Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World

I love birds. Not only do I love observing and photographing birds, I love reading about birds and even hearing about birds from my friends who see birds. The first field guide I bought was National Geographic's Guide To the Birds of North America. Oh yeah, and I don't try to but I know I succeed at annoying my friends when I point out birds and bird calls. Sometimes, it catches on and they start doing it too. That is to say, I'm a bird nerd. But my love of and efforts on behalf of observing birds pale in comparison to that of author Noah Stryker, who, in 2015, set out to observe half of the world's bird species between 1 January and 31 December.

Having finished the book, I believe that any person who is not interested in birds would be seeing puppies (an expression I stole from my sister's husband - read: completely bored to the point of hallucination, which happens when he hears us chatterbox-ing incessantly) before the end of the first chapter. I, on the other hand, enjoyed Strycker's story immensely, not only because I love birds but because of the existence of the internet, which allowed me to look up any bird he mentioned in a matter of seconds and see a photo and/or video of what he tries to describe in words, which just don't do the birds justice. The book does include a few photos of Strycker's journeys.

He recounts his Big Year chronologically, flying and driving, often on harrowing journeys (p 79), "Vehicle crashes are the number-one killer of travelers worldwide..." across the world and back to the tune of, by my as-the-bird-flies calculation, over 80,000 miles, 100, 000 miles is likely a more realistic number (since I missed the distance to several countries). Noah's recounting is filled with facts about birds in general (p 3) "between 200 and 400 billion feathered friends share this planet with us," "as of 2015, 10,365 bird species have been identified," and specific species (I'll let you read those yourself). He also includes information about his birding companions (p 30) "Every bird that [he] would count, for the whole year, would have to be seen by at least one other person," many of whom followed his progress by way of a blog he maintained during his journeys. He gives credit where credit is due not only to his fellow bird observers, but also others (p 76), "Acts of kindness from strangers continually surprised, buoyed, and humbled me, and just saying thank you never seemed to capture the fullness of my gratitude."Of course, he also describes his surroundings and shares information about the 41 countries he visits, which was fascinating, for example, (p 114) "No other Latin American nation, and perhaps no country anywhere, has done more to promote an environmentally friendly image [than Costa Rica]. Oh yeah, and that part about the tsetse fly.

Having set the book aside, I began to wonder about a few things. We learn that a Dutch guy set out in 2016 to break Strycker's record. With the benefit of hindsight from Noah's trip, he follows a similar route, adds and subtracts countries in order to find more birds, and breaks the record less than a year after Strycker., which must have been a bummer. But the Birding Without Borders author takes the high road, commenting, "I tip my hat to Arjan Dwarshuis, the new Big Year record holder, and wish him good birding for the rest of the year." I do love good sportsmanship. The other thing I wonder: how big is a carbon footprint that gets a person through 41 countries, mostly by air but also by car. So, I did what anyone with an engineering background would do and made a rough calculation based on the author's commentary. An online site says that air travel on a commercial jetliner uses about 0.24#CO2/passenger/mile and another allows an individual to buy carbon offset credits for $5 per pound. Applied to a 100,000 mile journey, I get 0.24 times 100,000 miles times $5/carbon credit = $120,000 required to cover the cost of carbon offset. That's twice what Strycker says he paid for his entire trip including the credits. If I think about it too much, the whole thing makes me feel a bit judgy, but "Judge not lest ye be judged," right?

In summary, Birding Without Borders is an entertaining, well-written recounting of Birding magazine associate editor Noah Strycker's Big Year that any bird enthusiast would surely enjoy. The jury is out about whether the benefit of the book's content outweighs the significant carbon footprint the author made in order to succeed in his quest to break the Big Year birding record. Also good: Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds Paperback by Olivia Gentile and Crow Planet by Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt

I loved this book. What's not to like? A man travels around the world to all sorts of exotic places, he encounters interesting characters, he has exploits, and he's following his dream. Unfortunately, unless you're a birder like I am, you won't be too interested in this book.

Noah Strycker sets out to see 5000 bird species in one year. It's what birders call "A Big Year". Strycker writes about his preparations and his travels in a competent, blogerly fashion. As he travels, he does rattle off all the birds he's seeing at each place as if everyone is familiar with them. But if, like me, you're only familiar with North American birds, you spend a lot of time Googling to see all the birds he names. That was frustrating. As much as I enjoyed Strycker's travels and envied his birding exploits, this is a "For Birders Only" book.

Ornithologist Noah Strycker wanted to become the first person to see half the world’s birds in one year.

In the truly amazing and thoroughly engrossing journey he describes here, he achieved his goal – only to have it eclipsed the following year.

I am not a birder, though I am attentive to the birds around me wherever I might be.

That makes me very different than Mr. Strycker, who is a very competent writer, entirely able to describe his adventure in clear, compelling prose that, like a good thriller, keeps you turning pages.

