Stephen G. Mlodinow and Michael O’Brien. America’s 100 Most Wanted Birds. Falcon, 1996.

Somehow, I missed this book when it came out. This was another one I picked up recently at a book store. America’s 100 Most Wanted Birds carries the subtitle/subscript “Finding the rarest regularly occurring birds in the Lower 48 states.” That is just what this book does and does it thoroughly.

Notice that it does speak to “regularly occurring birds.” In other words, we are talking about birds that someone might have a chance of seeing. These tend to be birds that nest in or beyond the fringes of the 48 contiguous states.

One of the birds, for example, is the Emperor Goose. A birder from the lower 48 with money can go to Alaska where these birds breed and almost certainly see one. The goose, though, does show up many years in small numbers in Washington, Oregon, and California. The book, then, lists both sighting records and places and dates where one is likely to see the birds.

For somewhat obvious reasons, many of the sites in the book are in the Northwest for birds like the goose, the Mexican border for tropical species that barely make it this far north, Florida for Caribbean and Bahamian birds, and pelagic birds that are normally only seen far out at sea, whether the Atlantic, Pacific, or Gulf of Mexico.

The birds listed are often ones that birders speak of and dream about. Some are exquisitely rare like the Ivory Gull that nests and winters in the Arctic but occasionally blesses people with a more southern appearance. Others are simply beautiful like some of the hummingbirds that barely make it into Arizona or Texas or the tropicbirds that require mostly luck to spot out at sea.

Any birder will enjoy the descriptions in the book. Personally, the book made me feel somewhat fulfilled. While I have not traveled like some birders and pretty much confine my birding to my small state of Connecticut, over the years I have seen a number of these birds. When I think about it, there is a story behind each one that I have seen. Not to mention a few that I have missed.

The last third of the book is a Site Guide, directions on visiting many of the locations in the book. This may be the most useful part.

The one concern or caveat is simply that this book came out in 1996. From my experience, bird finding books have a practical life of about 15 or 20 years. After that, too many changes in the landscape have happened.

That may not be quite the case here since a majority of the locations are state or national parks or refuges, so the habitat would largely be preserved. Similarly, there would be few changes to the historical record or the descriptions of the birds themselves. In some cases, the bird species may have become more or less abundant than in 1996, but that might only apply to a handful of species.

It might be interesting if this book were updated to reflect any site guide changes. It also might add or subtract a few species. For example, the Black-Capped Petrel is a regular in the Atlantic on pelagic trips out of North Carolina and wild Barnacle Geese have been reported more frequently than in the past. Would those things cause a change? Maybe nowadays the Pink-Footed Goose might take the Barnacle Goose’s place, but back in ’96 they were accidental. Now they are almost annual.

Personally, I have seen twenty of the hundred, which considering where I live and the opportunities I have had to travel, pretty good. A few I have seen would cause even birders with much larger life lists to envy. There are also five others I have seen in places where they are common but not on the North American continent. But if I do have a chance to go to Florida, Texas, Arizona, the Pacific Coast, or northern Minnesota, I might take this book with me.

Birds in the book that I have seen: Black-Capped Petrel, White-Faced Storm Petrel, Band-Rumped Storm Petrel, Barnacle Goose, Muscovy Duck, Tufted Duck, Short-Tailed Hawk, Gyrfalcon, Pacific Golden-Plover, Red-Necked Stint, Curlew Sandpiper, South Polar Skua, Little Gull, Black-Headed Gull, Ross’s Gull, Ivory Gull, Great Gray Owl, Boreal Owl, Fork-Tailed Flycatcher, Northern Wheatear, Shiny Cowbird, Hoary Redpoll.

Those I have seen in places where they are more common: White-Winged Tern, Black Noddy, White Wagtail, White-Tailed Tropicbird, Eurasian Skylark. The nomenclature was a little confusing on two subspecies which are listed because they are distinctive. I also probably saw a Great Skua on whale watch in 1981, but that was before the Skuas were split into Great and South Polar Skuas. The Muscovy Duck is commonly domesticated, but the one I counted was a wild type in an area where they are considered countable.

Even a few of these I never thought I would see, but birds fly, so you never know…And this book can give you a head start.