My Quest to See 1/4 of the World's Bird Species
I came out of the "birding closet" a long time ago. I used to be embarrassed that I was a bird watcher, but now I embrace it. Most of my friends are aware that I "like birds" but very few know the depth of my hobby. Or is it an obsession? Maybe it’s both, but more importantly it’s a goal.
Flowerpiecers like Hummingbirds love the nectar from flowers, but they take a different approach. Why spend all that energy hovering over a flower when you can "cheat"? Just pierce the petals or stem of the flower and just suck out the nectar while standing on it. This specie was #1326 for me!
I firmly believe in having goals. They’ve driven my whole life, my career, and they quite frankly keep me going. It’s one of the reasons, the concept of “retirement” bothers me. What’s the goal after retirement? Yes, you can travel (heck, if you know me, do you really think, I should do more of that?). Relax? Sure. I should do more of that. I know I should sleep more. Spend more time with friends and family. Absolutely! However, those are too amorphous to say they’re goals. The one clear milestone after retirement is the one I don’t want to achieve for a very long time…. Death. There has to be something between retirement and well… THAT.
I’m in the process of forming my goals for the next chapter of my life, but the first one I’m ready to talk about is regarding my passion for birding. I want to see ¼ of the world’s bird species in my lifetime. I already have a reasonably impressive birding lifelist which stands at 1328 species as of my recent trip to Peru in June 2026.
If you are not a biologist, it may surprise you to learn that there’s uncertainty to how many bird species there are and the number of species fluctuates every to year. Yes, occasionally a new species is discovered and well, primarily thanks to and shame on us, some die out, but the changes these days are typically due to change in how we perceive a species or a group of similar species. Thanks to evolution, there are no clear, hard lines between every species. Species evolve and change and what we humans used to think of as separate species new analysis can alter our determination of whether a species should be split or some lumped together. There are likely around 11,000 bird species in the world, so currently sitting at 1328 species, I have only seen 12% of the bird species in the world, so technically I’m not even halfway toward my goal!
That’s okay, goals should be hard, they take work, and as the old saying goes, its often not the destination, it’s the journey. For me, to achieve over double where I am today, I’m going to have to travel to not just new places, but spend time in Asia, Australia and more in Central and South America. I also can’t do it alone. I’m going to need the support of my wife and going to need to leverage guides and meet fellow birders along the way. This quest will take me to amazing new lands and give me the opportunity to meet, undoubtedly, some wonderful and dedicated people. It will also prove that even now, at over 60 years, I'm just getting started.
There I said it. 2500 here I come!