Tacoma—Will Brooks is having a Big Year. That’s the term bird-watchers use to describe an attempt to identify as many species of birds as they can within one calendar year.
Sometimes, it’s just to set a personal best. Sometimes, they compete against other bird-watchers, or birders, as they call themselves.
In Brooks’ case, his Big Year broke the Washington state record of 370 and he’s not finished yet.
The University of Puget Sound, where the 23-year-old graduated from in 2020, called him the Bird Nerd.
Brooks’ affinity for birds runs so deep it’s hard for him to explain. He calls them “intrinsically interesting” and “really cool.”
“It’s fun to discover new things,” he said.
Birders paradise
On a recent drizzly morning, Brooks walked along the paths of Dune Peninsula at Point Defiance Park, carrying binoculars and a camera with a long telephoto lens. While other visitors were focused on orcas, Brooks tracked cormorants on the water and small black-capped chickadees flitting among shrubs.
Like so much in life, being a birder is more than just the subject at hand.
“It’s really fostered an ability to observe the world,” Brooks said. “I really enjoy the ability to be in the natural world and see all the animals and plants around and sort of enjoy a new place in a new way.”
Like other skilled birders, the Tacoma resident can identify a bird without seeing it and distinguish one fast moving silhouette from another.
But Brooks can do it better than just about anyone. Those skills, and a dogged perseverance, allowed Brooks to break the state record last set in 2012.
There’s no trophy or cash prize — just the acknowledgment of fellow birders and 30,000 miles added to the odometer of his Prius.
Brooks grew up on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif. His father teaches urology at the university’s medical school.
It was his father who got him interested in birding when Brooks was eight. But it wasn’t until he attended UPS that his birding took flight.
Flocking together
When Brooks arrived at UPS for his freshman year, he announced himself as a birder to biology professor Peter Wimberger.
Brooks would return from weekend birding trips with reports of rare birds. His professors took the sightings in stride.
“Birders sometime think they see things when they often don’t,” Wimberger said. “We were a little dubious of his claims.”
So, Brooks produced what Wimberger calls the “gold standard” of birding: photos and recordings of bird songs.
Wimberger and his fellow professors were stunned by what Brooks was finding.
“It became pretty clear pretty quickly that Will was a remarkable birder,” Wimberger said. “Sharp ears, sharp eye and really knowledgeable.”
Soon, the student became the teacher.
“He made me a much better birder and aware of what was gong on around me,” Wimberger said.
Brooks is in tune to subtle differences in appearance and vocalizations, allowing him to tell the difference between subspecies that most people, even seasoned birders, might just lump together as one, Wimberger said.
Skills like those are important in bird research, the professor said, because habitat ranges are on the move as a result of human interaction and changing climate patterns.
