These are comments received on my choices of the "50 best birds" in the world. To see my choices, start HERE for an introduction, followed by five pages of my picks with illustrations and explanatory details for each. And now the comments:

• "Put the Diademed Sandpiper-Plover back on the list! What a great bird. Seeing a pair (with a female on a nest)! in Chile is my most treasured observation....  If I was forced to narrow my Most Wanted List down to just one it would have to be Horned Guan and Ibisbill." J.L., California
• "Enjoyed browsing your Top-50. I have seen 4 of the top 10 , 6 of 11-20 and 9 of 21-30!  I should see Kagu in July so that will bring me up to 5 of the top 10. As you may recall missing Philippine Eagle was the absolute low-point of my birding career. On the other hand having fantastic looks for 20 minutes at Gray-necked Picathartes last month in Korup NP in Cameroon was one of the absolute high-points. What a mind-boggling bird -- worth the trip to Cameroon just for that one bird." P.R., Texas
• "If you got that much time on your hands, I have chores for you." R.C., California
• "I have to throw in my $.02 worth. Of course I'm cheating by wondering why you didn't include some of my favorites without doing the hard part and deciding which birds to remove to make room. Anyway, how about Whiskered Auklet, Gray Hypocolius, Wallcreeper, Lammergeier, and at least one of only two birds that uses its upper mandible and lower mandible sequentially rather than together (as all other birds do) while feeding: Nukupu'u and Akiapola'au. OK, maybe remove Great Gray Owl and put in any Bay-Owl." P.K., California  [Ed note: Nukupu'u doesn't qualify because there is not a known extant population; it may be extinct or on the edge, but the rest are 'in play.' There are two Bay-Owls, Oriental Phodilus badius of s.e. Asia and Congo P. prigoginei; the latter has only been found once in the last 50 years, I think, so a really great bird.]
• "I finally scrolled quickly through your list...It is a wonderful project!  .... And I am delighted there are no flycatchers on the list! J.J., Rhode Island
• "...it's nice [but] I didn't like some choices (am I in the first 1000 of people to tell you that?). I'd replace Hornby's Storm-petrel with Ross' Gull (don't all Oceanodromas look alike?), and Mauritius Kestrel with Blakiston's Fish-owl. The way you have it, I've only seen 14, not counting the condor :-(        ... And then what about Whiskered Owlet? Or is it just my love of small, shy nocturnal things?...."  V.D., Russia
• "...I don't see how at least one of the Chatham Island Snipe, Shore Plover, or Black Robin fail to make your list: they all score maximum points on rarity and difficulty of seeing (perhaps except the Shore Plover), and score variously on the more subjective categories.  Have you ever read the book "Black Robin Country"? it tells the tale of how the

Black Robin was rescued from the absolute brink; just five individuals, with only one breeding-age female, "old Blue" whose strength and fecundity was largely responsible for the recovery -- she must be the only bird whose death was formally announced in the National Government Chamber in the course of formal business! The five birds were on tiny Little Mangere Island, in a patch of scrub about as big as a football field; they were moved to S.E. island, and an amazing cross-fostering system worked-out with a common relative in which each set of eggs/chicks had to be swapped out twice, to avoid a fatal change in diet used by the foster-parents with its chicks... a terrific story.   This species must rank high in the special circumstance category, methinks."  M.R., Texas

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