Even if I was still young, I wouldn’t take this tip. I prefer my creature comforts to stomping around in the hinterlands of the 41 countries Strycker visited. There’s a photograph and list of his gear in an appendix. Many homeless people tote more.

He spotted 6,042 species – I doubt that I could identify more than a couple of dozen on my best day.

But I truly envy him for has experience and accomplishment. His narrative kept me turning pages long after the time I should have shut my eyes and fallen asleep.

No, Strycker didn’t change the course of world history. No, he wasn’t pursuing global peace or some other lofty goal. He simply wanted to set a very specific record and he did so.

And his telling of that story is enthralling. This, in my opinion, is truly a feel-good book. A young man pursues a goal and lives out a wonderful adventure. Heartwarming to be sure.

Jerry

The author embarks on an around-the-world trip from his home in Eugene Oregon. He starts in Antarctica and finishes in India in an effort to see 5,000 bird species. In the end he exceeds his wildest expectations and rings in the new year with 6,042 species to add to his list. He endures various conditions include slogging through mud and lack of sleep in his quest. He spent and lost money, had to make various travel arrangements and re-arrangements, got sick, traveled in various vehicles (taxis, boats, ferry, raft, plane, La Brujita in Columbia, etc.), and pushed himself beyond what he thought possible during his marathon birding expedition.

I am not a birder, although I can tell the difference between a pelican and a penguin. Nevertheless I immensely enjoyed living his journey vicariously through his book. This is not about counting off the birds in a list but about the entire journey it took to get there.

I love this book and I'm not "a birder!" Well, I'm not a "stalwart" birder, anyway, although I have had the same family of cardinals visit the feeder in my yard for fifteen years and I did google many of the birds described by Noah Strycker in "Birding Without Borders."

Bird lover extraordinaire and world traveler, Noah Strycker, writes an amazing account of his year counting birds across the far reaches of the planet: When he walked off his last flight of the year on December 28th, 2015 in Dibrugarh, India, he realized he'd taken 112 flights on 77 different days, totaling 100,514 air miles.

In the end, he visited 41 countries on seven continents and spent about $60,000 on travel, or approximately $10 per bird, and considered it well worth it.

He set a world record, capping his list at 6,042 birds (Clements Checklist) -- 58.3 percent of the world's recognized species.

I loved reading this book! Strycker's style kept me engaged throughout with his keen observations about travel details, the people he met, local terrains and vistas, logistics, foods, culture and of course, more than a few of the 6,000+ birds he saw.

This is an entertaining, informative adventure story with plenty of problem solving, some danger, some suspense, world travel and bird observations.

I love his philosophy: "Birding is about appreciating life's infinite details -- and if subtlety is beauty, then a birder will never run short of wonder. That number 6,000 did not seem like a conquest -- it felt like a fresh beginning." (254) NOTE: I read an advance copy; this line is subject to omission or editing in the first printed edition. But I love Strycker's perspective!

There is an inset with photos. Appendix 1 lists his "Gear For A Big Year" with photo. (Everything fit into a 40-liter REI Travel Pack. Amazing!) Appendix 2 is "Big Year Snapshot," a chart listing "Country, Days, Total, New, Unique, New per Day, %New, %Unique." Strycker is no slouch when it comes to statistics! Appendix 3: "Big Year Species List" numbers each bird from 1 to 6,042, Species, Date, Location. And "Index."

You can visit the audubon.org site and peruse Noah Strycker's blog about this grand adventure.

84% (as of today, 10-10-18) are right: this is worth Five Stars.
Before I bought this book I read, as I usually do, the lower ratings. Might as well get the bad news first. Those reviews critiques were pretty much what I expected - "missed the mark", "could have been better", "left out alot of info on his various guides, you know, the human interest angle".
Well I'm currently on p. 58 and I don't miss not having any of that. Noah has his own way of recounting his exploits, and for me they work. This guy is a natural born writer. His prose flows. His descriptions of people, places and things, oddly enough, has an almost uncanny resemblance to the writing of Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett. It's that same sort of spare, direct tone which tells you exactly what you need to know, and no more, and no less.
This is a delight to read and I am a very picky reader. The last bird book I bought, The Peregrine, by J.A. Baker was a crushing bore despite his admirers. This book, Birding Without Borders, is anything but boring.
So I recommend it to other birders, but I'll go further. I would recommend it even to NON-birders. It's that universal.

Can't say enough good things about Noah Strycker's books. This is his most recent gem.

it is well written my husband has not finish reading it yet.

This is a captivating account of an amazing adventure. My brother said it's the best book he has read in years. Highly recommended for everyone, not just "birders". Noah is an excellent writer.

Stryker vividly shares and immerses the reader in the discipline, emotions, and hardships that lead to the ultimate joy and satisfaction of birding.