Josep del Hoyo is the editor of the Handbook of the Birds of the World (1992–2013), the HBW and BirdLife International Illustrated Checklist of the Birds of the World (2014–2016), and All the Birds of the World, a single-volume compendium of all bird species (2020). Since 1998, he has been a passionate bird videographer, with 5,690 species filmed in the wild. In addition, he has always been deeply involved in nature protection and conservation, serving as president of DEPANA (1988–1993), vice president of SEO/BirdLife (1994–2008), and member of the Global Council of BirdLife International (2005–2013).
In his talk, he will share his personal experience recording bird scenes with other artists for the Handbook of the Birds of the World. While working on the book, he had to travel extensively—something that will be shown in the presentation—filming birds across all seven continents, including Antarctica. On these expeditions, he aimed not only to document the birds’ morphology for the Handbook’s plates but also to capture their biology (breeding, from courtship displays to chick rearing, feeding, migration, etc.) and behavior (fights, preening, and so on). For all of this, video proved to be the ideal tool.
Finally, video also makes it possible to see species that are now very rare and often threatened with extinction due to human activities. In the presentation, we will see species from all IUCN conservation categories, from those not currently threatened to those critically endangered. Sadly, we will also see some species that have already gone extinct, either locally or globally. To avoid ending on a sad note, we will conclude with some successful recovery campaigns.
And since we birdwatchers usually like mammals a lot too, we’ll also watch a few videos of mammals in this bird presentation.
