Interesting aspects of birding culture in non-Anglosphere countries? (2 Viewers)

[earlytorise]

Question in the title - any examples would be of interest, because I hardly interact with birders outside the Anglosphere

By the way Singapore, India etc count as part of the English-speaking world

(P.S. I've been looking for bird-travelogues or bird-memoirs in French, in order to refresh my knowledge of the language. I can't find any.)

 

[01101001]

The only French birding books I know of are those; hardly representative:

6) Books by Stanislas Wroza (🇫🇷): Identifier les oiseaux migrateurs par le son | Delachaux et Niestlé & Chants et cris d'oiseaux | Delachaux et Niestlé

Unless you're into music, too, in which case you might find Olivier Messiaen - Wikipedia interesting (I haven't had the occasion to listen to his music, though).

In Poland, I find it interesting that one of the early bird ID books has the subtitle 'not only for hunters' and a large picture of a Mallard at the front. Target demographic?

 

[Mysticete]

It's been almost a decade since I have lived in Japan (and maybe East Asia overall), and things might be completely different now, but I noticed when living there that the "bird-interested" community was dominated by bird photography folks to a much much greater degree than what I have seen in the UK and USA. Less focus on getting lifers, twitching, listing, ect, and more on getting the perfect shot, preferably of a beautiful/majestic/interesting bird. It seems to foster a different culture, where folks are more secretive about information and less concerned about identification. Then again this is my outsider perspective, so maybe it's completely misguided.

 

[lgonz1008]

In Latin America, the rules for birding are, either call the birds by English names or Scientific names (usually scientific if they are talking between locals). This is because the local name and dialect for many birds changes based on the country (good example would be Hummingbird, the widespread name for the family is Colibrí, but depending on the country it can change to picaflor, zunzun, zumbador and pajaro mosca).

Birders tend to be more binoculars than camera (mostly due to the cost to purchase and maintain such equipment).

 

[DMW]

It's been almost a decade since I have lived in Japan (and maybe East Asia overall), and things might be completely different now, but I noticed when living there that the "bird-interested" community was dominated by bird photography folks to a much much greater degree than what I have seen in the UK and USA. Less focus on getting lifers, twitching, listing, ect, and more on getting the perfect shot, preferably of a beautiful/majestic/interesting bird. It seems to foster a different culture, where folks are more secretive about information and less concerned about identification. Then again this is my outsider perspective, so maybe it's completely misguided.

It's the same throughout Asia in my experience, bird photographers vastly outnumber "just" birders, but many have a very high standard of birding knowledge and definitely do care about seeing new birds. I think there's an element of secretiveness in Japan mostly out of concern that rare birds will be disturbed, but there's also compartmentalisation of information in Asia where it's shared on local Facebook groups that outsiders don't know about.

 

[Val35]

When you say bird-travelogues or bird memoirs I assume you mean something in the style of Kingbird's Highways or The Peregrine ?
In which case, I don't think it really exists in French...Maybe Les tribulations d'un chercheur d'oiseaux by Philippe J.Dubois would fit this description ? I haven't read it but it seems like it's more of a collection of birding trip anecdotes...The recently published Eloge des oiseaux de passage by Jean-Noel Rieffel seems similar too.
Books by Jacques Delamain (Pourquoi les oiseaux chantent ?, Portraits d'oiseaux...) are beautifully written and a nice example of French "nature writing". In Pourquoi les oiseaux chantent ? is included (at least in the edition in which I read) a journal of the author during the first world war during which he used birds as a way to escape the horror of the situation.

Books by Paul Géroudet (Swiss ornithologist but he wrote in French) are more like monographs of (most) European species. A mine of information but what made those books famous is that almost all species account start with a short description of an observation of this species in the field in a very evocative and poetic style.
I don't have the books next to me right now but here is an example of what he writes about the Robin (from his Wikipedia page) :

« Novembre chasse les feuilles desséchées, les derniers vols de freux et de choucas rament vers le midi, au-dessus des brumes bleuâtres des bas-fonds. Dans le bois, les clameurs aigres des geais percent le silence. Asseyons-nous en lisière d’une coupe, puisque les troncs abattus gisent encore au bord du chemin. Quelques mésanges vagabondes ont passé, et soudain, sur une souche, un petit oiseau surgit, gris-brun, avec un grand plastron orangé et deux grands yeux noirs qui nous regardent. Le rouge-gorge, toujours curieux, est-il attiré par le bruit des pas brisant les branches mortes ? Attendrait-il quelque chose ? De ci, de là, il sautille à distance, puis l’inspection est terminée et il regarde le fourré où éclatent aussitôt quelques petits cris secs. »

I hope this is of interest to you !

