The Biggest Year in American Birding: A Quest to Find 900 Birds in the USA and its Territories
Book by Nicholas Komar
Bohannon Hall Press. 2025. 313 pages. $29.99.
In addition to the U. S. mainland and Hawaii, his year led him to American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U. S. Virgin Islands.
A delightful read. Thoroughly documented. Afflicted with Parkinson’s Disease, leading to his retirement at the age of 57, Komar undertook a vigorous yearlong effort to find 900 species in the areas described, a rather unique sort of Big Year.
Komar excelled at attracting others to join his quest, and at recording the results. He was very well connected. His chapters are succinct, leaving the readers to wish for even more detail, but there is plenty there. In the end he found 889 species, of which he photographed 808, and audio-recorded no less than 50. He saw only 5 species w/o witnesses or physical documentation. He gives citations for many of his trips to precise eBird trip reports. For instance a new England jaunt is listed as being at:
https://eBird.org/tripreport/141380.
What makes this extraordinary, quite aside from the challenges Parkinson’s Disease and age (58) presented, were his absences from his birding year: presence at a family reunion in El Salvador, participation in two baseball tournaments, and leading a tour to Honduras.
Komar submitted 1,210 eBird checklists, and throughout his vital text cites such electronic sources where readers can access every detail of his various exploits. Komar spent 25 years in research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, authoring many technical publications.
His story is not in need of illustrative enhancement, but there is plenty of it: 104 quality photographs of the birds, plus 24 drawings, and color photos of some of the places visited, most of those including some of his companions. Some of the birds with attractive photographs include Sabine’s gull, thick-billed vireo, common crane, Ross’s gull, yellow-footed gull, large-billed tern, cattle tyrant, and gray gull as well as many expected species, esp. land birds.
He pays a lot of attention to the birds he missed, some of them after 4 or 5 attempts. A lot of his text also deals with people doing concurrent big years, some of them surpassing his totals. His story is enhanced with his descriptions of interesting restaurants, lodgings of very varied quality, and the characters he shared his travels with. A peculiarity: all species are listed in the singular. Komar says his species total could have been much more if he had done more pelagic birding and spent more time in Alaska.
Komar has been President of the Colorado Field Ornithologists. It is a pleasure to highly recommend this marvelous book.
BIG THIS, BIG THAT, BIG THE OTHER THING, … big world, big life. Some selected super listers: people mentioned below, but with minimal information are as they appear on p. 2-3 of Komar. Page 3 also lists some big years after Hawaii was added to the ABA area. It is very stimulating to have had some contact with a few of these intrepid birders.
LISTERS: a glimpse into extreme birdwatching. movie. 2025. Two brothers learn about competitive birdwatching by becoming birdwatchers - spending a year living in a used minivan, traveling across the country to participate in a Big Year. 119 minutes. Directed by Owen Reiser.
Ake, Bob. N. Amer. 731 species. 2010. At the age of 72. Bob believes this was the 2nd best total at the time. A lot of this was with his friend Dr. John Spahr, who didn’t put in as much time as Bob, but nevertheless ended up with 704. And Bob was at home c. 1/3 of the time! Bob’s blog for this, each day, was delightful reading with much detail also about his meals, and how the St. Louis Cardinals (baseball) were doing. This all confirmed w/ a call to Bob, 3.24.26.
Anderson, Dorian. Birding under the influence: cycling across America in search of birds and recovery. Chelsea Green, 2023, 256p. An extraordinary N. Am. Big Year, 17,800+ miles by bike. 618 species. Before this feat Dorian rode with us for a week on a string of Christmas Bird Counts in NC & VA. He had been a neuroscience researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital. We encountered him twice in Texas.
Basham, Benton. 710. N. Amer. Big Year. 1983. The 1st to break 700.
Dwarshuis, Arjan. the (Big) year that flew by: twelve months, six continents, and the ultimate birding record. Chelsea Green, 2019, 238p. 6,852 species, world, big year. 2016.
Kaufman, Kenn. Kingbird Highway: the story of a natural obsession that got a little out of hand. Houghton Mifflin, 1997, 318p. At the age of 16. Mostly he hitch hiked. Spent < $1,000 the entire year. Lived on cat food some of the time. 80,000 miles. 666 species. My good friend Dave Cutler by chance encountered him twice, hitch hiking in Florida and New Jersey, and gave him lifts.
