To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession [Hardcover]

Dan Koeppel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2005

From a well-known outdoors and nature writer comes a narrative that explores a lifelong obsession with competitive birding.

What drives a man to travel to sixty countries and spend a fortune to count birds? And what if that man is your father?

Richard Koeppel's obsession began at the age of eleven, in Queens, New York, when he first spotted a Brown Thrasher and promptly jotted the sighting in a notebook. Several decades, one failed marriage, and two sons later, he added an astonishing 517 birds to that list on a single trip to Kenya. Soon after, he ended the last romantic relationship he would ever have, scaled down his medical practice, and decided to see every bird on earth, becoming a "Big Lister," a member of a subculture of competitive bird-watchers worldwide, all pursuing the same goal. Over twenty-five years, he collected more than 7,000 species (of a known 9,600), becoming one of about ten people ever to do so.

To See Every Bird on Earth explores the thrill of this chase, the all-absorbing crusade at the expense of all else, and travel, to places both dangerous and dull, for the sake of making a check mark in a notebook. It's also the story of obsession-answering the questions why list? and why birds?-and how it defines us. A riveting glimpse into a fascinating subculture, To See Every Bird on Earth traces the love, loss, and reconnection between a father and a son, and explains why birds are so critical to the human search for our place in the world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For some people, bird watching is a compulsion that can become more important than friends, family or career. Richard Koeppel is one of those obsessive birders, and in this candid book, his son shares his story, painting his father as a tragic figure who passionately wanted to become an ornithologist but became the doctor his parents wanted him to be instead. Not surprisingly, Richard's medical career never satisfied him, and he gave it up to become a "Big Lister," one of a group of highly competitive birders who travel the world making lists of their sightings. Over the years he spotted more than 7,000 different species, a number achieved by fewer than a dozen others. Nature writer Koeppel fleshes out his account of Richard's 50-year bird-watching odyssey with facts about this ritualized, expensive sport, including its history, the rules and technicalities of listing, the people and organizations devoted to making the lists, and questions of taxonomy. His hope, he writes, was to forge a closer relationship with his father and understand the "nearly unquenchable" drive that ruled Richard's life, ruined his marriage and made it impossible for him to be close to his children. But in the end, despite trekking alongside his father on birding expeditions, he still can't quite understand it. His book, then, is more poignant than revelatory. Agent, Laurie Liss. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Birding has become one of the most popular outdoor pursuits. What do you get when you combine birding with competition, obsession, and the sheer love of counting? You get a Big Lister, a person who aspires to see every bird species on Earth. The author's father is among the 12 or so birders to have seen 7,000 birds or more, and this is his story. When 11-year old Richard spotted a brown thrasher in a Queens woodland, and then found out how to identify birds from a local bird club, he promptly started a list. Battling with his parents (who drove him into the practice of medicine but were unable to squelch the growing obsession with birds), Richard tried and failed at marriage (though produced the book's author) and ultimately traveled the world in the elusive desire of seeing every species. The psychology of Big Listing--birds becoming a means to an end--is sensitively portrayed. The subtext of listing's effect on the relationship of the author and his father provides immediacy. Nancy Bent
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Hudson Street Press (May 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1594630011
• ISBN-13: 978-1594630019
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,716,683 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One for the Big List!, May 19, 2005

By 

Lisa AA (LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession (Hardcover)

I never thought birdwatching was even vaguely interesting until I read this book, and now I'm viewing every pigeon in Los Angeles with new eyeballs.
Dan Koeppel is a wonderful storyteller, and this tale of birds, family, and the evolution of birdwatching brims with amazing details, vivid description, and heartfelt anecdotes. His fluid writing is a joy to read. Complex concepts of scientic nomenclature are elegantly explained. The book revolves around an intense subset of birdwatchers- the so-called "Big Listers," folks so obsessed with the flying creatures that they have a need to see every species that exists on the planet. Sparing no expense, Big Listers jetset from jungle to jungle, equipped with tape recorders, binoculars, and field guides looking for more and more birds to put on their well-kept lists. At the same time, the designations of species are constantly changings, so from time to time lists grow due to splitting or shrink from lumping! Koeppel patiently explains this fanaticism of hardcore birdwatching. His perspective is unique; his father, Richard Koeppel, is currently one of the top 10 Big Listers on the planet. Woven within the stories of birds and birders is a tale of the relationships within Koeppel's family, as if this can possibly explain his father's arcane obsession.
Very readible. Perfect beach reading, especially for beaches that might have some avifauna nearby.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Birding, To Know The Man, July 1, 2005

