My Father’s Life List

What drives a man to count birds, to travel to 75 countries to count them, to spend a fortune counting them, and to keep counting them?

This article originally appeared in the October 2000 edition of 约炮视频 magazine. In 2005 it became the basis for a book, .

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Five decades of counting had brought Dad鈥檚 life list to just three shy of 7,000. We鈥檇 boarded the skiff a half-hour earlier and motored onto the Rio Negro, the dark river that joins the Amazon in the heart of the rainforest. Brazil had already been good to us. In just a week Dad had spotted more than a dozen new birds, including the rare Yapacana Antbird, the Racket-tailed Coquette, and the Olive-green Tyrannulet. Others in our group had added even more species to their lifetime tallies. We鈥檇 seen a baby Harpy Eagle, poking about a treetop nest. At the Inpa Tower, we had climbed a rickety, 120-foot observation platform and watched a nearly mad mixed-species flock paint the skies about the dense forest.

There were a dozen of us in our group, which was led by Field Guides Incorporated, a renowned bird-touring outfitter. Some of the birders had fewer than 1,000 species on their lists; others were approaching multiples of that number. Some rivaled my dad, with counts reaching 7,000. (Then there was me, a mild enthusiast who doesn鈥檛 keep a list.) Every night, sometimes in remote camps and at other times aboard the riverboat that took us deep into the jungle, we鈥檇 name names. Our guides would recite what we鈥檇 seen that day, and we鈥檇 check off species on preprinted forms.

On the morning of Dad鈥檚 7,000th, we woke on the triple-deck riverboat. We pulled on our Wellies and headed toward the islands that make up Jan煤 National Park. Almost before we entered the flooded mangrove forests, we鈥檇 spotted a Brown-headed Greenlet (Number 6998) and Cheerie鈥檚 Antwren (Number 6999). One to go. We moved farther inland. Our guides stood beneath the forest canopy, aiming microphones into the brush, listening, taping, replaying.

Dad leaned on his walking stick and peered upward. It was a familiar silhouette, one I recognized from when I was a boy and we would walk the marshes of Long Island. Beard, blue eyes, binoculars.

Then we saw it. The Amazonian Black Tyrant is a rather nondescript bird in a region laden with spectacular avifauna. But Dad heard it; Bret Whitney, one of the tour leaders, mirrored the song back on tape, and the little bird flew out, hovering above. I wondered how it viewed the territorial invaders standing below. A dozen birders, natty in L.L. Bean clothing, floppy hats, and rubber boots, drinking champagne, toasting a milestone whose significance most certainly eludes nonbirders.

A few seconds later we stowed the empty bottle and paper cups. Time to move on. There was a whole morning鈥檚 worth of birds to count. 

Every big lister starts small. Dad began birding in Queens, New York, where we both grew up. In the 1940s that bedroom community was a patchwork of homes, dairy farms, and wetlands. My father would pedal his bicycle to a place called the Bayside Woods, a marsh that pushed up against the Long Island Sound. He began by looking for Brown Thrashers, then shorebirds. He continued birding as a teenager, and dreamed of becoming an ornithologist. He went to Cornell University鈥攊t had a well-known bird program鈥攂ut, pressured by his parents, he switched majors and went on to become a doctor. Not long after starting a family, he was drafted into the army.

His life list began expanding in the 1960s, when we were stationed in Europe. In 1969 we returned to Queens and bought a house near Bayside. Dad never lived in it. My parents divorced, and Dad was on his own. Spending summer weekends at the shore, he became the telescope man, parked on a Long Island singles beach, peering into the distance.

鈥淟ooking for chicks?鈥 he鈥檇 be asked.

鈥淪hearwaters,鈥 was his reply.

The Big Listing began in the 1980s. My younger brother, Jim, and I were done with school, and Dad鈥檚 current job鈥攄irector of an emergency room in rural Long Island鈥攇ave him a flexible schedule. He began to travel. Bird Number 1,000 came on a trip to Tobago. But it was in Kenya, in 1982, that the fever struck.