Peter Kaestner. world lifelist, 10,000+. !!! and still at it.
Komito, Sandy. 1987. 722. N. Amer. Big Year. then, later, … 1998, 748 species.
Levantin, Al. 711 species. 1998. N. Amer. Big Year.
McGill, Patrick. Philadelphia city limits big year. 251 species. Cassinia, v. 79, 2021-2022, pp. 46-52, “My Philly big year in 2022.”
Miller, Greg. 725 species. N. Amer. Big Year. 1998.
Murdoch, Floyd. 1973. N. Amer. Big Year, 669 species.
Obmascik, Mark. the Big Year: a tale of man, nature, and fowl obsession. W.W. Norton, 2004, 320p. N. Amer. The famous drama of 3 big year competitors: 1998 - Sandy Komito, Greg Miller, and Al Levantin - who each have their own versions of what happened. This story was made into a movie (2011) starring Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, and Jack Black.
Parker, Ted. At 18, in 1971, he reported 636 species in his N. Amer. Big Year. Before he became a legend he took part in the Cape Charles C.B.C. I asked him where he would like to work and he said: “Oh, anywhere there are some woods.” Nothing overbearing about this future legend.
Perry, Steve. 1987. 711. N. Am. year list.
Roger Tory Peterson & James Fisher. Wild America: the record of a 30,000-mile journey around the continent by a distinguished naturalist and his British colleague. Houghton Mifflin, 1955, 434p. James’ N. Amer. total of 601 set a new record, even though it was just part of that year. I can’t find RTP’s total, but it must have been much more than 601.
Robinson, Scott. 657. N. Amer. year list. in 1976. I’ve no more info on this than that.
Snetsinger, Phoebe. Birding on borrowed time. American Birding Association. 2013. life list. 1st person to see > 8,000 species. Only started at age 34. Brilliant and obsessed, Phoebe was sometimes better prepared for her trips than some of the expert guides who led them. 8,674 species life list at the time of her death in an accident in Madagascar. Told in 1981 that she had c. 1 year to live because of a melanoma Dx at age 49, she lived an additional 17 years.
see also: Olivia Gentile, Life List: a woman’s quest for the world’s most amazing birds. Bloomsbury, 2009, 345p. concerns Phoebe Snetsinger.
Strycker, Noah. Birding without borders: an obsession, a quest, and the biggest year in the world. 2015, 6,042 species, big world year. 41 countries. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017, 326p.
Sykes, Paul. Called him a few days ago to confirm his N. Amer. lifelist: 939 !!. Paul is a veteran of 36 trips to Alaska. Has participated in > 500 Christmas Bird Counts, having compiled over 300. Retired USF&WS biologist who has done extensive work on snail kites, Kirtland’s warbler, painted buntings, and other species. I first met him in Virginia Beach right at the time of the great Ash Wednesday storm of 1962, at which time he said his aim in life was to find 700 species in the N. Amer. area. !!
Vardaman, James M. Call collect, ask for birdman: the reord-breaking attempt to see 700 species of North American birds within one year. St. Martin’s Press, 1980. 247p. traveled 161,331 miles. 699 species. cost $44,507.38. On the last day of his year, 1979, fresh from an Ocean City pelagic trip, he and others who helped him dropped in on our compilation ceremony of the Cape Charles, VA, Christmas Bird Count.
Way out of my league. I’ve never been much of a lister. But there are a few lists that give me satisfaction, the totals mostly incidental to other activities. Our Maryland property list, 273, highest in that state (I think). In Dorchester County (Blackwater NWR), Maryland: year list, 1967, 244 species; later the best day total 168 (shared with George A., some time in mid-May, 1997 ?). Best day list, 196, Delaware, one year in mid-May as part of one of Dave Cutler’s Big Days, which got a total of 201 species (Dave got 201 two other times). “Yard” list at our present address for past 6 years 100 feet off of 2nd & Market Streets., Philadelphia, 14 (yes, 14). I have no idea what my life list is, and I don’t care.