta garzetta)")
Note that copyright remains with the original photographer. If you wish to use any of these photos, whether electronically or in print, contact BUBO Listing and we will put you in touch with the particular photographer.
BUBO Listing has introduced some new features to the website which now makes it much easier to view not just other listers' lists, but details about the listers themselves.
When logged in you will see a new menu item 'View Listers'. This shows you a list of all BUBO Listers, some information about them, and the number of lists they have registered with BUBO Listing. Click on a particular user to see further details, including exactly which lists they have. You can then click on a list to see the full species details.
Please make this new feature more interesting by editing your own profile, by clicking on your name and email address at the top right, and providing some information 'about you'. You can also add a picture of yourself: see if you can identify any fellow BUBO Listers whilst out birding!
18 October 2013: Sorry, the list import service is no longer available. Don't worry though - it really doesn't take long to add lists to BUBO Listing from scratch!
Several birders have asked us if there is a way to import their existing lists (stored in Excel, Word etc.) into BUBO Listing. Whilst the system does not support this (it is complicated to develop considering differences in spellings and taxonomies, and we'd prefer to spend our limited development time on enhancing other areas of BUBO Listing), we have decided to offer a List Import service. You can send us a list via email to
If we have any problems importing the lists we will get back to you for clarification. Otherwise we will let you know when your list is online for you to check it.
Since this will be a time-consuming and mostly manual process for us there is a small charge for the service. For every list you would like us to import we ask for a minimum payment of £5.00, or £10.00 for lists of more than 1000 species, to be paid via the Paypal donation button on the BUBO Listing website (or Contact Us to donate by cheque or bank transfer). You can also pay the equivalent amount in other currencies: check for the current exchange rate and just pay us appropriately. We will only request payment after your list is online, and you have checked it. Feel free to donate more than £10.00 per list if you like!
Obviously there is a level of trust in this process: however if you don't pay within a reasonable time period then we can always delete your lists from the system!
In summary:
- if you are not already registered with BUBO Listing, then register first (for free)
- email us your list(s) to
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. - we will upload them to BUBO Listing and notify you when it is ready
- you can then check them, and we will correct any errors
- when complete, you can click on the Donate button (e.g. on the homepage or here below, or Contact Us to donate by cheque or bank transfer) and make a donation of at least £5.00 per list (£10 or more for lists of at least 1000 species)
Some enhancements have been made to the Copy List feature within BUBO Listing. As you know, this allows you to create a new list automatically populated based on an existing list, and is a very quick way to create your Birdwatch Magazine life list based upon your BOU life list for example. Well now it is even easier and faster...
Copying Species Details
Before you confirm the copy, you will be asked if you wish to copy all species details to the new list, i.e. including date, location, comments and sensitive status, or just the species itself. For example, if you are creating a county list based on your Britain life list, and you know that most of your first county records were not the same as the ticks on your Britain life list, you will find it quicker to just copy the species itself. If you had done most of your birding within the county and therefore a large proportion of county ticks were actually British lifers as well, you would be better off copying all species details. Whichever option you choose, you will then have less manual edits to do via 'My Lists'.
Copying Between Authorities
One of the powerful features of BUBO Listing is to be able to create lists under different authorities, despite the fact that they use different taxonomies. For example if you have a BOU Britain life list you can create your Birdwatch Magazine life list by copying species as described above. Now this process has been enhanced to tell you exactly which species have not been copied across due to taxonomic differences. For example, a Bean Goose on your BOU list would not be copied to your Birdwatch list, since Birdwatch Magazine instead include the split Taiga Bean Goose and Tundra Bean Goose: BUBO Listing is unable to guess which one(s) you have seen! So BUBO Listing will now list all those species that have not copied, as well as telling you which additional species are available on the new authority, so you can quickly add these if you have seen them.
Note that at first glance, the manner in which some species are dropped from lists when copying from one authority to another may seem non-sensical. For example, copying from a BOU list to a UK400 list will result in Red Grouse being dropped from the list, then Red Grouse will need to be added to the new UK400 list. Although these would appear to be the same species, the discrepancy arises because the UK400 club considers Red Grouse to be Lagopus scotica, distinct from the Willow Grouse Lagopus lagopus of continental Europe. The BOU considers British Red Grouse to be the subspecies Lagopus lagopus scotica. Such distinctions may seem unimportant in a British context. However, maintaining them is vital when considering copying lists across a wider geographical area, such as from Britain to the Western Palearctic or to the World.
With these two changes, there is now no excuse for you not to add some new lists to BUBO Listing!