Contact - Background - Presentation

Front page	Birds (media)	Other Photos	Flora & Fauna (media)	ebird taxonomy	Mexican Species
Download Checklists	My 5 Chickens	Links	About	The Birding Program	Observations

About


Owner	Jesper Bay Jacobsen - Copenhagen, Denmark.
Contact	info@jesperbayjacobsen.com +45 5216 9326
THE WEBSITE	Mostly about birding (still mostly Mexican birds) where my interests can be summed up to field identification, species lists, taxonomy, photography and traveling. On one side I am extremely systematic and love to have control via my lists, while I at the same time have a poetic inclination, which I hope will express itself through my photos and texts.
HOW IT STARTED	I'm born in 1966 but didn't start birdwatching until 1987 which is late compared to most of the brighter stars on the avian firmament. And it was a very hesitant start. Being negative and skeptic about many things in those years my first encounter with the birding world was no exception. My family shared a summer residence in Sweden with 4 other families; my father's colleague being one of them. And he was a birdwatcher. And when we went shopping we would drive through the landscape, and he would start like this: ”Look, that's a Buzzard sitting on that post”. And later: “That was a Red Kite flying behind the trees, and those are Ravens...” For a long time I just ignored it as useless boring information, and we would drive on with no further comments on my part. But during the years he would continue, and I came to a point when it irritated me that he made his statements with such confidence and enthusiasm. “Don't fool me you old hippie!” And I started questioning him with a very skeptical expression on my face, trying to show as much mistrust as possible! As if anybody would be able to identify a bird sitting 100 meters away while driving at 80 km/h. HA! Of course my bad intentions of exposing him as a fraudulent bragger didn't bare fruit. He started explaining the details and differences, and crosschecking with his bird guides I understood that what he said was true. Denied a successful result to my bad-mannered attack, I had to accept that there was a world of challenging feathers out there that I did not master nor knew of. And even more irritating: It fascinated me! From there on it started little by little, and with a few breaks in the earlier years my birding interest has just kept growing. During these years I have been birding most countries in Europe as well as Israel, Turkey, Tunisia, China, India, Gambia, USA, Canada and Mexico. In 1988 I visited Mexico the first time. I'm still not completely sure why I felt attracted to this strange country so far away. One reason, though, why I made my decision was that my high school friends who also decided to travel far in those years all headed in the other direction out of Denmark, toward the Far East. The classical naive hippie illusion as I saw it. I needed to manifest my disapproval, so I turned the map upside down, and it pointed toward Mexico. The Mexican landscapes though, have always been a great attraction to me, I see that today, and in those years the Pre-Hispanic cultures probably as well, since I visited all the important ruin sites during that trip. Being a very newborn birder I still didn't understand the concept that well and the talking about species list and lifers didn't affect me at all. So when it was time to pack my bag I did it with the intention to travel light, so I felt I had to choose between binoculars or my camera to minimize the weight. And since photography was still more interesting to me than watching birds I opted for the camera. A disaster from a birding point of view it turned out, since I, after going back to Denmark, didn't have a clue about any birds I had seen during the 3 months I traveled through the region other than from two photos I took. A California Gull in LA, and an Ocellated Turkey in Tikal in Guatemala. Tragic! Not a single feather from Mexico, and as my birding interest grew stronger over the years, the frustration did too. So close to so many attractive species, and nothing. I had to go back! With patience we all shall die, and finally 18 years later in 2006 the world re-arranged itself allowing me to once again set foot on this faraway land that during all these years had been slumbering in my heart as a forgotten attraction. So on the 6th of January I could make my first Mexican records: It was in Aguascalientes on a freezing cold morning, and I was thrilled to see Inca and White-winged Doves together with Clay-colored Sparrows and, as it has turned out later, a rare Green-tailed Towhee and scarce White-crowned Sparrows. I loved it, and have done so ever since.
COPYRIGHT	All rights reserved. The material on this website can only be used commercially or publically according to previous agreement.
COOKIES AND JAVASCRIPT	Cookies and javascript must be allowed for the page to work. Only using cookies for website functionality. The website is only optimized for desktop platforms.
LANGUAGES	Danish because I'm Danish, English because it is unavoidable and Spanish because Mexico used to be my new home. But the site is no longer maintained in all three languages, only English, except for the species names. However, Danish and Spanish might still appear as my mood and inspiration dictate it.
