While I was still in college in the mid-1970s, I undertook a fair bit of research in university libraries to create a personalized "50 most wanted birds in the world" homemade book (in a binder). [This was likely an offshoot of the American Birding Association's "50 most wanted birds in the ABA Area" which was an annual feature in Birding magazine in those days.] For each bird chosen I created a page that included hand-written text on status/distribution, a hand-drawn map (with range colored in), and a color print of the bird pasted onto the page. These prints were photos I took of the best painting I could then find of each of the 50 birds chosen (and, for the one without any artwork I could locate -- Hose's (Magnificent Green) Broadbill -- I painted my own picture). This web site is not all that far distant from a modern version of my hand-made "book." By picking 10 "best birds" each from Asia and the Neotropics, 7 each from Africa & Australasia & the Oceanic Island (Madagascar etc.), 3 each from the Nearctic & the Western Palearctic, 2 pelagics in the Ocean realm, and 1 in Antarctica, I create another "top 50" list of the world's most impressive birds.
In choosing the "best birds" for each Region of the World, I have used the same criteria that I used in my youth. I weighed these attributes: (a) how distinctive the species was, (b) how impressive the bird seemed to me (e.g., big eagles tended to be more impressive than tiny scrub-wrens), (c) how rare the bird was, and (d) how hard the species was to locate in the wild. I meant to include only extant species on the list, although (as it turned out) some picks (e.g., Bachman's Warbler, Kauai 'Akialoa) were likely extinct by the time of my compilation. In this listing I have chosen not include species that are likely extinct, even if there is a remote chance they survive (Ivory-billed Woodpecker or Imperial Woodpecker). On the other hand, a species' recovery from near-extinction sometimes influenced how "impressive" a bird was to me.
Much has been learned in the past 25 years and my mid-1970s choices only faintly resemble my current picks. This is not because my criteria have changed; it is because we now know a lot more about how rare each species is, and how each can be located. I also have tried harder not to include any species which could arguably be extinct. Sometimes one is "forced" to pick both species of a particular genus or family when it is not reasonable to distinguish among them (e.g., both picathartes). But in a couple cases I have compromised this principle and have chosen "any kiwi" or "any cassowary" when otherwise picking one would require picking three.
In 1975, after sorting through all my individual pages of "50 most wanted birds" and ranking them, my "Most Wanted Bird in the World" -- the most distinctive, most impressive, super-rare and hard-to-find species -- was the Philippine (Monkey-eating) Eagle Pithecophaga jefferyi. I still consider it the "best bird" in Asia. The day I finally saw a Philippine Eagle -- coming to a nest on Mt. Kattanglad on Mindanao -- was among the happiest and saddest days of my life. Happy, because I had finally experienced such a magnificent bird in the wild, but sad, because one could hear chainsaws cutting at the edge of its forested home from dawn to dusk every day we were there. Linked are the story of that trip and 9 photos. [I continue to try to be up-beat and positive on this web site and in my life, but this does not mean I am unaware of the fragility of the natural world, and its rapid loss.] Right up there at the top is the Wilson's Bird-of-Paradise. Seeing it on Batanta I., Irian Jaya, was another great life highlight, and yet another great sadness, because my partner, Rita Carratello, had sprained her knee trying to see it the day before and could not make it back up one of the steepest, muddiest trails in the world for success the following day.
Today (2000), after sorting through my new priorities and the nine "realms", my list of the world's "50 best birds" is:
These are (obviously) somewhat subjective and idiosyncratic; I have chosen more cotingas (4), birds-of-paradise (4), and pheasants (4) than waders (2), seabirds (1 albatross, 1 storm-petrel), cranes (1), hummingbirds (1), or tanagers (1). These choices reflect my interest in remote tropical places despite the fact most of my serious i.d. papers have been about seabirds.... There are no "right" choices; I suspect yours may be different, maybe even dramatically so. But I find it much fun to consider the possibilities...
Page created 23 Feb 1999; updated 6 May & 21 Nov & 9 Dec 1999 & 17 Mar 2000 & 11-23 Apr 2000