Occasionally interesting when it covered searches for birds, but the chief joy for me was looking up photos of some of the more unusual birds he mentioned. I'm not a fan of the author. He's smug and preachy -- telling me, for example, that I have to eat less meat and stop wearing gold jewelry to save birds. There's a place for conservation, but that wasn't why I was reading this book and it got old quickly. He often justified his own hypocrisy -- jetting around the world while condemning those who pollute -- and apologizing for the "privilege" of being able to afford it. He is also very proud of his atheism.

As for the bird sightings, they almost all went like this: "We really wanted to see this rare bird, and we endured countless physical trials to get to the right place to look for it. Time was running out and we just about gave up when, at the last possible moment, the bird showed up and gave us a perfect view." Over and over and over again.