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Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World
Traveling to 41 countries in 2015 with a backpack and binoculars, Noah Strycker became the first person to see more than half the world’s 10,000 species of birds in one year.
In 2015, Noah Strycker set himself a lofty goal: to become the first person to see half the world’s birds in one year. For 365 days, with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, he traveled across forty-one countries and all seven continents, eventually spotting 6,042 species—by far the biggest birding year on record.
This is no travelogue or glorified checklist. Noah ventures deep into a world of blood-sucking leeches, chronic sleep deprivation, airline snafus, breakdowns, mudslides, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, conservation triumphs, common and iconic species, and scores of passionate bird lovers around the globe. By pursuing the freest creatures on the planet, Noah gains a unique perspective on the world they share with us—and offers a hopeful message that even as many birds face an uncertain future, more people than ever are working to protect them.
In 2015, Noah Strycker set himself a lofty goal: to become the first person to see half the world’s birds in one year. For 365 days, with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, he traveled across forty-one countries and all seven continents, eventually spotting 6,042 species—by far the biggest birding year on record.
This is no travelogue or glorified checklist. Noah ventures deep into a world of blood-sucking leeches, chronic sleep deprivation, airline snafus, breakdowns, mudslides, floods, war zones, ecologic devastation, conservation triumphs, common and iconic species, and scores of passionate bird lovers around the globe. By pursuing the freest creatures on the planet, Noah gains a unique perspective on the world they share with us—and offers a hopeful message that even as many birds face an uncertain future, more people than ever are working to protect them.
336 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2017
287 people are currently reading
3,277 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 383 reviews
May 14, 2018
I finished reading Noah Strycker’s Birding Without Boarders an obsession. Noah sets out to do a big year around the world in 2015 and records a mind-blowing 6042 species and shattering the old record.
Yet another Big Year book for birders? I am wondering if the literary market is soon going to be saturated with Big Year travel stories. Is it really that interesting to follow someone traveling the world one bird at the time? Your average Joe will not get away with something like this. However, Noah Strycker has proven to be such a fine writer, so at least in this case the book has found validity also for people interested in reading a wonderful travel tale. He already has two books published before this one, and has built a tail of fans. The main text of the book covers 257 pages, and 326 in total including index and various appendixes, but not counting the foreword by Kenn Kaufman.
I was amazed and flattered to see 33 pages dedicated to the adventures in Peru with me and the Kolibri Expeditions staff. That is 13% of the book. In fairness it should be said that of all 6042 birds that Noah recorded that year, 784 (13%) of them where found in Peru. It is proportional! Peru is that great. �
Noah, has a way of making birding understandable. I recommend the book also to the non-birder, because the quest is interesting and gives a tremendous insight how traveling off the beaten track around the world can look like. You get inside the head of a birder. The stories that unfold are a selection of highlights and special quests. They are tastefully decorated with tidbits about conservation concerns, behavior peculiarities, ecology, evolution, dangerous roads, sleep deprivation and lots of interesting people. So in spite of being yet another book on a big year, this is a particularly well written account. The chapters are organized linearly and from the start of each chapter you are thrown into an action-packed quest. Sort of like a well written best seller novel, where you get sucked in at the start of each chapter. There are regressions in each chapter to what has happened in between the scenes and as mentioned many interesting tidbits are thrown in.
A longer and more detailed version of this review shall be published on my blog shortly and I'll do a short chapter summary as well. I am also preparing an interview with Noah. Let me know if you have any questions you want to ask him.
Here is the chapter summary for the Peru part. You can find a longer excerpt of this chapter on the Audubon website.
Chapter 6. Gunning it.
Yours truly and Kolibri Staff of Manuel Zamora - Kolibri Expeditions legendary driver - and Carlos Altamirano - young and enthusiastic bird guide put up a tough pace to pack in the birds of Peru in 21 days. Noah could easily done a book only on his Peru experiences alone. There is far more to the story than the book tells, since Peru produced more overall species (784) and more new species (488) than any other country visited and more unique birds for the Big Year (242) only surpassed by Australia (312). This chapter describes the quest for Black-spectacled Brush-Finch in the Satipo Road area, Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager at Bosque Unchog in Central Peru and Marvelous Spatuletail in Northern Peru. Our adventures in Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado did not fit. There is also a fair amount of on the spot trouble solving as it is rainy season and this made road conditions tough on the cars.