鈥淚 saw 517 new birds,鈥 Dad says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what got me into this crazy counting.鈥

Dad is a good birder. He knows his species; he鈥檚 fast with his binoculars. Even so, his listing sometimes seems driven not by birds but by his own psychology, by the way his life has played out. In our riverboat bunk room, Dad admitted that the count is sometimes 鈥渟heer obsession.鈥 Like many of his fellow Big Listers, Dad counts other things, too. He ticks off beers and cheese and books. Another Big Lister counts airplane registration numbers. There鈥檚 one who uses the same spreadsheet to record birds and sexual conquests.

With only an estimated 9,000 described bird species in the world, the 7,000 Club is exclusive. By various estimates, only 8 to 12 other birders have made it that far鈥攅ver. The 8,000-species barrier has been breached just once, by legendary birder Phoebe Snetsinger, who died last November as she approached Number 8,500.

Like most birders, Dad plays with his list, breaking it down unto numerous subtallies. The count is multifaceted object of devotional joy. Geography? Season? Year, song, genus, or particular street? All part of the game. The master list is spread out across an array of notepads, officially published checklists, and trip reports.

But describing the game鈥攐r even playing it鈥攄oesn鈥檛 fully explain it. The solidity of numbers makes it easy to known what a Big Lister is. Figuring out why is much harder.

My grandparents had specific hopes for Richard, their only surviving child. Teddy, their first son, died a decade before Dad was born. Morris and Rose Koeppel were Austrian Jews. They had come to the United States in the 1920s. Dad was born in 1935, and grew up in a house that was always filled with refugees, filled with talk of the horrors occurring across the Atlantic. The combination of losing Teddy and the destruction of Jewish life in World War II must have made my grandparents cautious, more conservative. Morris switched careers. He closed his little clothing store and became a life insurance salesman. My grandmother devoted nearly all her time to a fierce Zionism, to the creation of a safe haven for Jews. Their own orientation toward security and their son鈥檚 unconventional ambition鈥攖o study birds鈥攚ere on a collision course.

鈥淭hey brought me to a psychiatrist,鈥 Dad recalls. 鈥淪he told them that bird-watching was a form of voyeurism.鈥 The long-ago moment still causes Dad鈥檚 voice to catch. Later, when he asked for a telescope for his birthday, he received a microscope instead. 鈥淚 was going to be a doctor,鈥 Dad says. 鈥淭hat was final.鈥

My father is the kind of man who would do anything for his sons, and the kind of son who would want to make his parents proud. At Cornell, his roommate was Joel Abramson, who went on to become a Big Lister himself (life count: 6,600). 鈥淲e were both regular college students,鈥 Abramson says. 鈥淲e went to parties, we chased girls鈥攁nd we loved birding. But there was no question it would stay a hobby.鈥 Dad came home to Queens, married a neighborhood girl, and entered medical school. He graduated in 1962. I was born that year; my brother the year after that. In 1966, after Dad got drafted, we moved to Texas for basic training.

That鈥檚 where he saw Number 500鈥攁n Olive Sparrow鈥攁nd my first real memory is of that place: We鈥檙e driving down a highway, and there, on a wire, is a pinkish bird with enormous feathers trailing behind. A Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

After Texas, we were stationed in Heidelberg, Germany. With two young boys, Dad was able to avoid Vietnam. During his leaves, we traveled Europe in a camper van. Dad鈥檚 binoculars鈥攖he ones I use today, a pair of dented Zeiss 8x50s鈥攚ere always at the ready, on the floor by the VW鈥檚 tall stick shift.

