The Ultimate Photobomb

by Mike Stiles

Photobomb: (verb) to drop in a photo unexpectedly…to hop in a picture right before it is taken.

In early July of this year, Matt Daw — who happens to have been an honorable mention in the 2008 American Birding Association's Young Birder of the Year — was working in Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Reserve in New Mexico. The 19-year-old was doing Willow Flycatcher surveys and happened to be videotaping a Least Bittern.

The bittern is an elusive bird and Matt was getting great views for about 30 seconds, when a Rufous-necked Wood-Rail emerged from the vegetation. He was so excited he stopped filming to pick up his binoculars, but he got a few seconds of the wood-rail's first ever sighting in the United States.

After consulting with colleagues, the word went out and set off a frenzy of activity across the nation. Birders from across the continent dropped what they were doing to fly or drive to the reserve south of Albuquerque.

Sandy Komito, the nation's top big year lister, arrived at the appointed spot and spent 11 hours in the hot New Mexico sun with no luck. Back in his motel, he heard it had been seen late in the evening and raced back in the morning and was able to find it. Refuge officials tell of an Iowa birder, who also missed the bird, drove back to Denver, turned in his rental car, and received a phone call that the bird was seen, changed his flight and drove back down in another rental.

The wood-rail is normally found in Central and South America, and thousands of birders took the opportunity to add it to their North American list. It became a mini boom for the area around the reserve, which normally hosts birders in the fall and winter for the spectacle of great numbers of geese and Sandhill Cranes.

This rare bird phenomenon never fails to amaze me. To chance upon a single bird in this vast country always begs the question of just how many rarities go unnoticed every year. Most birders go out for the enjoyment of even the common birds, but I guarantee you that a sighting like the Rufous-necked Wood-Rail is never far from our thoughts.

In this case, though, to chance upon this single, normally reclusive bird, many hundreds of miles out of range, and to happen to be holding a video camera while the bird walked into frame…I would think one would have better odds in the lottery.

Matt's Video

Photo by Jeffrey Gordon/American Birding Association 
Burrowing Owl on Banner by Cleve Nash

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