2024 already has been a big year in Haikubox birding with over 600 million bird songs and calls detected, identified, and recorded.
An analysis of combined data across North America showed that five species dominate the soundscape: House Sparrow, House Finch, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren and American Robin. Together they made up over one-third (37.8%) all vocalizing birds identified by North American Haikuboxes. House Sparrows continue to be the most vocal, with over 67.5 million recordings, with the House Finch close behind with over 51.7 million recordings.
The 15 next most common species made up a further 34.6% of all birds: American Goldfinch, Blue Jay, Tufted Titmouse, Common Grackle, House Wren, Black-capped Chickadee, California Towhee, Gray Catbird, American Crow, Carolina Chickadee, Song Sparrow, Mourning Dove, Anna's Hummingbird, Red-bellied Woodpecker, and Lesser Goldfinch. The remaining birds, over 500 species, made up the final 27.7 percent of all identifications.
There were differences between the most common birds identified in western and eastern North America, and with more eastern Haikuboxes, the difference in overall abundance is not surprising. Most frequently identified eastern birds were the House Sparrow, Northern Cardinal, Carolina Wren, American Robin and House Finch. Most likely western bird visitors were the House Finch, House Sparrow, California Towhee, Anna's Hummingbird, and American Robin.
Haikuboxes in Europe also had lots of House Sparrow visitors, with almost 3.9 million identified so far this year. Other frequent vocalizers were the Eurasian Blackbird, European Robin, Eurasian Blue Tit, and Common Chiffchaff. These five species made up almost 54% of all European bird identifications.
Please see previous blog posts for details on previous analyses of Haikubox abundance data.