The new YouTube documentary Listers is a down-the-rabbit-hole glimpse at the norms and neuroses of the “extreme bird-watching” community. If that sounds painfully boring, it’s not—this is one of the funniest documentaries I’ve seen in some time. In it, the brothers Quentin and Owen Reiser chronicle their try at a “big year,” a bird-nerd term for attempting to identify as many different species as possible in a single calendar year. They start out knowing next to nothing about birds—an app designer and a cinematographer from Collinsville, Illinois, the Reisers get into birding after one of them stumbles across an ornithological guidebook during a bleary-eyed smoke session. Then they buy a $4,500 Kia Sedona and traverse the country with the goal of finding more than 700 unique specimens. Although both brothers are the subjects of the film, Quentin spends most of the time on camera while Owen remains behind the lens. He alternates between a low-tech camcorder and a high-resolution camera, the former to capture the mundane and often gritty work of tracking down birds, and the latter to reveal their quarry in all its splendor.
On their bird-maxxing quest, the two cook endless beans and sleep in a shocking nu
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