Have a read! This book is not just another big year account. It is the best - and so much more
Yet another Big Year book for birders? I am wondering if the literary market is soon going to be saturated with Big Year travel stories. Is it really that interesting to follow someone traveling the world one bird at the time? Your average Joe will not get away with something like this. However, Noah Strycker has proven to be such a fine writer, so at least in this case the book has found validity also for people interested in reading a wonderful travel tale. He already has two books published before this one, and has built a tail of fans. The main text of the book covers 257 pages, and 326 in total including index and various appendixes, but not counting the foreword by Kenn Kaufman.
I was amazed and flattered to see 33 pages dedicated to the adventures in Peru with me and the Kolibri Expeditions staff. That is 13% of the book. In fairness it should be said that of all 6042 birds that Noah recorded that year, 784 (13%) of them where found in Peru. It is proportional! Peru is that great. �
Noah, has a way of making birding understandable. I recommend the book also to the non-birder, because the quest is interesting and gives a tremendous insight how traveling off the beaten track around the world can look like. You get inside the head of a birder. The stories that unfold are a selection of highlights and special quests. They are tastefully decorated with tidbits about conservation concerns, behavior peculiarities, ecology, evolution, dangerous roads, sleep deprivation and lots of interesting people. So in spite of being yet another book on a big year, this is a particularly well written account. The chapters are organized linearly and from the start of each chapter you are thrown into an action-packed quest. Sort of like a well written best seller novel, where you get sucked in at the start of each chapter. There are regressions in each chapter to what has happened in between the scenes and as mentioned many interesting tidbits are thrown in.
A longer and more detailed version of this review shall be published on my blog shortly and I'll do a short chapter summary as well. I am also preparing an interview with Noah. Let me know if you have any questions you want to ask him.
Here is the chapter summary for the Peru part. You can find a longer excerpt of this chapter on the Audubon website.
Chapter 6. Gunning it.
Yours truly and Kolibri Staff of Manuel Zamora - Kolibri Expeditions legendary driver - and Carlos Altamirano - young and enthusiastic bird guide put up a tough pace to pack in the birds of Peru in 21 days. Noah could easily done a book only on his Peru experiences alone. There is far more to the story than the book tells, since Peru produced more overall species (784) and more new species (488) than any other country visited and more unique birds for the Big Year (242) only surpassed by Australia (312). This chapter describes the quest for Black-spectacled Brush-Finch in the Satipo Road area, Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager at Bosque Unchog in Central Peru and Marvelous Spatuletail in Northern Peru. Our adventures in Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado did not fit. There is also a fair amount of on the spot trouble solving as it is rainy season and this made road conditions tough on the cars.
Have a read! This book is not just another big year account. It is the best - and so much more
March 19, 2018
I enjoyed this memoir much more than I anticipated. Late last year, I read this author’s , which I enjoyed because I am a penguin fanatic. I have done a fair bit of travel in the pursuit of birds, so I picked up this volume with both hope and reservations.
I needn’t have worried. Strycker is a much better writer than many of the folks who pen birding memoirs and I enjoyed seeing places, people and birds that I know through his eyes. I think that was part of the enjoyment for me—getting to revisit some places, remember some birds and say, “Oh, I met that person!�
For those of you who aren’t obsessed with birds, a big year is a year devoted to seeing as many birds as possible in a certain area. There’s a certain competitiveness inherent in the practice which you can read about in (or try the movie of the same name, which I enjoyed). As I read TBY, I found myself snorting occasionally as I identified with many of the behaviours described. Strycker takes the Big Year concept a step further as he decides to take his Year global and try to see half of the bird species on Earth (5000 of an approximate 10,000). While having no desire to participate in such an activity myself, it was intriguing to see how Strycker proceeded with the endeavour.
What I appreciated the most about this account wasn’t the list of birds. Obviously birds figure prominently in the account, but it was the connections with people, the difficulties faced during travel, and the time spent putting things into perspective—those made the tale worthwhile in my opinion. There was self-reflection here, plus no over-the-top environmental preachiness.
I’m unsure how interesting non-birders would find such a book—if any of my non-birding friends choose to read it, perhaps you could let me know?
I needn’t have worried. Strycker is a much better writer than many of the folks who pen birding memoirs and I enjoyed seeing places, people and birds that I know through his eyes. I think that was part of the enjoyment for me—getting to revisit some places, remember some birds and say, “Oh, I met that person!�
For those of you who aren’t obsessed with birds, a big year is a year devoted to seeing as many birds as possible in a certain area. There’s a certain competitiveness inherent in the practice which you can read about in (or try the movie of the same name, which I enjoyed). As I read TBY, I found myself snorting occasionally as I identified with many of the behaviours described. Strycker takes the Big Year concept a step further as he decides to take his Year global and try to see half of the bird species on Earth (5000 of an approximate 10,000). While having no desire to participate in such an activity myself, it was intriguing to see how Strycker proceeded with the endeavour.
