Happy New Year everyone! And with a new year comes a new challenge, and for this competition's fifth installment @devilfish (the 2016 Challenge winner) and myself have settled on Passerines. This is a very large and variable group which is well-represented in zoos across the world so should make for a very competitive and fun challenge.
Rules are as follows:
1. You have to actually see the animal, even if just for a second. You don't score if you visit a collection but don't see the animal (harsh, but fair);
2. Proof via photographs is not required, your word is your bond;
3. All entries must be presented in numbered list form, with scientific names included (simply to make it easier to keep track of and to avoid uncountable species being slipped in due to vagueness);
4. You have to see the animal via normal public access (i.e. not including zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes) during normal public opening hours (i.e. no scoring because you know the keeper and can get access before/after hours). Basically the species has to be seen as Joe Public would;
5. Any severely limited opening or private collections don't count for this challenge. Controversial yes, but see previous point and it isn't fair to include a handful of days these collections might be open to the public as this might logistically disadvantage a large number of people;
6. Only public zoological collections count, animals seen at farms or pet stores do not count.
7. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along;
8. Only one subspecies per species can be counted;
9. Controversial entries due to splits will be discussed on a case-by-case basis;
10. Domestics do not count, the animals must be in a wild form. You can count a species that's been domesticated just as long as the animal you're looking at isn't (i.e. Australian Zebra Finches count but Domestic Zebra Finches do not);
11. Hybrid animals do not count;
12. Wild animals do not count, all species must be seen in captivity under all the conditions listed above;
13. Any issues with any of the above rules is open to discussion but the rules are set and any decisions made are final;
14. Except for the unlikely event that someone gets to see all the species potentially see-able by 12/31/17 the winner will be deemed to be the person(s) who's seen the most at that date.
As always, thanks to @Shorts for the original challenge idea. Also thanks to @TeaLovingDave for suggesting this year's topic.
Good luck everyone, looking forward to seeing how we all do!
~Thylo
Rules are as follows:
1. You have to actually see the animal, even if just for a second. You don't score if you visit a collection but don't see the animal (harsh, but fair);
2. Proof via photographs is not required, your word is your bond;
3. All entries must be presented in numbered list form, with scientific names included (simply to make it easier to keep track of and to avoid uncountable species being slipped in due to vagueness);
4. You have to see the animal via normal public access (i.e. not including zookeeper for the day or photography days behind the scenes) during normal public opening hours (i.e. no scoring because you know the keeper and can get access before/after hours). Basically the species has to be seen as Joe Public would;
5. Any severely limited opening or private collections don't count for this challenge. Controversial yes, but see previous point and it isn't fair to include a handful of days these collections might be open to the public as this might logistically disadvantage a large number of people;
6. Only public zoological collections count, animals seen at farms or pet stores do not count.
7. Report/update your progress on this thread as you go along;
8. Only one subspecies per species can be counted;
9. Controversial entries due to splits will be discussed on a case-by-case basis;
10. Domestics do not count, the animals must be in a wild form. You can count a species that's been domesticated just as long as the animal you're looking at isn't (i.e. Australian Zebra Finches count but Domestic Zebra Finches do not);
11. Hybrid animals do not count;
12. Wild animals do not count, all species must be seen in captivity under all the conditions listed above;
13. Any issues with any of the above rules is open to discussion but the rules are set and any decisions made are final;
14. Except for the unlikely event that someone gets to see all the species potentially see-able by 12/31/17 the winner will be deemed to be the person(s) who's seen the most at that date.
As always, thanks to @Shorts for the original challenge idea. Also thanks to @TeaLovingDave for suggesting this year's topic.
Good luck everyone, looking forward to seeing how we all do!
~Thylo
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) as such, I have added to scientific names to my post quoted below since the new forum software seems to only allow a very short period of editing. 
