How do they prove...

like they say in the film, everyone knows who the cheaters are. as another thread says, someone can look at your log book and question dubious claims (like if you claimed to see birds on attu island, they would know if you were really there since it was only once a year a flight would go there).

Man, I love when people comment on things they clearly no absolutely nothing about. It's not a crock, it is on the honor system. Outlandish claims usually warrant a photograph...as explained in the movie. Believe it or not, even today, there are sects of society that still trust one another. Your word is typically good enough in the bird watching community, but a photo or vocal recording on the rare ones helps. the people who make up sightings or plain don't know what they were looking at typically reveal themselves in various ways. Also, if you were to claim you saw 1000 different species in a day, the one huge problem with that, is there is nowhere on earth where you can reliably get 1000 species in a day. 100 at any given spot in a dat is a feat in most of N. America. I believe the total number of species ever recorded in N. America is right around 900, but don't quote me.