Rather, “birding” as I’ve known it doesn’t really exist here. Sure, bird tours sweep through the country every so often, offering rich Westerners a chance to hit lodges, parks, and well-known sites to see birds. But that sort of activity is doesn’t help somebody like me, who lives here and lacks the several thousand US dollars required for such an expedition.

Many Papua New Guineans seem knowledgeable about the birds that live around them. Some seem able to identify small, drab, secretive species even though they’ve never touched a pair of binoculars in their lives. They know when species migrate in and out (though not necessarily where they go) and where certain species can be found. Undoubtedly, knowledge and personal interest vary among individuals and communities. I have no way to know whether the average Papua New Guinean knows more about birds than the average Westerner does, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true.

That’s why I say that it may be my understanding of “birding” that needs to change. “Birding” is easier in the West because it has developed in the West, and we’ve learned to do it as Westerners. But how can we expect it to be the same activity in a culture so different from our own?

I wonder why it is that birding is most successful and accepted in English-speaking, Western-style societies. Conversely, why is it that in a place like PNG, with its abundance of avifauna in natural habitat, birding as a defined interest is considered strange?