My friend Clive Byers, who has died aged 68, was one of Britain’s best-known bird artists, whose forensically accurate illustrations graced many books, including the groundbreaking series Handbook of the Birds of the World.
During the 1970s Clive was an avid twitcher: his determination to see a rare bird was legendary. He and a schoolfriend hitchhiked from their Surrey homes to a remote Scottish island for a rare Arctic visitor, Steller’s eider – a round-trip of nearly 2,000 miles. Later, when watching a black-winged pratincole in Berkshire, he incurred the fury of the local farmer, who proceeded to spray him with liquid manure. He was one of the last people to see the now-extinct Atitlán grebe, in Guatemala in 1981.
