The (Big) Year That Flew By

Twelve Months, Six Continents, and the Ultimate Birding Record

By: Arjan Dwarshuis, Mark Obmascik - foreword

Narrated by: Madison Niederhauser

An epic tale of one passionate birder’s record-breaking adventure through 40 countries over 6 continents—in just one year—to see 6,852 bird species, rare and common, before many go extinct.

When Arjan Dwarshuis first heard of the “Big Year”—the legendary record for birdwatching—he was twenty years old, it was midnight, and he was sitting on the roof of a truck in the Andean Mountains. In that moment he promised himself that, someday, somehow, he would become a world-record-holding birder.

Ten years later, he embarked on an incredible, arduous, and perilous journey that took him around the globe; over uninhabited islands, through dense unforgiving rainforests, across snowy mountain peaks and unrelenting deserts—in just a single year. Would he survive? Would he be able to break the “Big Year” record, navigating through a world filled with shifting climate and geopolitical challenges?

The (Big) Year that Flew By is an unforgettable, personal exploration of the limits of human potential when engaging with the natural world. It is a book about birds and birding and Arjan’s attempts to raise awareness for critically endangered species, but it is also a book about overcoming mental challenges, extreme physical danger, and human competition and fully realizing your passions through nature, adventure, and conservation.

©2023 Arjan Dwarshuis (P)2023 Chelsea Green

Enjoyable

Especially if you’re a birder! Well written and nicely read. It is a good story.

A detailed book, covers traveling and birding.

if you are planning a Big Year, this is a must read. Arjan describes how he planned and executed the plan.

Beautiful

Every word in this book resonates with me. If you love birding, you’ll love this book.

The Incredible BIG Year of Birding Ever!

Incredible journey that brought me around the world on exciting excursions from mountaintops to rainforests, deserts and more. Educational on so many levels and thoroughly enjoyable!

Interesting story

Compared to other big year books this one had too much preaching and scolding instead of story telling

Disappointing

The production on this really messed up. Scattered throughout are random chapters from a different book.
As for the story: It's difficult to tell how much is due to being lost in translation, but the narrative is very boring for much of the book. What should have been one of the most exciting adventure birding stories available frequently sounds more like a bullet point list of emotions, events, and occasionally birds. Frequent jumps back to earlier times in the the author's life tend to be more confusing than they're worth. His position of extreme privilege strongly influences the book in a bad way, and his brief address of it near the end seems highly insincere.

An copycat "Big Year" birding travelog

The premise of this book was clearly to establish the author as a international record holder (2016) for seeing and cataloging birds in far-flung places. Normally, big birding years are in the nature of a personal challenge. Dwarshuis turns this around to poor effect. His bald-faced self-engineered and one-sided competition, constantly mentioned, with his predecessor of the previous year is always on his mind -- making this remarkable accomplishment read like a publicity "stunt".

This approach takes the wonder factor down several pegs and reduces his likability factor as does a "tantrum" and a "rage" at airport problems in Brazil. "One unforeseen setback...can trigger an uncontrollable tantrum. In such situations, steam comes out of my ears, and I have to restrain myself myself from kicking something." Also in the Brazil chapter: "in the departure hall ...boredom turns into frustration and finally into sheer rage". Really ? from a world traveler in remote places? What did he expect?

Dwarshuis even slips in a put-down of David Attenborough.

He is closely tethered to his home and home country, the Netherlands, throughout his complex year of fascinating destinations. The author does do a good job of mentioning conservation organizations & awareness...with nods to his many sponsors.

The narration is flat.