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World
The American Birding Association's [ABA] Rules Committee devised a fine
scheme that divided the World into nine non-overlapping Regions for purposes
of bird listing around the World. This was a concept created and promoted
by the Rules Committee chairman at the time, Bob Pyle, and in the end some
excellent decisions about the dividing lines were made and published (I
was a member of the Committee at the time of these deliberations). Yet,
for purposes of showing photos of different areas of the World, I find
that I prefer to consider them from a somewhat different perspective. I,
too, have nine "Realms" but they are defined a bit more along biogeographic
grounds and serve better the purposes I have here. These are (click
on the link to bring up a separate page for each Realm):
NORTH AMERICA
WESTERN PALEARCTIC
ASIA
NEOTROPICS
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
OCEANS
OCEANIC
ISLANDS
ANTARCTICA
Without getting into detailed definitions, but to outline the areas covered,
suffice it to say that I start with the ABA definitions but make these
modifications:
I split Eurasia avifaunally -- giving separate identities to Asia and to
the Western Palearctic -- but use the ABA's definition for distinguishing
between Asia and Australasia (the line is between Sulawesi and Halmahera)
I include North Africa, Europe, and the Middle East in a Western Palearctic
Realm that mirrors the boundaries of the Handbook of the Birds of the
Western Palearctic series
The African Realm is restricted to sub-Saharan Africa
North America is separated from South America more biogeographically, with
Central America considered part of the Neotropical Realm. The dividing
line is ill-defined but is somewhere in the northern part of Mexico. Like
the ABA, I include the Caribbean in North America (= the Nearctic Realm).
I combine the three oceanic Regions (Pacific, Indian, Atlantic) into one
Oceanic Realm
The Oceanic Realm include all pelagic waters beyond the continental shelves
(so that I include some of my California albatrosses and petrels as in
the Oceanic Realm, although they are "countable" on ABA lists, state lists,
county lists, and the like because they were within 200 nautical miles
of the continent). All tiny uninhabited islands that serve solely or primarily
as seabird colonies are also included in this grouping.
The Oceanic Island Realm is composed of the larger, forested, inhabited
islands that have landbirds and which geographically in the ABA's three
oceanic Regions, including Madagascar, New Zealand, New Caledonia, the
Galapagos, Hawaii, and all the Pacific islands
The Antarctic Realm is just the continent of Antarctica and the major adjacent
islands with penguin colonies. Since I've not been here yet, this page
will have to feature a guest photographer.
This is simple enough in practice, and the result is not far distant from
the faunal map I studied as a youngster (in Austin's Birds of the World
1961; reproduced here). My major differences from the old Birds of the
World map is assigning eastern Russia & China to the Asian Realm;
included New Zealand among the Oceanic Islands instead of Australasia but
assigned Halmahera and the Moluccas to Australasia (thus the Birds of Paradise
are an endemic family to Australasia, as they should be -- a position also
adopted unanimously by the ABA Rules Committee), and I push the Neotropics
a bit farther north in Mexico (thus all the furnarids and wood-creepers
are Neotropical endemics) while retaining the Caribbean in the Nearctic.
But these are mere quibbles in the grand scheme of things. Thinking of
the World as divided between my nine distinctive "realms" gives me a sense
of order that is comforting. [Of course, in the "real" world -- including
evolution -- is anything but orderly.]
Each of my "realms" has a web page featuring
a gallery of photos of places distinctive
to that Realm
a brief summary of the literature for that
Realm [handbooks, field guides, journals, and a non-birding book]
my picks for the "best birds" of the Realm
[with some explanations] -- in order to end up with a "top 50" birds of
the world, I have allocated the "best bird" picks this way: 10 each to
the Neotropics & Asia, the richest Realms in bird species; 7 each to
Africa, Australasia, and the Oceanic Islands realms; 3 each to North America
& the Western Palearctic (where bird diversity is much less without
tropics), 2 to the Oceans realm (limited to pelagics), and 1 to Antarctica.
[Linked essay on evaluating
"best bird" picks]
a link to a page with my 3 "favorite photos"
from that Realm [these are obviously limited to my own shots, but some
are quite nice and some are just important to me]
Again, those Realms are:
NORTH AMERICA
WESTERN PALEARCTIC
ASIA
NEOTROPICS
AFRICA
AUSTRALASIA
OCEANS
OCEANIC
ISLANDS
ANTARCTICA
BIRDING THE WORLD [some thoughts]
We live in a golden age. We are very lucky to be alive between the time
when all the world's great birds were almost inaccessible, and the time
when many may be gone forever. It is frightening for me to realize that
at my (comparatively) young age of 47 years, I've already seen three species
of birds that have already extinct in the wild. True, the California Condor
may be on the way back to recovery with the captive breeding program (and
some captives have been released back into the wild carrying bands and
transmitters), and the Guam Rail still exists in captivity in another breeding
effort. But the Guam Flycatcher Myiagra freycineti is gone for good.