What I appreciated the most about this account wasn’t the list of birds. Obviously birds figure prominently in the account, but it was the connections with people, the difficulties faced during travel, and the time spent putting things into perspective—those made the tale worthwhile in my opinion. There was self-reflection here, plus no over-the-top environmental preachiness.
I’m unsure how interesting non-birders would find such a book—if any of my non-birding friends choose to read it, perhaps you could let me know?
December 2, 2017
I’ve always suspected I wouldn’t like travelogues, that they’d just leave me feeling jealous. I’m therefore surprised to report that what I really loved about this birding memoir was hearing about the author’s travels. As the author traveled the world to beat a birding record, he stayed with locals, who knew local birds and local customs. It was fascinating to learn about the different locations he visited from this intimate perspective. I generally enjoyed hearing about his interactions with people. The help he received was heart-warming and the birding culture was at least as interesting as the culture of any country he visited. The author did a great job compressing his adventures of a year, the highs and lows, to make a fast-paced read that made me feel like I was constantly getting to visit new places. My only complaint is that I would have liked more pictures of the birds he saw, but I suppose that’s what the internet is for. Highly recommended if you have any interest in birding, but also if you’re a fan of travelogues.
This review first published at
This review first published at
October 11, 2018
Not just another birding memoir. First one I've read that makes a point of world travel, of going to the birds instead of aggressively seeking out the accidentals, the vagrant rarities. First one I've read that connects so very much with all the local birders, guides, drivers, and random strangers who rescued our boy from some, erm, predicaments.
Ecotourism is a great way to make money, as one former logger discovered when he befriended a wild Giant Antpitta at his home in Ecuador. And for people in countries like Ghana and Myanmar, it's a great way to make a career out of doing what you love.
Palm oil. The plantations on the tropical island of New Britain are representative of "one of the world's worst environmental scourges." And as we've learned elsewhere, the industry is killing Orangutans. But it's hard for us to stop using, as palm oil "is used in half of all supermarket products--including lipstick, soap, chocolate, instant noodles, bread, detergent, and ice cream--and is labeled under a host of names, such as vegetable oil, vegetable fat, glycerol, and Elaeis guineensis. Otoh, it's an efficient source, as "compared to similar crops (such as soybeans and canola), palm trees can produce ten times as much oil per acre."
So, it's still a trade-off for those kinds of goods. Well, at least we can cut our intake of processed fatty foods and read labels to choose, for example, ice cream without any vegetable oil. After all, it's not like we need lipstick, instant noodles, snack crackers, etc.
Anyway, the book was a joy to read, even though I've already read several birder and twitcher memoirs already. I liked Strycker's gentle enthusiasm, his philosophical bits, the tidbits of culture, geography, history that he lightly sprinkled in. I appreciate that he talked about money and fatigue, and that he included a few wonderful photos, a list of what was in his backpack, the checklist of birds seen, and the index.
(But you know who really needs to publically appreciate Strycker's pathfinding trek? Arwan Dwarshuis. I bet he couldn't have accomplished what he did w/out learning from Strycker's field blog.)
Ecotourism is a great way to make money, as one former logger discovered when he befriended a wild Giant Antpitta at his home in Ecuador. And for people in countries like Ghana and Myanmar, it's a great way to make a career out of doing what you love.
Palm oil. The plantations on the tropical island of New Britain are representative of "one of the world's worst environmental scourges." And as we've learned elsewhere, the industry is killing Orangutans. But it's hard for us to stop using, as palm oil "is used in half of all supermarket products--including lipstick, soap, chocolate, instant noodles, bread, detergent, and ice cream--and is labeled under a host of names, such as vegetable oil, vegetable fat, glycerol, and Elaeis guineensis. Otoh, it's an efficient source, as "compared to similar crops (such as soybeans and canola), palm trees can produce ten times as much oil per acre."
So, it's still a trade-off for those kinds of goods. Well, at least we can cut our intake of processed fatty foods and read labels to choose, for example, ice cream without any vegetable oil. After all, it's not like we need lipstick, instant noodles, snack crackers, etc.
