Beyond expectations

The competition unfolded almost exactly as they had predicted. Each day, they rose at 6 am and began their pursuit after a quick breakfast. Lunches consisted of simple field rations, while dinners were typically around 9 pm. After dinner, they continued watching until midnight.

At 63, Xu Yongbin is the oldest and most casual member of the team. "My teammates turned leisurely observation into an athletic pursuit," he said afterward. "To be honest, I could hardly follow their pace."

On March 26, the team opted to forgo the hotel rooms provided by the organizers in Napo's county town, choosing instead to stay in Bainan township at their own expense. That decision saved them two hours of travel time, which they could dedicate to birding.

Upon arriving at a site, Guo would listen intently to the various bird sounds and try to identify the species for his teammates. The team would then attempt to spot and photograph the birds. "Most of the time, his identifications were spot on," He said. "It was truly impressive."

By the end of the first day, the team had recorded 120 species, including several unique to the area, such as the pale-throated wren-babbler. Their tally ranked first among all participating teams.

On March 27, their record surged to 155 species, surpassing their initial estimate for the entire race and maintaining their lead in the competition. The highlight was spotting the green cochoa, a target for many participants but missed by most. "After the first two days, we revised our goal to 170 species and felt confident we could win," Guo said.

When the race concluded on March 28, their final count reached 177 species, which Dai said was "an exceptional number for any birding event nationwide".

"In the last half-day, we pushed hard to add more species to our list," Dai added. "But as is often the case in these races, we had already seen most of the birds in the area and spent hours trying to find one or two new ones."

They completed the race, returned to the hotel and awaited their turn for record defense. Ultimately, they learned they had placed second, behind another team that recorded over 200 species.

"That means another team spotted about 30 more species than we did on the final day of the race," Dai said.

He wondered, "How could another team manage to see so many on the last day?"

Initially, she said, "we felt their record was a bit fishy".