The Jewel Hunter

I think every birder has thought about quitting their job to go birding. But who actually does it? Chris Gooddie did. And not just to go birding, but to see all of the world’s 32 pitta species in a single year. He tells this amusing and entertaining story in The Jewel Hunter.

Why pittas? For that matter, some may be wondering, what are pittas? Pittas are predominantly terrestrial birds found in Asia, Africa, and Australia. They are undeniably odd looking – they have a stout, almost tailless, body mounted on long legs. They’d be much funnier looking, however, if they weren’t so beautiful. Most species are decorated with some surprisingly vivid colors. But their looks aren’t the only reason someone would want to see them all. They also provide one of birding’s ultimate challenges. As Gooddie puts it:

[This is] why pittas are so maddening, and, for exactly the same reasons, so alluring. They provide the ultimate hunt; they are variously wily, elusive, cryptic, sneaky, crepuscular, shy and unpredictable. Their habits are mercurial, mysterious and contrary.

And they must have really made an impression on our author. Looking back on seeing his first pitta, he writes:

It had taken my breath away, this bird, all vital energy and astonishing, unfathomable beauty, like those unattainable girls on TV adverts who somehow make you buy toothpaste, but whom you secretly know will never come home with you to do the brushing. Yet now I found myself some nine thousand miles away from the nearest Noisy Pitta, reduced to gazing at the bird’s image on my computer screen in the English Home Countries. I became horribly aware of the unpalatable, jarring truth; my life was out of whack.

After that realization, Gooddie quits his job, risks alienating his non-birding girlfriend, and goes out in search of pittas. Sound glamorous? While it sounds like a great idea, you might want to hear some details first. I love birding adventure stories, but this one truly deserves to be labelled an adventure. Some of the conditions the author endured would have made Attu seem like a spa vacation. Here are but a few examples:

• A not-quite-incapacitating but very serious injury on a remote trail, hours from the nearest hospital (which of course just made it an easier decision to get the bird first, before medical treatment)
• Having to frequently clear out his accommodations of the native wildlife. But certain allowances are made: “I’ve learned over the years that geckos are our friends. They are quite capable of eating their own body weight in insects in a single night, and thus are a useful ally to have around. After all, it’s a jungle out there.”
• At Kaziranga National Park, India, Gooddie noticed a ledger called Tiger Deaths 1980-2000. “It was a worryingly fat file.”
• A close encounter with a poisonous snake
• A bout with dysentery

Who knew searching for pittas was such a thrilling (read dangerous) endeavor? But for every night spent without even the basic comforts or every dangerous situation like being stalked by a leopard, Gooddie also saw some amazing things. He observed birds, not just pittas, rarely seen by birders or ornithologists. He documented birds in places they had never been seen before, and possibly even photographed some in the field for the first time.

Not only is this tale exciting, it’s funny. Gooddie writes in a very readable and humorous style (it reminds me of Sean Dooley’s The Big Twitch). His quest may have been extreme, possibly even insane, but it came across in a very relatable manner.

A good number of Gooddie’s photographs accompany his text. These show some of the birds he saw, as well as places he birded and people he birded with. But I especially appreciated “The Treasure Chest” – the pictures he managed to get of the pittas, in the order that he saw them. These aren’t necessarily professional-grade photos, but that doesn’t matter a bit.

Recommendation

The Jewel Hunter is a story any birder can relate to, whether or not you’ve ever done any sort of big year, or even if you have never heard of pittas. I knew very little about these birds before reading this book, and I had no idea what families the Bold-striped Tit-babbler or Jerdon’s Baza belonged to, much less what they looked like. But it didn’t matter; I still enjoyed reading about them. The Jewel Hunter belongs amongst the best big year/birding adventure books.

For more on pittas, including pictures, see Gooddie’s website – Pittas World.