Anyway, the book was a joy to read, even though I've already read several birder and twitcher memoirs already. I liked Strycker's gentle enthusiasm, his philosophical bits, the tidbits of culture, geography, history that he lightly sprinkled in. I appreciate that he talked about money and fatigue, and that he included a few wonderful photos, a list of what was in his backpack, the checklist of birds seen, and the index.
(But you know who really needs to publically appreciate Strycker's pathfinding trek? Arwan Dwarshuis. I bet he couldn't have accomplished what he did w/out learning from Strycker's field blog.)
June 15, 2022
Усе, що ви ніколи не хотіли дізнатись про світ спортивного бьордвотчінгу, але дізнались і це виявилось доволі цікаво.
June 3, 2022
Noah Strycker is not only an intrepid birder, he's also an engaging writer. He makes a round-the-world trip during which he traveled over 100,000 miles to see over 6000 species of birds sound like loads of fun.
April 25, 2024
Privileged white bro goes birding around the world and barely acknowledges women exist.
August 10, 2023
Absolutely loved this read!! As a birder, I thoroughly enjoyed hearing about Noah’s adventure and descriptions of his encounters with different species of birds in remote places. I assumed it would be a fun read and was not disappointed. I was also very impressed at how well-written, engaging, and easy to read it was. I loved the sense of adventure he conveyed throughout. I would recommend this book to birders and non-birders alike, especially if you like travel-based books and wildlife. Noah gave just enough context about the different species to draw any reader in (regardless of knowledge of birds) without distracting from the story.
I would love any recommendations for similar books! This left me wanting more.
I would love any recommendations for similar books! This left me wanting more.
May 17, 2019
At the beginning, I loved this book. It is easy to read, quick, and lively. It’s like listening to the story of someone’s trip when you *actually want to hear about their trip.*
About halfway through a few points began to bug me:
* The author hardly mentions any of the women he birded with. One in Oregon does make it into the narrative, but the vast majority of people he writes about are men. He does mention several women in his acknowledgments. Of course, this could be a fact of life - men are going to be much more able to meet up with a stranger and head into the woods alone. But I feel like it also had the affect of ignoring women in the birding community. I wish he had either spent more time with female birders, written about the time he did spend, or recognized why he was mostly writing about men.
* Climate change gets barely a mention. This seemed like a missed opportunity.
* The end where he writes about anyone being able to do a Big Year comes off as smug. I believe he probably meant it more humbly - sure it might not have cost him an insane amount. But the vast majority of people aren’t 29 yo single men with the ability to a) save that much money to take a year off and b) forego a year without income. I think he was trying to encourage people to live life to the fullest, but I also think when you are young and single and childless it’s hard to understand how free your life is, and how many other obligations other people have.
* I would have loved to hear a little more day to day stuff. What was the best meal he ate? Did his boots fall apart? Just some more fin details.
* Also I would have liked a little more biology. How the birds of Australia were similar/different than South America.
All in all, I did really enjoy the book. It changed my mind on travelogues and I’m glad I read it. Part of me wishes I hadn’t noticed the women thing - I probably would’ve enjoyed it more.
About halfway through a few points began to bug me:
* The author hardly mentions any of the women he birded with. One in Oregon does make it into the narrative, but the vast majority of people he writes about are men. He does mention several women in his acknowledgments. Of course, this could be a fact of life - men are going to be much more able to meet up with a stranger and head into the woods alone. But I feel like it also had the affect of ignoring women in the birding community. I wish he had either spent more time with female birders, written about the time he did spend, or recognized why he was mostly writing about men.
* Climate change gets barely a mention. This seemed like a missed opportunity.
* The end where he writes about anyone being able to do a Big Year comes off as smug. I believe he probably meant it more humbly - sure it might not have cost him an insane amount. But the vast majority of people aren’t 29 yo single men with the ability to a) save that much money to take a year off and b) forego a year without income. I think he was trying to encourage people to live life to the fullest, but I also think when you are young and single and childless it’s hard to understand how free your life is, and how many other obligations other people have.
* I would have loved to hear a little more day to day stuff. What was the best meal he ate? Did his boots fall apart? Just some more fin details.
* Also I would have liked a little more biology. How the birds of Australia were similar/different than South America.
All in all, I did really enjoy the book. It changed my mind on travelogues and I’m glad I read it. Part of me wishes I hadn’t noticed the women thing - I probably would’ve enjoyed it more.
March 3, 2021
Anyone who knows me know that I -LOVE- birds. I also love travel/adventure memoirs. Stories of people hiking long distance trails, visiting national parks, and in this case, birding around the world really draw me in. I have held on to this book for about a year and finally had a chance to dive into it with my phone in my hand the entire time to google image search all of the birds I had never heard of.
