Blair,
As I'm sure I'll be one of many thinking the first thought I'll get that out of the way first. A list is a personal goal and many people have different standards for what they consider "countable". I'm sure you weren't asking that timeless philosophical question so I'll get to my standard. My standard for putting a bird on a list, whether it is life, state, county, yard etc.. is can I describe it back to somebody if quizzed on it. Basically if somebody were to grill me on why it was bird X instead of bird Y could I answer that question. If the answer is yes, it goes on. If looks/calls were too brief to say yes, it stays off. Obviously that's my standard and others may have different ones.

Hope this helped.

Scott Downes
downess at charter.net
Yakima WA