 

[Bewick]

« Novembre chasse les feuilles desséchées, les derniers vols de freux et de choucas rament vers le midi, au-dessus des brumes bleuâtres des bas-fonds. Dans le bois, les clameurs aigres des geais percent le silence. Asseyons-nous en lisière d’une coupe, puisque les troncs abattus gisent encore au bord du chemin. Quelques mésanges vagabondes ont passé, et soudain, sur une souche, un petit oiseau surgit, gris-brun, avec un grand plastron orangé et deux grands yeux noirs qui nous regardent. Le rouge-gorge, toujours curieux, est-il attiré par le bruit des pas brisant les branches mortes ? Attendrait-il quelque chose ? De ci, de là, il sautille à distance, puis l’inspection est terminée et il regarde le fourré où éclatent aussitôt quelques petits cris secs. »

I hope this is of interest to you !

I need to improve my French reading skills, that was tough to read... my French vocabulary has declined significantly.

 

[jurek]

Secrecy is characteristic for photographers in general, not just Asian. They guard their photo spots for fear of competition. Or perhaps others scaring their birds.

But I noticed the same with East Asian birders, they are more interested in photography, or at least sharing photos on social media.

 

[Val35]

I need to improve my French reading skills, that was tough to read... my French vocabulary has declined significantly.

It's pretty difficult to read for non native French speakers I guess, yes, the most common vocabulary

 

[Patudo]

I'd agree bird photography is very much more popular than ticking/listing etc in Singapore. I think there is a feeling of wanting to capture images, partly for social media, partly for personal enjoyment. The number of folks here with big lenses is pretty impressive, and in all fairness they do get some excellent images. Given how famously law-abiding Singaporeans are, it really surprised me to see large numbers of photographers running the gauntlet of Covid rules when rarities like an Amur falcon showed up a couple years ago - hard to conceive that folks here would breach The Rules for a mere bird! There are secret Telegram groups etc., but generally speaking info seems to be quite widely disseminated via Facebook and such.

 

[bittern]

When you say bird-travelogues or bird memoirs I assume you mean something in the style of Kingbird's Highways or The Peregrine ?
In which case, I don't think it really exists in French...Maybe Les tribulations d'un chercheur d'oiseaux by Philippe J.Dubois would fit this description ? I haven't read it but it seems like it's more of a collection of birding trip anecdotes...The recently published Eloge des oiseaux de passage by Jean-Noel Rieffel seems similar too.
Books by Jacques Delamain (Pourquoi les oiseaux chantent ?, Portraits d'oiseaux...) are beautifully written and a nice example of French "nature writing". In Pourquoi les oiseaux chantent ? is included (at least in the edition in which I read) a journal of the author during the first world war during which he used birds as a way to escape the horror of the situation.

Books by Paul Géroudet (Swiss ornithologist but he wrote in French) are more like monographs of (most) European species. A mine of information but what made those books famous is that almost all species account start with a short description of an observation of this species in the field in a very evocative and poetic style.
I don't have the books next to me right now but here is an example of what he writes about the Robin (from his Wikipedia page) :

« Novembre chasse les feuilles desséchées, les derniers vols de freux et de choucas rament vers le midi, au-dessus des brumes bleuâtres des bas-fonds. Dans le bois, les clameurs aigres des geais percent le silence. Asseyons-nous en lisière d’une coupe, puisque les troncs abattus gisent encore au bord du chemin. Quelques mésanges vagabondes ont passé, et soudain, sur une souche, un petit oiseau surgit, gris-brun, avec un grand plastron orangé et deux grands yeux noirs qui nous regardent. Le rouge-gorge, toujours curieux, est-il attiré par le bruit des pas brisant les branches mortes ? Attendrait-il quelque chose ? De ci, de là, il sautille à distance, puis l’inspection est terminée et il regarde le fourré où éclatent aussitôt quelques petits cris secs. »

I hope this is of interest to you !

I was also going to recommend Géroudet for his evocative language. Reading his descriptions one can imagine oneself in exactly the environment where one can find the bird. Unfortunately I think that most of his books are out of print, the earliest were published in the 1950s and 60s, but he contined writing for many years. and possibly some were republished. Try the second hand market! I think that the most recent one was Les Oiseaux du Lac Léman.

Mike

 

[pbjosh]

In Latin America, the rules for birding are, either call the birds by English names or Scientific names (usually scientific if they are talking between locals).

This definitely varies from country to country. Several countries have and use fairly standardized common names.

 

[Val35]

I was also going to recommend Géroudet for his evocative language. Reading his descriptions one can imagine oneself in exactly the environment where one can find the bird. Unfortunately I think that most of his books are out of print, the earliest were published in the 1950s and 60s, but he contined writing for many years. and possibly some were republished. Try the second hand market! I think that the most recent one was Les Oiseaux du Lac Léman.

Mike

The "birds of Europe" series of books were all republished in the 2000's with some updated information. I have them all at home
It's also possible to find some second hand copies yes.

 

[Swindon Addick]

Sticking Géroudet's name into the search function on the Fnac website there do seem to be a few titles currently in print, plus a few with second hand copies available, albeit sometimes at eye-watering prices.