Besides the birds, what really stuck out to me about this story is the generosity of human beings and the surprisingly strong community of word wide birders. At every turn, the author had someone to pick him up at the airport, trek with him up mountains and though valleys, and aide him on his quest to break the world record for most birds seen in a single year.
I’ll end this review by saying my FAVORITE bird that this book introduced me to is the marvelous spatuletail, a little hummingbird that is indeed marvelous. I now feel incredibly inspired to look beyond my home state and even the US to find some birding hotspots I had never known about.
Besides the birds, what really stuck out to me about this story is the generosity of human beings and the surprisingly strong community of word wide birders. At every turn, the author had someone to pick him up at the airport, trek with him up mountains and though valleys, and aide him on his quest to break the world record for most birds seen in a single year.
I’ll end this review by saying my FAVORITE bird that this book introduced me to is the marvelous spatuletail, a little hummingbird that is indeed marvelous. I now feel incredibly inspired to look beyond my home state and even the US to find some birding hotspots I had never known about.
May 16, 2022
I went into this book completely blind, and I absolutely love this book. Noah took us on a absolutely wonderful journey of his wonderful Big Year of birding. not only dose this book provide you his wonderful detailed adventures, but also gives many people who know very little on the subject of birding a good since of how its down and what resources to use. But the moral of the story is he put his life on hold for a whole year to pursue his obsession and passion, an while doing that he met so many wonderful people who also shared his love and joy for the outdoors and birds. This book shows that the bird watching community is not just for older people, but for any age and that I have learned to appreciate more of the birding world, thanks to Noah Strycker.
October 16, 2017
Fascinating story! As a very casual bird watcher and nature enthusiast the story in this book intrigued me. It was engaging and was hard to put down since I was dying to know how everything would turn out at the end of the year. -1 star for the editing - it could have been stronger.
February 8, 2025
I didn’t know what to expect with this book but I loved it so much more than I could have imagined.
December 26, 2022
Reads like a journal. I’m sure the blog posts about his journey would be more in depth but reading the highlights of his Big Year in 300 pages was exciting and kept me reaching for Google to see what the birds looked like. I loved living vicariously through his trip in this book.
October 1, 2022
A delightful memoir of a challenging interesting journey. I loved that Strycker used local birders as his guides to the largest extent possible and that he was doing his own thing and not too worried about another person coming along and breaking his record.
October 26, 2021
Taking a whole year to bird every day might seem like a bizarre thing to do for many people, but for those of us wbo would rather bird than anything, and actually do bird every day, it just sounds like a little bit of heaven. I understand his statement at the end, that he was not sad on finishing his Big Year, because on Jan. 1, every bird is new again on one's year list. That's why lists are so fun, whether it's a life list, a yard list, a Country list, a county list, or a year list. The birds never grow old, and they just represent moments of joy and discovery. Noah Strycker also shares eloquently the joys of birding with others as well as birding alone. He was able to find willing and capable birders in every corner of the world who volunteered their time to show him their country's birds. Birders love to share their time with an excited newcomer. Noah's goal was to exceed the world record for seeing the most birds in one year, and he exceeded that goal by a thousand species. He ended up seeing 6,042 different species of birds. His rule was each bird must be seen by not only him, but by one other person. This makes the sightings a little more verifiable in the honor system of bird reporting.
I loved reading this book, and could have devoured it in a day or two, but drew out the pleasure by taking a month to savor it. I appreciate his sharing his experience of people, birds, and places in this book.
I loved reading this book, and could have devoured it in a day or two, but drew out the pleasure by taking a month to savor it. I appreciate his sharing his experience of people, birds, and places in this book.
May 20, 2020
An interesting account of traveling the world to find birds, but one that took me ages to get through. I've found it hard to engage with a lot of narrative birding accounts--I think the topic is much better suited to a blog or magazine where photos can be a major part of the story. Without having photos of birds that look so different as he traverses the globe, the actual story falls into a repetitive rhythm. I found the interactions and travel snafus to be more interesting than a lot of the bird-related content for that reason.
I also have to say, I spent a lot of time contemplating how difficult it would be for someone like me to pull off something like this--there's no way I'd fly across the world and spend the night in the back of a van with three men I'd never met. It's not particularly a criticism of the book that I say that, but I almost wish he'd addressed not just the financial-privilege part of his equation, but the relative ease of developing an itinerary for this trip as a man. I appreciate this for what it is--a swashbuckling adventure story, really--but there were a lot of reminders that some experiences are harder to come by for a solo female traveler. I may look for a smaller-scale birding tale next!
