Built a visual history of American birding

Built a single-file interactive HTML guide today tracing the full history of competitive birding in America — from the era when ornithologists shot their subjects to Noah Strycker’s jaw-dropping 6,042-species global record in 2015.

Six chapters, each with its own interactive centerpiece. The Passenger Pigeon collapse lets you watch 200 dots die in real time, year by year, until Martha alone remains in 1914. An SVG map traces James Fisher and Roger Tory Peterson’s 30,000-mile Wild America journey across the continent. The records timeline animates bar by bar as you scroll — Guy Emerson’s 497 in 1939 all the way through Sandy Komito’s legendary 748 and then Strycker’s global leap.

The 1998 movie year gets its own section with cast credits alongside the real birders who inspired the film.

Animated birds fly across the background throughout. Gold progress bar tracks reading position. Every section reveals on scroll.

The format keeps working. History sits still long enough to design around it.