No amount of money or time or access or inside tips will get you a Guam
Flycatcher. I shudder for generations to come.
 Yes,
we are on the cusp between the good and the bad. Except when political
troubles intervene, one can now get to almost anywhere in the world. In
the 1970s, I thought the Arfak Mts. of Irian Jaya, New Guinea, were the
end of the earth -- totally inaccessible both politically and practically.
The endemics there were out of reach. Now its the 1990s; I've spent a week
in the Arfaks; I've seen a good chunk of the endemics. What a great time!
Further, the literature on world birding is exploding. We now have great
field guides to most regions of the world, even those that had nothing
portable when I first visited in the 1980s. The dichotomy that is today
is captured by Will Betz' great photo of New Guinea locals leafing through
the new field guide for New Guinea (right; taken on the Huon Peninsula,
14 mi. south of Teptep, Papua New Guinea, in July 1997 © Will Betz).
New handbooks or family tomes are published almost every month. A good
overview on the world & regional handbooks recently published or underway
is in Salzman (1999). I have highlighted these and other sources on the
Realm pages, including great new sources of information and entertainment
as the Neotropical Bird Club,
the African Bird Club, and
the Oriental Bird Club.
Stuart Keith wrote a wonderful article in Birding magazine in
1974 that had great impact on me. Entitled "Birding Planet Earth," it talked
about how many species of birds there were (then estimated at 8,600; now
thought to be about 10,000). The difference is due primarily to changing
philosophies in taxonomic concepts [an essay on taxonomy and similar topics
is here] and the
challenges involved in finding any significant percentage of them. He asked
"is 7000 possible?" for any single observer? Little did he know that rapid
advances in technology, in transportation, in politics, and in birding
expertise would allow dedicated world birders to surpass 7000 and then
8000. Little did he anticipate that the first one over 8000 would be a
retired schoolteacher from Missouri (Phoebe Snetsinger) who took up birdwatching
at a time she thought (taking her doctor's word) that she had only a few
months to live!
Keith also highlighted some of the great birds of the world. In talking
about the difficulty in locating many species, he made this classic statement:
"Tough birds like Yellow Rail, Boreal Owl and Ross's Gull are a snap compared
to elusive myths like the Congo Peacock, the Long-tailed Ground-Roller
of Madagascar and the Great Argus Pheasant of southeast Asia." I have wanted
to see the Peafowl, Ground-Roller, and that Pheasant ever since -- and
fortunately I'm two-thirds of the way there! [only the Congo
Peafowl remains elusive on a personal level... and likely always will....].
To tour or not to tour?
This is a good question, and the answer will be different for each individual.
Tours (at least the good ones run by Field
Guides, or Wings, or VENT,
or KingBird (phone 212-866-7923), or Sunbird or others (in U.K.), or other
high quality professionals like such small family-run companies as Cheesemans'
Ecology Safaris) are led by very experienced birding guides, usually
with a good collection of tape-recordings, and with specialized knowledge
of the areas to be visited. The company takes care of all your food and
accommodations and, if you wish, your airline reservations. You are likely
to see more species of birds on a tour than a similar length trip "on your
own" to the same area, even if you are well-prepared with detailed bird-finding
information and tapes of your own.
However, by taking a tour, you are stuck with whatever group of other
people happened to join that trip, and sometimes this mix of personalities
or varying levels of expertise or energy will wipe out all the tour's advantages.
You are basically "buying birds" and missing out on the excitement of finding
and identifying your own birds. You will have to share all the big optical
equipment (many leaders carry high-powered scopes) with everyone else,
so while you get great views they are often very quick and hurried. You
will miss some birds because you were at the front or back of the line
in the forest, or in the van, or in the canoe -- engendering a level of
frustration in some that is much worse than not knowing the bird was just
there.
Trips on your own have a lot more hassles with planning, accommodations,
transportation, and figuring out just what that damn bird is anyway (it's
not in the guide!!). But on your own you get the indescribable joy of finding
and identifying your own bird; of choosing to linger over a great view,
or follow a bird to watch behavior, or have time to take photos; of setting
your time and pace.
Perhaps the best of all worlds are small groups of friends that travel
together, share expenses and experiences, and delegate the duties among
the group. These types of trips were more common, it seems, back at the
time of Stuart Keith's article (1974); now, it seems harder to put together
such groups because so many are just taking the tours.
I am often uneasy on tours. I really like finding my own birds; I want
to walk forest trails alone; I don't see the point of some rigid scheduling.
I want to go after the special endemic bird in prime morning hours instead
of dawdling along roadsides with flocks of common species, and I don't
understand the birdwatchers whose every life bird is equally pleasant.