I also have to say, I spent a lot of time contemplating how difficult it would be for someone like me to pull off something like this--there's no way I'd fly across the world and spend the night in the back of a van with three men I'd never met. It's not particularly a criticism of the book that I say that, but I almost wish he'd addressed not just the financial-privilege part of his equation, but the relative ease of developing an itinerary for this trip as a man. I appreciate this for what it is--a swashbuckling adventure story, really--but there were a lot of reminders that some experiences are harder to come by for a solo female traveler. I may look for a smaller-scale birding tale next!
August 23, 2017
I'm a backyard birder and I quite looked forward to this book. Unfortunately it's hard to read. I feel bad for my rating, I commend this guy on writing a book on what he loves and I want him to succeed. But I don't think he's a natural writer and he might need a good editor.
It says on the back "this is no travelogue or glorified checklist". Funny but I think it would have been better for the reader if it had been either as those were the parts I liked. His travel anecdotes were amusing and there is a species checklist with date and location on the back!
For the rest, some of it was just boring and some meandering and it's not pieced together well. This book is best read piecemeal, looking up passages on the birds or countries you are interested in. In any case, my best wishes for him and his hobby. The 2 star rating according to GoodReads = it was ok and I felt this was an ok book for me.
I got this book as a free ARC.
It says on the back "this is no travelogue or glorified checklist". Funny but I think it would have been better for the reader if it had been either as those were the parts I liked. His travel anecdotes were amusing and there is a species checklist with date and location on the back!
For the rest, some of it was just boring and some meandering and it's not pieced together well. This book is best read piecemeal, looking up passages on the birds or countries you are interested in. In any case, my best wishes for him and his hobby. The 2 star rating according to GoodReads = it was ok and I felt this was an ok book for me.
I got this book as a free ARC.
May 12, 2020
I'm of the opinion that if you're going to write travel literature, you need to either be a genius with prose or write with a keen sense of humor: the prose here is just decent, and the humor is lacking.
August 19, 2021
I read this book for my Travel Book for the Literary Life Podcast Challenge and I really enjoyed it. It was an easy, fun, heartfelt, and exciting read for a bird nerd like me!
June 19, 2020
I'm not a birdwatcher, but I love birds all the same and always stop to observe them whenever I get a chance (I'm the person who exclaims "oh look, a buzzard!" while in a car and who picks up a feather from the ground because "hey, that's a jay!"). But I never understood twitchers - running after as many bird species as possible with a checklist. And yet Noah Stycker's book changed my mind, if only partially, and I even started to appreciate it.
Birding Without Borders is a solid ecotourist travelogue; it was interesting to read about all those different parts of the world from a birdwatcher's perspective. It was a bit of a "I've been here, here, here and here, and saw that, that, that and that bird [insert a number of bird names you've never heard about unless you're a serious bird enthusiast]", but not in an exhausting sort of way. One thing I did suffer from was the lack of photos - maybe just in my edition, but half the time I had to fight the urge to pause reading and google the bird he's seeing. Luckily, the descriptions were good enough for me to imagine them pretty accurately. Now I'm off to check to see the gallery!
Birding Without Borders is a solid ecotourist travelogue; it was interesting to read about all those different parts of the world from a birdwatcher's perspective. It was a bit of a "I've been here, here, here and here, and saw that, that, that and that bird [insert a number of bird names you've never heard about unless you're a serious bird enthusiast]", but not in an exhausting sort of way. One thing I did suffer from was the lack of photos - maybe just in my edition, but half the time I had to fight the urge to pause reading and google the bird he's seeing. Luckily, the descriptions were good enough for me to imagine them pretty accurately. Now I'm off to check to see the gallery!
October 24, 2017
In 2015 the author traveled through 41 countries and 7 continents on his quest to find 5,000 birds in a year long journey.
I have definitely become an armchair birder as I love reading about peoples journeys to track birds, and also watch the ones that live around me. This was a really informative and fun book to read, as it gives us the mindset of a person with a passion to achieve a goal, and not only that of the author, but other birders with as much love of this recreational activity, and what made them get into it.
Before the author left on his year long quest, he had a lot of preparations to do, from one way plane tickets, to searching out birders in each place that he was going, for the company and for the knowledge of the areas that these people could provide. He was so grateful for the interest of so many on making his trip memorable. One can feel what a tight group birders are. He had many exciting adventures along the way and he loved to stay as locally as he could to absorb the whole experience of the areas he visited.
