Birding Without Borders: An Obsession, a Quest, and the Biggest Year in the World

The story of how the associate editor of Birding magazine set himself a lofty goal: to become the first person to see half the world's birds in one year.

In 2015, for 365 days, with a backpack, binoculars, and a series of one-way tickets, Noah Strycker 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 chronic sleep deprivati...