I don't have a lot in common with those who just want to tick off birds
on their checklist, and learn nothing about them or their identification.
There are a lot of these folks on tours. I am uncomfortable with leaders
who are patronizing. [Having said all that, I have been on good tours with
great leaders, including Bret Whitney, Kevin Zimmer, Patrice Christy, and
Terry Stevenson, among others.]
I do enjoy a certain level of comfort -- even in the third world when
possible -- and so do not sleep in the car, do not subsist on peanut butter,
nor skip the morning coffee or the evening beer. I have maniac friends
who readily do all those things to see birds. I have spent nights in native
huts in New Guinea, or slept in hammocks in the Amazon Basin, and marched
through a lot of mud -- but these measures are taken when that is the best
options available. If there is a nice lodge in which to stay -- with a
bed, mosquito netting, and a fan -- I'll take that any day.
Safety is also always a concern. Tours seem to offer more safety, but
I know of instances when birders have been assaulted on tours to New Guinea
and bitten by poisonous snakes on tour in Peru. A friend of mine was killed
by a tiger while leading a tour to India. There are also the horrible examples
of tourist killings by rebels in natural areas of Uganda while on tours.
Yet single birders & small groups have also encountered danger. A British
birder was killed by the Shining Path insurgents in Peru a decade ago;
more recently, American birders were held hostage by rebels in Colombia.
Birders I know have been robbed and beaten in Costa Rica, shot in the Florida
everglades, or suffered burglaries in their motel rooms in Australia. I
had all my luggage, camera gear, exposed film and passport stolen from
a van in Venezuela while at lunch (which is why I can't show the nice Sunbittern
photos I'd taken on the trip). These tragedies can occur anywhere -- even
in your home town. I do not consider world birding to be particularly risky
if one takes some common sense precautions, but it is wise to know the
politics of an area you plan to visit. Peru was dangerous for a time, but
is now much safer. Africa has perhaps become more dangerous recently. Irian
Jaya was closed to western tourists for much of the century, open for a
few short years, and then closed again. Cuba is now hosting visitors. Times
and circumstances do change.
So, for me, there is no clear answer. I go on my own (or with my partner
Rita) or in small groups when I can. However, there are places in the world
that require languages, logistics, expertise, and red tape that would be
exceptionally difficult to handle alone, and for those places I have taken
tours. To Madagascar, and to Sumatra, and to Gabon, or Irian Jaya, for
example. But trips to Malaysian Borneo, Papua New Guinea, Ecuador, Peru,
Caribbean, South Africa, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia
have all been undertaken alone or with just 1-3 friends. As always, moderation
and common sense are the better part of the solution.
A final note: I trust that no one
who reads this far will think that I am somehow one of the world's top
birders. Far from it! I'm interested and I've traveled a bit, but have
much less experience than many others. True top world birders are included,
though, among my friends. Bret Whitney has managed to make a living leading
bird tours, but has greatly contributed to science between tours. He has
discovered new species of birds in Brazil, Madagascar, and elsewhere, and
studied the biology & ecological requirements of many obscure tropical
species while remaining comfortable with the North American avifauna. Peter
Kaestner joined the American diplomatic corp and has been posted to Africa,
New Guinea, and South America, becoming an established expert on each continent;
he also discovered a new species to science. The late Ted Parker, with
whom I birded in his hometown of Lancaster, PA, back when he was a teenager,
became the world's best neotropical birder before his untimely death in
a plane crash while doing bird surveys. Tom Schullenberg, whom I knew from
California birding in the 1970s, has taken up some of Ted's "rapid assessment"
projects in the South America wilderness while separately becoming a world
expert on Madagascar. Brian Finch left overcrowded Britain to take a management
job in Papua New Guinea and was widely regarding as "Mr. New Guinea" before
he moved to east Africa; the last time I ran into him was in the field
in Ecuador! Stuart Keith, a Brit transplanted to America, focussed his
studies on Africa and is a leader in the Birds of Africa handbook
series. He was among the first to travel the world widely to learn about
all its birds. These are among the world's top birders.
Beyond this top rank, there are hundreds of birders with enough time
and money to have traveled much more than I; some take up to 6-8 foreign
trips a year [I'm lucky to manage one every two years]. Other energetic
birdwatchers without family, mortgages, or permanent jobs are able to travel
months at a time. Yet another set are full-time tour leaders to far distant
destinations. All these observers have added much to our understanding
of our planet. I'm just fortunate to have followed in some of their footsteps.
Literature cited:
Austin, O. L. 1961. Birds of the World: A Survey of the
Twenty-seven Orders and One Hundred and Fifty-five Families. Golden
Press, New York.
Keith, G. S. 1974. Birding planet Earth -- a world overview. Birding
6: 203-216.
Salzman, E. 1999. Bird books of the golden age. Birding 31: 38-55.
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