This is a book that even if you are not a birder you could appreciate, it is a wonderful travel memoir.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC of this book.
I have definitely become an armchair birder as I love reading about peoples journeys to track birds, and also watch the ones that live around me. This was a really informative and fun book to read, as it gives us the mindset of a person with a passion to achieve a goal, and not only that of the author, but other birders with as much love of this recreational activity, and what made them get into it.
Before the author left on his year long quest, he had a lot of preparations to do, from one way plane tickets, to searching out birders in each place that he was going, for the company and for the knowledge of the areas that these people could provide. He was so grateful for the interest of so many on making his trip memorable. One can feel what a tight group birders are. He had many exciting adventures along the way and he loved to stay as locally as he could to absorb the whole experience of the areas he visited.
This is a book that even if you are not a birder you could appreciate, it is a wonderful travel memoir.
I would like to thank NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the ARC of this book.
February 14, 2023
A depth of commentary on par with, perhaps, an undergraduate meteorologist presenting the weather for their college TV station. Or maybe a minor league baseball commentator, or a B-level executive giving a talk at a shareholder meeting. One of the main conclusions that Strycker comes to after reflecting on this record-breaking feat is literally "The real life list is the friends we made along the way", which is strange given that we are offered nothing more than superficial details and ruminations about his birding companions' lives. Based on a glance through this account, I would assume that the relationships described in the book are those of coworkers, or maybe distant relatives. But I'm not necessarily looking for gossip� I would have loved a discussion about the social dynamics of this sort of trip, of travel, ecotourism, climate change, and so on, but these topics are only glanced at. Unhelpfully, many of the linguistic flourishes and framings are clearly drawn, problematically, from 19th century adventure novels.
So, clearly Strycker has a truly singular focus in his life, but it's a focus that comes at the expense of any other personal texture, or it's foregrounded in such a way that, deliberately or otherwise, obscures any other significant dimensions of his life.
So, clearly Strycker has a truly singular focus in his life, but it's a focus that comes at the expense of any other personal texture, or it's foregrounded in such a way that, deliberately or otherwise, obscures any other significant dimensions of his life.
February 13, 2019
If you love birds, you'll probably enjoy this book. Noah Strycker went to every continent in an attempt to see 5,000 bird species in a year. He actually saw 6,000. He got in touch with local birders every place he went, and they helped him. Clearly he was engaging and ready for anything, including days with no sleep and cars that stopped working at the top of desolate cliffs. He gives other birders a great deal of credit.
I particularly enjoyed going to the Internet and finding photos of the birds he mentioned. It was a treat to discover beautiful birds I had never heard of, like the Magellanic woodpecker and the golden-tufted woodpecker. The variety of tanagers and hummingbirds in South America is staggering.
I particularly enjoyed going to the Internet and finding photos of the birds he mentioned. It was a treat to discover beautiful birds I had never heard of, like the Magellanic woodpecker and the golden-tufted woodpecker. The variety of tanagers and hummingbirds in South America is staggering.
November 25, 2020
Ok this book took me literal years to read but I FINISHED IT 😎 First things first: “Kassy, did you seriously read a book about a dude who birdwatchers?� Yes. And? What about it. Mad respect to this homie who traveled around the world to shoot birds with a camera and not a big cat with a rifle. I understand the obsession, I also think Big Years are cool, and is that because of the movie? Perhaps. Would Noah mansplain birding to me? Yes. Look, homie wrote a book. Homie is from Oregon. I begrudgingly give 3.5 stars for the birds and the carbon offsets.
October 23, 2017
Noah wrote an excellent account of his big year in setting the record for most bird species seen in a single calendar year. He presents a nice overview on his strategy to set the record and then provides a compelling travelogue on his travels and importantly his uses of local birding experts to accomplish his goal. The role these various local guides provide in his quest is incredible and Noah gives them great credit for their guidance. It is impressive to read about an individual who sets a lofty goal and then follows a well-honed strategy to achieve it. Noah is an inspiration as he had to move through fatique and illness to achieve his goal. Although the books is about birds, it is also a testimony about the unfolding of one's passion toward achieving a goal. This was an outstanding read. I first learned about Noah when he was the featured guest at the Salt Lake Bird Festival and we heard his presentation on his big year. That captivated me to want to read his book and I enjoyed the book as much as his lecture. One notable aspect is his humility and clear acknowledgement of others. Great job Noah!
Shelved as 'dnf'
February 1, 2021DNFing this one at about 40% of the actual 'narrative' content, not including the long list of birds that makes up ~100 pages of this book.