In April of 1968 Dad announced that school was over. 鈥淚鈥檓 going to be your teacher,鈥 he said. We drove to Spain. My curriculum was reduced to a single textbook: 笔别迟别谤蝉辞苍鈥檚 Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. I had daily quizzes on science and grammar; I learned taxonomy and how to use an index. To this day the memory conjures the smell of the heavy, glossy paper 笔别迟别谤蝉辞苍鈥檚 color illustrations were printed on. It was the best trip I鈥檝e ever taken with my dad. It is a time he views with great nostalgia.

鈥淪ometimes,鈥 he told me in Brazil, 鈥淚 wish you were little again.鈥

After Dad鈥檚 discharge from the army, things fell apart. He bought his house near the old marsh. The home where my mother still lives, where I reached adolescence, sits on a hill four blocks from the water. Dad never got to enjoy that perfect binocular view. My parents divorced in 1969. Dad moved to Manhattan.

Dad always wanted a traditional family life. He hasn鈥檛 remarried; I know that has disappointed him. Slowly, he鈥檚 reoriented himself toward a greater certainty: the list.

The count was fun for two young boys. Our weekends with Dad often centered around birding. We would visit Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, just beyond Kennedy Airport, to watch the fall migration. When a wounded duck died in front of my grandmother鈥檚 house, Dad grabbed his emergency medical kit and gleefully taught us dissection. One weekend we waited in line at the American Museum of Natural History to hear Roger Tory Peterson lecture. Some of it rubbed off. I was a bookish kid, thick glasses, terribly unathletic. My rowdy public-school career held few triumphs. But one afternoon a man came to our class with a stuffed Barn Owl and a challenge: 鈥淚 bet none of you can name 10 birds,鈥 he said.

The other kids tried, stalling out quickly: 鈥淧igeon. Robin. Seagull?鈥

I raised my hand. Black-capped Chickadee; just the week before, one had sat on my hand, then Jim鈥檚, and we couldn鈥檛 stop giggling. Common birds: Baltimore Oriole, Mourning Dove, House Sparrow. A woodcock, seen on a country lane upstate. Then exotics: a Hoopoe, a European species pictured on the cover of my continental 笔别迟别谤蝉辞苍鈥檚. A Manx Shearwater, which Dad spotted one autumn morning on Long Island. A saw-whet owl, seen at a park in the Bronx. The Hooded Merganser we鈥檇 autopsied. And finally: the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.

The gentleman asked me my name.

鈥淎ha,鈥 he replied. 鈥淩ichard Koeppel鈥檚 son.鈥

Wow, I thought. Dad鈥檚 famous.

In Brazil that fame was spread among three Big Listers, Jim Plyler, with 7,642 species, is well ahead of Dad鈥攈e鈥檚 likely to be the next to hit 8,000. Bill Rapp is approaching 7,000.

One big trait all Big Listers share: They say they鈥檙e not in competition. Another: They鈥檙e in competition.

鈥淲hat number is that, Richard?鈥 Plyler asked.

鈥淵ou saw how many in Colombia?鈥

鈥淔estive parrot? Already got it.鈥

Listers know where the other guy is. When I interviewed Abramson a few weeks after the Brazil trip, he鈥檇 already heard about Dad鈥檚 milestone. 鈥淭he rascal passed me,鈥 he said, laughing鈥攐nly he didn鈥檛 say 鈥渞ascal.鈥

Birding鈥檚 obsessive nature somewhat mutes the rivalries. The list is more important than who鈥檚 ahead, who鈥檚 approaching. Each lister adds personal twists to his count. Dad keeps records of his CPB, or cost per bird. 鈥淚t gets higher and higher,鈥 he says, estimating that he鈥檚 spent more than $250,000 on bird tours, and that since the early 1980s he has visited more than 75 countries, averaging four or five a year. His favorite trip: Bhutan, last year. 鈥淛ust an astoundingly unique place,鈥 he says. And he saw 41 new species.

The CPB concept is both simple and splendidly absurd. You go to a place鈥擪enya, for example鈥攆or the first time. The trip costs $5,000, and you see 517 of the country鈥檚 approximately 1,200 species. The cost per bird is a relatively modest $9.67.

