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Fifty Years in the Same Direction with Birds — A life in nature rarely reveals itself through milestones. It is shaped — in returning, again and again, to the same instinct to step outside. © Gyorgy Szimuly

Fifty Years in the Same Direction with Birds

A quiet reflection on fifty years spent observing, moving, and remaining outside — not in search of answers, but in search of direction.

Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly

March 24, 2026 – 2 min read

What's Next?

When Variation Doesn’t Become a Boundary: A Putative Mixed Subspecies Pairing in Long-tailed Tits — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A familiar presence in Central European woodlands, the Long-tailed Tit Aegithalos caudatus europaeus carries the darker head pattern that defines much of the region’s breeding population—an anchor against which rarer, paler forms reveal themselves. © </em></i><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexislours/" rel="noreferrer"><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Alexis Lours</em></i></a><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> (CC-BY)</em></i>

When Variation Doesn’t Become a Boundary: A Putative Mixed Subspecies Pairing in Long-tailed Tits

A pair of Long-tailed Tits reveals how subspecies boundaries, so clear on paper, begin to soften in the field when variation and behaviour intersect.

The Hidden Gift of Dipping — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A Rock Ptarmigan in the alpine landscape where it belongs. A master of camouflage, and so far</em></i><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">,</span><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> a bird that has managed to stay just out of my sight. © </em></i><a href="https://ebird.org/profile/NjQwOTAw/world" rel="noreferrer"><i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Katarzyna Kucharska</em></i></a>

The Hidden Gift of Dipping

Some birds stay on our lists for years — not because they are rare, but because they refuse to appear when we look for them. The Rock Ptarmigan has done this to me more than once, and in doing so taught me something unexpected about birding.

World Shorebirds Day Is More Than a Single Day — This beautiful image of a Long-billed Curlew in golden lights now welcomes visitors to the new World Shorebirds Day portal. Photograph © Dorian Anderson

World Shorebirds Day Is More Than a Single Day

World Shorebirds Day was never meant to exist only for a single date on the calendar. The new portal reflects a broader hope: to keep people, ideas, observations, and conservation conversations moving throughout the year.

A Wandering Albatross in a Hungarian Village: The Documentary That Changed How I Understood Birds — A Vogelkop Lophorina illustrated by the Hungarian wildlife artist, Szabolcs Kókay for David Attenborough’s 95th birthday. For many people around the world, Birds-of-paradise first became living reality, rather than myth, through Attenborough’s documentaries. © Szabolcs Kókay

A Wandering Albatross in a Hungarian Village: The Documentary That Changed How I Understood Birds

Before the internet, a young birder wrote a letter to David Attenborough — and received a signed photograph beside a Wandering Albatross chick in return.

The Slender-billed Curlew I Knew Might Vanish — And Did — The European Turtle Dove is still present in parts of Europe — but far less secure than its song suggests. © Rudi Petitjean

The Slender-billed Curlew I Knew Might Vanish — And Did

I understood extinction in theory. I did not believe the Slender-billed Curlew would finish within my lifetime. Now another familiar bird stands on that slope.

A place to stand still — Calm, observant, and content to remain at the margins — where noise thins out. © Gyorgy Szimuly

A place to stand still

A quiet reflection on observation, stillness, and birds as a discipline of attention, marking the opening of the Bird Observer site.

Welcome (Back) to Bird Observer — One of my favourite bird photographs, taken during those times when I lay in liquid mud to capture intimate moments with my favourite birds – the shorebirds. © Gyorgy Szimuly

Welcome (Back) to Bird Observer

After a long pause, Bird Observer takes flight again – with new stories, field reflections, and the same love for birds that first inspired this journey.

PatchBird Is Now on the Map — Feeding White Storks often encountered during a PatchBird surveys in Central Europe. PatchBird is built around a simple idea: record every bird you detect for fifteen minutes, then return to the same place and do it again. © Gyorgy Szimuly

PatchBird Is Now on the Map

PatchBird has a new interactive survey map, making it much easier to find a point and take part. The method couldn’t be simpler: fifteen minutes, every bird you detect, and one important requirement – come back and do it again.

Antpittas Are No Longer Only Voices — A Chestnut-crowned Antpitta, the species that finally ended my long run of hearing antpittas without seeing them. © David Hollie

Antpittas Are No Longer Only Voices

After hearing antpittas without seeing them in Costa Rica and again in Colombia, a pair of Chestnut-crowned Antpittas finally broke the streak. A few days later, Brownie offered a rather different kind of encounter.

The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos — The Andean tapaculos, like the Spillmann's Tapaculo, are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution and geography shaped one of the Andes' most remarkable bird groups. © Ruven Schoeman

The Secret Life of the Andean Tapaculos

The Andean tapaculos are among the most elusive birds in the Neotropics. A journey through Colombia revealed not only why they are so difficult to see, but also how evolution, geography and curiosity have shaped one of the most remarkable bird groups of the Andes.

The Tree of Life — Our first sighting of this striking Blue-necked Tanager (Stilpnia cyanicollis) came in the “Tree of Life”, where a single fruiting tree drew an extraordinary variety of birds into one canopy. A fitting introduction to one of Colombia’s most colourful species. © David F. Belmonte Rguez-Pascual

The Tree of Life

A fleeting glimpse of a large bird made us turn the car around. What followed was forty-five minutes beside a single fruiting tree that became one of the busiest birding stops of our Colombian adventure.

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland — Few birds had occupied a place on my wish list for as long as the Sungrebe. Its elusive habits and preference for hidden waterways have always given it an almost mythical quality. Seeing one at Laguna Guarinocito was the highlight of an afternoon spent exploring a wetland habitat largely absent from our Colombian itinerary. Despite the oppressive heat, still air and near-100% humidity, the abundance of waterbirds made the stop one of the most rewarding diversions of the trip. © Hasan Al-Farhan

The Pulse of a Colombian Wetland

After days of cloud forests, mountain roads and Andean endemics, a small wetland detour in Colombia’s Magdalena Valley offered something different. In oppressive heat and near-saturated humidity, Laguna Guarinocito revealed the pulse of a landscape overflowing with life.