By 

prisrob "pris," (New England USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

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This review is from: To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession (Hardcover)

Dan Koeppel very much wanted to get to know his father. His mom and dad were divorced when he was young and it was not an easy time. He saw his dad every other weekend but he seemed removed and withdrawn, and Dan never felt he really knew his dad. Dan had a usual childhood, and his adolescence was full of drugs and alcohol. As a young adult Dan outgrew his wild ways and settled down to become a nature writer. This brought him to the point where he realized his dad was getting older and he wanted a better relationship. And, Dan had a pretty good idea of how to achieve this.

Richard Koeppel had grown up wanting to be an ornithologist. He had a particular love of birds and wanted to study them. However, his parents and his father in particular had a different vision of his son. So, Richard began his life studying to become a physician. He continued with his life long love of birds and went birding whenever he could. Eventually, Richard met the love of his life and married her. She was a hometown girl and was beautiful and was swept away by this man. Richard continued his studies and graduated as a physician. He now had responsibilities because his first born son was born. He didn't like the life of a physician, and he had various jobs that at leas paid him a decent salary. By this time there were two young boys and his marriage was going sour. He and his wife divorced and he never married again. He saw his boys on weekends.

Dan saw both sides of the marriage and was unsettled. He lived with his mother, and her boyfriends were sometimes nasty and abusive. She would also take out her frustrations on her sons. Life was not good. He would go birding with his father and this became fun for him. But he didn't get to see his dad often enough.

By the time Dan was ready to get to know his father better, Richard was on his way to identifying his 6,000 bird. The birding world is a different species. There were many people who love birds and there were 9,600 birds to identify in the entire world. People spent millions of dollars traveling to various parts of the world just to find that bird. This is when Dan started going on birding trips with his dad. His dad was now an ED physician which gave him plenty of time to pursue his love. He had been all over the world and was so pleased that Dan wanted to continue with him. He had a few more birds to identify and he wanted to make it to 7,000 birds. Thus began the quest for Dan and his father, Richard, to find the birds.

I love birds, love their coloring , their calls and their existence. However I have never been that much interested in identifying birds. This book opened up the world of birding, and these are crazy people in a sense. They will do anything; go anywhere to find that bird. I loved that Dan got to know his father better while they both developed their relationship birding. I learned a great deal about birds and that kind of life. Dan Koeppel writes well and his sense of nature reveals the world around us. Highly recommended. prisrob

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Hoatzin Bird: Rare but Not Pretty, September 9, 2005

By 

John D. Sherwood (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: To See Every Bird on Earth: A Father, a Son, and a Lifetime Obsession (Hardcover)

If someone wants to understand birding in America, this is the book to read. The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik would be my second choice. Koeppel's book is better, however, because it focuses on one person as opposed to a group of competitive birders. As a result, the author does a much better job of probing the inner-workings of the obsessed birder than Obmascik, who never quite gets beneath the feathers of most of the birders he examines. Koeppel, by contrast, tells us everything about the big lister profiled in the book--his eye ring, distinctive wing bars, rufous belly, etc. At times, the book is almost too personal and too intimate, making it painful to read in points. I sometimes wished that the author examined his father with a pair of Swarovski EL 10x42s as opposed to a high-powered microscope, but a son in the end can only see his father through the lens of his own personal experience. What results is not always pretty but nevertheless an excellent portrait of a great American birder.