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Book Summary and Reviews of Birding Without Borders by Noah Strycker

Birding Without Borders by Noah Strycker

Birding Without Borders

An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World

by Noah Strycker

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  • Published:
  • Oct 2017, 336 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Colorful but unassuming - and unexpected - lessons for living life fully, presented from a birder's-eye view." - Kirkus

"Even readers who wouldn't know a marvellous spatuletail from a southern ground hornbill will be awed by Strycker's achievement and appreciate the passion with which he pursues his interest. Photos." - Publishers Weekly

This information about Birding Without Borders was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

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Penelope Murnane

Outstanding book about a big year
Well-written narrative that whisks the reader from Antarctica to India with Ecuador and Papua New Guinea and many many more countries in between. Along this journey at break neck speed birds of all shapes, sizes and colors fill the pages. The author endures long days with hardly any time to sleep in order to see half of the world’s recorded birds in one year. If you have interest in birdwatching, travel, ecological tourism, this is the book for you. There is a list at the end of the book of all the birds he saw and where. Fascinating detailed writing. Highly recommended.

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Author Information

Noah Strycker

Noah Strycker is associate editor of Birding magazine and the author of several books. He has studied birds worldwide, and works as a guide on expedition cruises to Antarctica and the Arctic, spreading the inspiration of birds from pole to pole.

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Read-Alikes

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