Why is the big year record not accurate?

Question

At the end of The Big Year (2011), Kenny Bostick does a big year and finishes with 755 bird species. After watching the film, I checked Wikipedia for Big year and reached the following information:

The Big Year of 1998 was the subject of a book of the same name by Mark Obmascik. In that year three birders, Sandy Komito, Al Levantin and Greg Miller, chased Komito's record of 721 birds. In the end Sandy Komito kept the record, listing 745 birds plus 3 submitted in 1998 and later accepted by state committees for a revised total of 748. The book was adapted for the 2011 20th Century Fox film The Big Year.

As of 2011, the world record is still 748, but in the movie it is 755. Why is the record in the movie not the same as the real one?

Answer 1

This page has a calculation on what one birder SHOULD have done, who ended on 748:

In late August instead of birding in Colorado for some code 1 birds that he could have picked up at other times of the year, he could have been in the Pribiloffs for a few days before going to Gambell. If he had he could have seen taiga and dark-sided flycatchers (code 4's), a jack snipe (code 4) and a long-toed stint (code 3). All of these birds could have been seen without missing out on other birds that John saw during the same time periods. If he had seen all these additional birds his 2011 total would have been 755.

I'd theorise then that they were basing it on the theoretical maximum then, ie the answer to the "if he'd done everything right, how many could he have seen?" question.

Answer 2

I always liked to think it had to do with Hank Aaron's true home run record. Obviously birding and baseball have no relation but I still always liked to think they made Bostick's record 755 which is what Aaron's home run total was. Maybe their sticking it to that cheater Barry Bonds. Of course, this is probably all ridiculous and completely false.