Lister Bird Quotes

A new perspective was dawning on me. As a crass young bird-lister, I might have said: a trip to the Tortugas is good, because it adds species to the total. But a better viewpoint would be: working on a list is good, because it gives me an excuse to come to the Tortugas. After this Big Year was over, I hoped, I would be wise enough to come back to this place for its own sake.

Since we rarely see bats, it's easy to mistake them for ecological B-listers that dine on the nocturnal scraps that birds leave behind. It's actually the other way round: In some rainforests, bats devour twice as many insects as birds.