PHOTOS	All photos are taken by me, unless mentioned otherwise in the comment field of the picture.The few pictures dated before October 2007, have been taken with a Nikon Coolpix 4500 and as handheld 'digiscoping', if speaking of bird pictures. Photos dated between October 2007 and March 2015 have all been taken using a Canon 40D + 400mm f/5.6 or 17-40 4.0 L. Have bought Canon 7D Mark II in March 2015, and all pictures from that day will be taken with this camera. While doing a short trip to Belize at the beginning of December 2018, my 400mm lens simply fell apart while watching a beautiful double rainbow glowing over Bird's Eye View Lodge in Crooked Tree. I might try to have it repaired one day, since it has been a perfect companion for a mobile birder taking photos, but after having regretted the incident for a short while, I decided to see it as positive signal to finally get a newer lens. And often doing handheld and monopod shooting I have long wanted to have a lens with stabilization, why I January 7th 2019 bought the 100-400 mm f/4.5-5.6L IS II USM. Realizing that I'm a birder with a camera and not a photographer shooting birds, I expect this lens to support my continued need for flexibility and mobility.
BUY PHOTOS	If you have found a photo that you want to use, contact me by email, and we will work out a price and conditions.
TAXONOMY	The taxonomy of birds and their English names follow the ebird/Clements taxonomy in latest edition (ebird/Clements (2019)). The Danish names follow the list produced by Navnegruppen under The Danish Ornithological Society. This list though, follows Sibley & Monroe, and therefore if mismatches occur, I will have to name the species from another source and will put a note on this with the species name. The Mexican bird names follow ebird.org (because these seem to be adopted directly from the major Mexican resources). Spanish names for bird species not relevant to Mexico, will be found in ebird, or if also failing here, using Wikipedia. - English butterfly names for Mexican species follow "A Swift guide to Butterflies of Mexico and Central America" by J. Glassberg (2017 second edition). European butterfly names follow: "Collins Butterfly Guide" by Tom Tolman & Richard Lewington (2009). English dragonfly names follow: "Europe's dragonflies" by Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash (2020). Danish butterfly and dragonfly names follow: naturbasen.dk. Spanish names to any Mexican species other than birds follow naturalista.mx. Other Spanish names will be found using wikipedia.org or random Spanish online resources.
THE BIRDING PROGRAM	The Birding Program is my own software where I keep my bird records. It used to be my dream to make a commercial version, but as the world grew accustomed to free online services, that perspective soon faded away. But I keep developing it, and also use it to create my reports and checklists. If you for some reason is still looking for the right software solution to serve your needs, you are welcome to have a test account opened to see if it would be useful to you.
WISH LIST - BIRD BOOKS	Within the categories the titles are ordered alphabetically, to say that the one at the bottom is as much wanted as the one at the top. Can't live without it! Bats of Colima, Mexico Cornelio Sánchez-Hernández, María De Lourdes Romero-Almaraz, Gary D Schnell, Michael L Kennedy, Troy L Best, Robert D Owen, Sara B González-Pérez ISBN: 9780806152165 Guide to the Birds of Honduras Robert J Gallardo ISBN-13: 9789992649978 Handbook of Avian Hybrids of the World Eugene M McCarthy ISBN: 0195183231 Mexico: Trees / Árboles Enrique Leal C, Ruth Rodríguez ISBN: 9781888538663 Mexico: Tropical Fruit Enrique Leal C ISBN: 9780984010783 National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America (7th edision) Jon L Dunn(Author), Jonathan Alderfer(Author), Paul Lehman(Illustrator) ISBN-13: 9781426218354 Can live without, but life will be better having it in the collection. A Birdwatchers' Guide to Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and the Caymans Guy Kirwan, Arturo Kirkconnell and Mike Flieg ISBN-13: 9781871104127 African Raptors William S Clark ISBN-13: 9780713665383 Antpittas and Gnateaters Harold Greeney ISBN-13: 9781472919649 Birds of Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao: A Site and Field Guide Jeffrey V Wells & Allison Childs Wells ISBN-13: 9781501701078 Birds of Cuba Orlando H Garrido ISBN: 