There are lots of countries you haven鈥檛 visited at this point, and lots of new birds for you to see in them. The CPB on your trips stays low.

鈥淏ut to be a Big Lister,鈥 Dad says, 鈥測ou have to double back.鈥 So you return to Kenya. There are 650 species left to bag. They鈥檙e rarer of course, so you see fewer鈥攎aybe 200. The cost is the same, but your CPB is now $25.

Wait. To be a Really Big Lister, you may even have to triple back. If you鈥檙e lucky, prices will have remained steady, but you might add only 10 species to you list. At this point, if you have to ask the cost per bird, you really can鈥檛 afford it.

It鈥檚 almost impossible to do it without money. Whitney, who guided Snetsinger on many of her trips, estimates that she spent more than $2 million on birding trips during her lifetime. The only member of the 7,000 Club to reach that level without spending a fortune is Peter Kaestner, currently the youngest member of the group: age 46, list 7,400. Kaestner is consul general at the U.S. embassy in Guatemala. Part of the reason he chose that career, he says, was so he could bird cheaply.

As in any real subculture, Big Listers鈥 rituals extend as 鈥渃andidates.鈥 You 鈥渨ork鈥 certain species you鈥檙e desperate to see. At times the vocabulary nearly conjures the great existential dramas. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a Black-capped Becard,鈥 said one of the Brazil guides, Mario Cohn-Haft. 鈥淚f anybody needs it.鈥

So would these birds even exist if they didn鈥檛 inhabit somebody鈥檚 list?

The first reaction nonbirders have to the concept of Big Listing is astonishment that such an activity exists. The second response is usually more heated. On the plane back from Brazil, I sat next to a young clothing designer from San Diego. 鈥淗ow do you prove it?鈥 she asked, almost indignant. 鈥淗ow does anybody know?鈥

At least one member of the 7,000 Club is plagued with credibility problems, and once you get a reputation in the bird world for telling fish stories, you鈥檙e sunk. Many Big Listers submit their tallies to the American Birding Association鈥攖he group maintains a birder鈥檚 code of ethics鈥攂ut there鈥檚 no requirement that they do so. Snetsinger, whose veracity was unassailable, chose not to during the last years of her birding career.

Instead, there鈥檚 sort of a cabalistic enforcement apparatus. Accumulating a big list requires group trips. That provides material witnesses to most bird-counting exploits. But it鈥檚 also true that many of the birds people 鈥渟ee鈥 on these trips are hardly viewed at all: At the nightly naming sessions, it isn鈥檛 uncommon for the participants to add any species seen that day to their lists. The Big Listers tend to be more rigorous鈥攇ood news for the honor system that drives the activity.

But there鈥檚 an even bigger issue powering the Big Lists. The total number of different birds in the world is growing. It鈥檚 not because new life-forms are being created or discovered.

鈥淚t鈥檚 because the definition of a species has become a moving target,鈥 says James F. Clements, author of Birds of the World: A Checklist. In 1974, when Clements published his first edition, 8,600 species were listed. The fifth edition, just out, counts 9,743.

Ornithology has always divided into factions: splitters and lumpers. The latter puts species together; the former breaks them apart. Sometimes a species starts one way, turns another, and then turns again. In Dad鈥檚 1947 笔别迟别谤蝉辞苍鈥檚, the Baltimore and Bullock鈥檚 Orioles are considered separate species. My 1980 edition lumps them as subspecies of the Northern Oriole. The next edition, following current thinking, will probably split them.

