Bucket List Birding

Gunnar and James have been friends on Facebook for year. James reached out asking how COVID was affecting local economies that depend on eco-tourism in different places around the world. He has taken on himself to write up a report from various sources around the world.
The problem was beautifully illustrated by James in the story he made up about the fictitious Glorious Mountain Forest Owl. After their conversations, Gunnar helped James connect with some Peruvian eco-tourism companies to visit Madre de Dios area in SE Peru.

James and Gunnar talk about Bucket List Birding in Tanzania, Spain and Peru.

Show notes and video of some of the stuff we talk about can be found on 7Wondersbirding.com under the Bucket List Birding tab.

In this episode I talk with Peter Kaestner about birding India and the Taj Mahal - one of the New 7 wonders. We aso talk a fair bit about the Antpitta hunt that Peter did in Peru with Kolibri Expeditions, about eBird and little bit about some great field guides and apps that Peter recommends.

Peter Kaestner is a former peace corps worker and diplomat, who served for extended time in countries like India, Afghanistan, Brazil, Guatemala, Colombia, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Namibia and Malaysia. While serving he also worked on his birdlist visiting remote places and seeing many birds.  He is now the top eBirder of the world with 9419 species seen.

Complete show-notes can be found on https://7wondersbirding.com/peter-kaestner/.

Tools for new birders.

Ebird app

Merlin app

Recommended Field Guides

Lynx Birds of  Colombia Field Guide.

2nd edition of Miles McMullan's Field Guide of Birds of Colombia

Birds of the Indonesian Archipelago the Greater Sundas and Wallacea (Lynx Editions)

Papua New Guinea (Lynx)

Birds of the World (Lynx)

Connect with Peter.

Facebook

Ebird 

Intro Music. "Rondo alla turca, from Sonata K. 331" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and performed by Markus Staab, available under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

The music at the end is from Bird Party from my band Guran Guran.

• Manu road programManu road program that Nigel joined in 2018
  
• Marvelous Spatuletail program that Nigel joined in 2018
  
• Marvelous Spatuletail display from the Bird episode of the BBC series Life narrated by David Attenborough. Note that you likely need a VPN and set it for the UK to be able to see the clip.It works very well with NordVPN that I use.
  
• Condor at Colca Canyon with Nigel Marven from the Giants series
  
• Yawar Fiesta - the Condor and Bull Fiesta. Now outlawed.
  
• Machu Picchu. Great to combine with birding. This 7WB program have you staying at the Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel. It also includes a visit to Chonta over the Apurimac Canyon where you can see condors.
  
• Kolibri Expeditions Santa Eulalia Canyon condor project.
  
• King Vulture restaurant in Costa Rica.
  
• Wild Costa Rica is part of the Nat Geo Wild Central America series. So far Costa Rica and Guatemala have been published. Can be found for instance in Apple TV.
  
• Andean Cock of the Rock.
  
• Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel. Kolibri Expeditions have special rates if you want to stay here, or include it in a birding program.
  
• Guatemalan Beaded Lizard - On the brink of extinction in the wild.
  
• Scotland with Nigel and John Poyner in june 2022.
  
• https://www.instagram.com/nigelmarvenofficial/
  
• https://twitter.com/Nigelmarven
  
• San Ignacio Gray Whale experience.
  
• Monarchs at El Rosario.
  
• Red Warbler from a compilation of Warbler footage.
  
• South Georgia Wildlife 
  
• Tiger (and Gharial Taj Mahal) in India with 7 Wonders Birding
  
• Pink-headed Warbler and Horned Guan in Guatemala with 7 Wonders Birding.
  
• Snow Leopard. 7 Wonders Birding trip in production for 2023 (Mongolia)
  
• Shoebill - Uganda with 7 Wonders Birding including Gorilla