Not Quite Furtive Enough
As I enter old age (my mid-30s), I find my birding philosophy shifting from being a reasonably hardcore lister to caring more about just having a good time and seeing some cool birds. That said, there is one list that I expect that I will always take seriously and do my best to build up, and that is my Philippines list–or more specifically, my list of Philippine endemic birds. At this point there are precious few of those I haven't seen, and most are either in places that I don't dare to visit if I value my life (the Sulu endemics), are in areas with restricted access (the Mindoro mountain endemics), or are likely extinct or at least almost there (Mindoro Bleeding-Heart, Cebu Brown Dove, Negros Fruit Dove). Of the remaining endemics I haven't seen, a disturbingly large proportion of them are in Luzon, despite the fact that's the island I've spent 3 years living on at various points in my life. Some of those are vanishingly rare with no recent records (Luzon Rail, ...