As a self-proclaimed twitcher—a birdwatching extremist who travels around the country trying to catch a glimpse of as many species of birds as possible—the author took a year off in 2002 with the goal of seeing 700 birds and thereby breaking the national record for most birds seen in one year. In this amusing memoir, he recounts his quest, including how he spent all of his inheritance from the untimely death of his parents to make his dream a reality. Populated by unusual characters and interesting species of birds, this part confessional–part travelogue for both bird nerds and the general population follows the author as he works out what it means to be normal despite his unusually avid compulsion toward twitching.

作为一个自称是twitcher的人--一个观鸟的极端主义者，他在全国各地旅行，试图瞥见尽可能多的鸟类物种--作者在2002年休息了一年，目标是看到700只鸟，从而打破一年内看到最多鸟的全国纪录。在这本有趣的回忆录中，他讲述了自己的追求，包括他是如何花掉父母早逝的所有遗产来实现自己的梦想的。这部由不寻常的人物和有趣的鸟类物种组成的作品，一部分是忏悔录，一部分是游记，适合鸟类爱好者和普通人阅读，作者讲述了尽管他异常狂热地强迫自己抽动，但他还是想知道什么才是正常的。