Ten Birds That Changed the World by Stephen Moss

Author:Stephen Moss
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Faber and Faber
Published: 2022-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

When visiting South America, the world’s most bird-rich continent, few birders bother to seek out the guanay cormorant.* After all, with so many exotic species, including dozens of colourful toucans, tanagers, manakins, parrots and hummingbirds, why would you go out of your way to look for such a common, and apparently ordinary, seabird? When I travelled to Peru, however, in May 2017, the guanay cormorant was one species I was really hoping to see. Not for its rarity or beauty, but because of all the world’s 10,000-plus different birds, it has one of the most extraordinary stories to tell.

This is a tale of greed and profit, horror and hardship, vast riches and almost unimaginable suffering. It also changed the rural landscapes of Britain, Europe and North America, and transformed the way we grow and produce our food. It led to the guanay cormorant being dubbed ‘the billion-dollar bird’ – the most valuable wild bird in human history.

On my very first morning in Peru, I headed to Playa Pucusana harbour, an hour or so south from the capital, Lima. There, among the colourful fleet of fishing boats, I scanned through flocks of bulky Peruvian pelicans, elegant Inca terns and scavenging turkey vultures, searching for a medium-sized cormorant with a distinctively pied plumage. After a few minutes, I found what I was looking for. The bird, a smart adult, was perched on the rocks at the edge of the harbour, showing off its pale pink feet and deep crimson eyepatch. Its jet-black back, contrasting with the pure white breast, made it look rather dapper, as if the bird had dressed for dinner.

Even though most visiting birders ignore the guanay cormorant, other people have long understood its worth. Its value is commemorated in that strange name, for the guanay cormorant is one of only a handful of the world’s 10,000-plus bird species to be called after its most important by-product.† The name comes from the bird’s droppings, known by a word derived from the indigenous Quechua language of Peru: guano.

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