This one started out pretty strong for me. I'm only just beginning to get into birding, but I've been interested in birds for a while and I was looking for some compelling bird-related non-fic, a book about a man's travels around the world to break the record for most birds sighted in one year seemed like a good choice. And like I said, it started out strong. I like Strycker's writing style, I liked his descriptions of the things he was seeing and it was neat to learn more about birding as a pursuit through his exploration of its history.
Unfortunately, I began to grow tired of it pretty quickly, maybe four or five chapters in. The focus of this book is more on Strycker's journey rather than the birds themselves (and I mean, fair enough, the man saw over 5,000 bird species in one year). I mean obviously he mentions a fair few species and some of the more interesting species get some more time dedicated to what they looked like and the actual event of him seeing them, but still, a lot of the book is just him talking about his journey. And again, fair enough, the logistics of trying to see an absolute ton of bird species in 365 days to beat a world record is a pretty interesting subject, but man alive by the point in this book where I'm giving up he just spends so much time talking about all the negatives and it just sounds like a miserable experience. I mean, he keeps chipper and through his writing tries to show how he kept his spirits up, but I just lost my patience with him talking about how little sleep he was getting (which he does constantly) or bringing up the fact that he felt like he was missing out on certain experiences etc. I get it, it's not going to be a perfect experience and it's okay to talk about that, but the book just became too much of this kind of thing for me to enjoy, hence, the DNF.
This one started out pretty strong for me. I'm only just beginning to get into birding, but I've been interested in birds for a while and I was looking for some compelling bird-related non-fic, a book about a man's travels around the world to break the record for most birds sighted in one year seemed like a good choice. And like I said, it started out strong. I like Strycker's writing style, I liked his descriptions of the things he was seeing and it was neat to learn more about birding as a pursuit through his exploration of its history.
Unfortunately, I began to grow tired of it pretty quickly, maybe four or five chapters in. The focus of this book is more on Strycker's journey rather than the birds themselves (and I mean, fair enough, the man saw over 5,000 bird species in one year). I mean obviously he mentions a fair few species and some of the more interesting species get some more time dedicated to what they looked like and the actual event of him seeing them, but still, a lot of the book is just him talking about his journey. And again, fair enough, the logistics of trying to see an absolute ton of bird species in 365 days to beat a world record is a pretty interesting subject, but man alive by the point in this book where I'm giving up he just spends so much time talking about all the negatives and it just sounds like a miserable experience. I mean, he keeps chipper and through his writing tries to show how he kept his spirits up, but I just lost my patience with him talking about how little sleep he was getting (which he does constantly) or bringing up the fact that he felt like he was missing out on certain experiences etc. I get it, it's not going to be a perfect experience and it's okay to talk about that, but the book just became too much of this kind of thing for me to enjoy, hence, the DNF.
January 9, 2018
I've read several books about birding that were more humorous than this one. At first I thought this seemed a little like a listing of, I went here, I saw these birds, I met these people, NEXT! I went here, I saw these birds, etc.
It turned out to have some interesting stories about the countries he visited and the opportunities to see birds in their natural habitats, unlike the stories of people doing Big Years in North America, where they have to race around the country to see rare birds that are in places they aren't usually found. I would have enjoyed a few more photos of the birds, particularly the ones he mentioned specifically in the text as being exceptionally rare or significant in some way. I realize I could look them up online but it's nice to flip to the picture as you read about them, knowing that it was exactly that bird that he saw. But again, I've read several birding books so I have become a bit picky, I suppose.
It turned out to have some interesting stories about the countries he visited and the opportunities to see birds in their natural habitats, unlike the stories of people doing Big Years in North America, where they have to race around the country to see rare birds that are in places they aren't usually found. I would have enjoyed a few more photos of the birds, particularly the ones he mentioned specifically in the text as being exceptionally rare or significant in some way. I realize I could look them up online but it's nice to flip to the picture as you read about them, knowing that it was exactly that bird that he saw. But again, I've read several birding books so I have become a bit picky, I suppose.
May 10, 2020
I wasn't sure about reading this right as the quarantine was starting, but it turned out to be a perfect selection for being stuck inside one's house. I just wish there were pictures - I kept having to stop to look up birds on my phone!
December 17, 2021
Seriously good journey with Noah and his Big Year- I loved his attitude, forthrightness and believable account of his joys and travails. I learned quite a bit about birds ( of course) and culture and environments and the logistics of taking such a trip. Highly recommend!
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