After years of lumper dominance, the splitters are now winning. Whitney is one of the ornithologists leading the charge, using his incredible ear to reveal subtleties in vocalization that imply more distinct speciation than previously thought. 鈥淢y guess,鈥 he says, 鈥渋s that the actual number of different species is close to 20,000.鈥

Listers, of course, love the splitters. In Brazil, Dad pored over a paper Whitney had published recently, accepting the tour leader鈥檚 eight-from-one split of the Slaty Antshrike. (If you鈥檙e seen the pre-split bird in the habitat where it has now been made distinct, you get to count it.) Dad added four 鈥渘ew鈥 antshrikes when he got home.

The relationship between splitters and listers isn鈥檛 just cause and effect. The technological advance that鈥檚 put splitters on top鈥攗sing tape to record vocalizations, and using vocalizations to define species鈥攊s also what makes big bird tours possible. 鈥淧layback guarantees quantity,鈥 says Clements.

What鈥檚 in the woods doesn鈥檛 change. If birds exist beyond human observation, then they also exist beyond any imposed definition of species. Suddenly, It鈥檚 not just mechanics splitters and listers have in common. They also share a narrative, the dramatic tension of a question always asked but never answered: What鈥檚 more important鈥攖he bird of the number?

Why list? Why bird? Does Dad鈥檚 birding equal Snetsinger鈥檚, or Whitney鈥檚, or mine, or yours? Big Lister, amateur, or gifted ornithologist all seek the same reward. You will see the bird. When you do, you can check it off and move on. Dad's birding grew large, I think, in a world that seemed emotionally unreliable. Snetsinger started in earnest after being diagnosed with cancer. Whitney鈥檚 ear is so astonishing that it鈥檚 virtually superhuman; he told me on the trip that it always made him feel different. He chose not to study birds in college, not to go to graduate school. 鈥淚 just wanted to be in the field,鈥 he says. 鈥淟istening.鈥

鈥淚t鈥檚 an addiction,鈥 says Kaestner, the diplomat. There are times, he says, when he has to force his eyes down, away from the sky, so he can 鈥減ay attention to people.鈥

I interviewed six Big Listers for the story. Each uttered a variant of what Dad told me during his ascent into the thousands. 鈥淚 planned to stop at 5,000.鈥

Then: 鈥淚 couldn鈥檛.鈥

Dad鈥檚 other birding goal is to finally finish off his 鈥渘emesis birds.鈥 These are common species he should, by all rights, have seen but hasn鈥檛. A few years ago he flew to Los Angeles to nab a pair. At the beach, we almost immediately spotted one of them, the California Gnatcatcher. But the next day the Mountain Quail eluded us. The chance to see a nemesis bird propels Dad to action. A few years ago, an Ivory Gull was spotted in Maine. Dad drove there, watched the bird for 10 minutes, and went home. When he called me with the news, he was nearly giddy with excitement. Ornithology may appear to be rational, but listing is all emotion. It makes my father so happy.

In Brazil, Dad鈥檚 voice was weak. He got winded easily. He鈥檇 been a smoker for 50 years. Not long after he returned, his doctor discovered a growth on his vocal cords. An immediate biopsy was ordered. Dad postponed the procedure; there were birds to see in Thailand. As I wrote the first draft of this story, I couldn鈥檛 stop worrying. We鈥檇 planned a second trip together to Argentina, for this autumn. (By summer it looked as if Dad had beaten the cancer that was ultimately diagnosed.)

The last time I flew into Kennedy, I asked the cabbie to take me to Jamaica Bay. I hadn鈥檛 been there since I was 12, and I was amazed at how lush and wild it was. On that day it looked like my Queens; it looked like my father鈥檚 Queens. I spotted a Snow Goose, probably a northern migrant, and wondered where Dad had been when he鈥檇 seen it. Here? Near his home on Long Island? Or far away, in one of the scattered places the list has taken him. I imagined Dad sitting in a hotel bar in Japan, making check marks. And I thought about the unthinkable: that he鈥檇 be gone before 7,500, just as I鈥檇 gained an appreciation for what he鈥檇 done. Seen where it fit in the world. Where he fit.

And where I fit.

I marked the Snow Goose down in my notepad.