0713657847 Birds of Eastern Polynesia: A Biogeographic Atlas Jean-Claude Thibault(Author), Alice Cibois(Author) ISBN-13: 9788416728053 Birds of Japan Mark Brazil ISBN-13: 9781472913869 Birds of Vietnam Richard C Craik and Lê Quý Minh ISBN: 9788416728138 (hardback version) Identification Guide to European Passerines, 2nd edition Lars Svensson ISBN: 9163011182 Moult and Ageing of European Passerines Lukas Jenni and Raffael Winkler ISBN-13: 9781408155547. Nightjars of the World Potoos, Frogmouths, Oilbird and Owlet-nightjars Nigel Cleere ISBN: 9781903657072 North American Ducks, Geese and Swans: Identification Guide Frank S Todd ISBN-13: 9780888390936 Peterson Reference Guide to Owls of North America and the Caribbean Scott Weidensaul ISBN-13: 9780547840031 Peterson Reference Guide to Woodpeckers of North America Stephen A Shunk ISBN-13: 9780618739950 The Helm Guide to Bird Identification Keith Vinicombe ISBN-13: 9781408130353 The Helm Guide to Bird Identification: An In-Depth Look at Confusion Species Keith Vinicombe (Author), Alan Harris (Illustrator), Laurel Tucker (Illustrator) ISBN-13: 9781408130353 The New Birds of Kazakhstan Arend Wassink ISBN-13: 9789081146203 Winter Birds Lars Jonsson ISBN-13: 9781472942814 Woodpeckers of the World Gerard Gorman ISBN-13: 9781408147153 Don't really need it, but everything birding is welcomed in the collection. A Field Guide to the Birds of Brazil Ber van Perlo ISBN-13: 9780195301540 A Guide to the Birds of Fiji and Western Polynesia Dick Watling ISBN: 9829030040 A Guide to the Birds of Nicaragua / Nicaragua - Una Guía de Aves Juan Martínez-Sánchez ISBN-13: 9783866171183 A Message from Martha Mark Avery ISBN-13: 9781472906274 Birding Northeast Ecuador Steven L Herrmann ISBN-13: 9781539089261 Birds of Bhutan Carol Inskipp, Tim Inskipp and Richard Grimmett ISBN: 071366990X Birds of Borneo Susan Myers ISBN-13: 9781472924445 Birds of Central Asia Raffael Ayé ISBN-13: 9780713670387 Birds of Costa Rica Richard Garrigues ISBN-13: 9781472916532 Birds of Nepal Richard Grimmett ISBN-13: 9781472905710 Birds of Oman Jens Eriksen(Author), Richard Porter(Author) ISBN-13: 9781472937537 Birds of South America: Non-Passerines, Rheas to Woodpeckers Francisco Erize ISBN: 0691126887 Birds of the West Indies Herbert Raffaele, James Wiley, Orlando Garrido, Allan Keith and Janis Raffaele ISBN: 0713654198 Birds of Trinidad and Tobago Martyn Kenefick, Robin Restall and Floyd Hayes ISBN-13: 9781408152096 Birds of Venezuela David Ascanio (Author), Gustavo Rodriguez (Author), Robin Restall (Author) ISBN-13: 9781408105351 Birdwatching in Colombia Jürgen Beckers ISBN-13: 9789090277851 Bovids of the World Antelopes, Gazelles, Cattle, Goats, Sheep, and Relatives José R Castelló ISBN: 9780691167176 Challenge Series: Autumn, Birding Frontiers Challenge Series Volume: 1 Martin Garner ISBN-13: 9780992975708 Collins Field Guide to the Birds of South-East Asia Norman Arlott ISBN-13: 9780007429547 Cuckoos of the World Johannes Erritzøe ISBN-13: 9780713660340 Endemic Birds of Cuba Nils Navarro ISBN-13: 9780990941910 Feathers: Identification for Bird Conservation Marian Cieslak ISBN: 8392441001 Field Guide to the Birds of Colombia Miles McMullan ISBN-13: 9780982761557 Field Guide to the Birds of Machu Picchu and the Cusco Region, Peru Barry Walker ISBN-13: 9788496553972 Fieldbook of the Birds of Ecuador Miles McMullan ISBN-13: 9780982761533 Finding Australian Birds: A Field Guide to Birding Locations ISBN-13: 9780643097667 Tim Dolby(Author), Rohan Clarke(Author) Guide to Seabirds of Southern Africa Peter G Ryan ISBN-13: 9781775845195 Guide to the Manta & Devil Rays of the World Guy Stevens, Daniel Fernando, Marc Dando, Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara ISBN: 9780995567399 Identification Guide to Birds in the Hand Laurent Demongin (Author), Hervé Lelièvre (Translated by), George Candelin (Translated by) ISBN-13: 9782955501900 Important Bird Areas of the Americas BirdLife Conservation Series Volume: 16 ISBN-13: 9789942995902 Moult, Ageing and Sexing of Finnish Owls / Suomen Pöllöjen Sulkasadon, Iän ja Sukupuolen Määritysopas Heimo Mikkola ISBN-13: 9789519826318 The Birder's Guide to Africa Michael Mills(Author), Tasso Leventis(Illustrator) ISBN-13: 9780620717250 The Book of Eggs Mark E Hauber ISBN-13: 9781782400479 The Field Guide to the Birds of New Zealand Barrie Heather ISBN-13: 9780143570929 The Hand Guide to the Birds of New Zealand Hugh Robertson ISBN-13: 9780143570936