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The Hidden Gift of Dipping — A Rock Ptarmigan in the alpine landscape where it belongs. A master of camouflage, and so far, a bird that has managed to stay just out of my sight. © Katarzyna Kucharska

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.

Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly

March 13, 2026 – 4 min read

What's Next?

Fifty Years in the Same Direction with Birds — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">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</em></i>

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.

How We Plan Birding Through Colombia — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Among many other beautiful hummingbirds, the Crowned Woodnymph glows in the humid forests of the Colombian Andes — a fitting emblem of the landscapes awaiting us along our carefully planned route. © Patrick Maurice</em></i>

How We Plan Birding Through Colombia

Planning a birding trip through Colombia requires more than chasing species lists. Here is the method we used to design a realistic itinerary using eBird hotspots, habitat diversity, and a slower PatchBird-style approach.

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.

A Different Way of Seeing Birds — The Ruddy Quail-Dove is a secretive forest-floor species whose unobtrusive habits can make detection remarkably difficult. © Michael Stubblefield

A Different Way of Seeing Birds

A Ruddy Quail-Dove hidden only metres from a Colombian forest trail became an unexpected demonstration of what thermal imaging can bring to modern birding.

When Variation Doesn’t Become a Boundary: A Putative Mixed Subspecies Pairing in Long-tailed Tits — 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. © Alexis Lours (CC-BY)

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.

An Almost Perfect Day: From Marsh Warbler to Golden Eagle — Marsh Warbler has been singing near the Port of Aberdee© Peter Winn

An Almost Perfect Day: From Marsh Warbler to Golden Eagle

A singing Marsh Warbler in Aberdeen, an Arctic gull along the pier, and a Golden Eagle drifting through southern skies — a day where chance encounters captured the essence of why we keep looking up.

At Risk in the Canopy: The Vulnerability of Hungary’s Nesting White-backed Woodpeckers — An adult White-backed Woodpecker perched at its nesting cavity in an old beech tree – a rare and vulnerable breeder in Hungary’s forests. © Gyorgy Szimuly

At Risk in the Canopy: The Vulnerability of Hungary’s Nesting White-backed Woodpeckers

Among Hungary’s last mature forests, the elusive White-backed Woodpecker faces mounting threats. This piece explores their fragility, habitat pressures, and why their conservation matters more than ever.

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.

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.