ALAMO - The chachalacas are making an awful racket in the trees overhead, but Malkolm Boothroyd only has eyes for a tiny, ordinary, muddy-brown bird hopping across his path at the Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

The sun-crisped, blond-whiskered 16-year-old aims his 400 mm lens at the unsuspecting ball of feathers as it blithely continues its journey through the trees.

Of the thousands of birders who visit the refuge each year to look for rare species beside the Rio Grande, Malkolm is among the youngest - and the farthest from home.

The Canadian high-schooler arrived on this mercifully shaded path by bicycle, one of the last stops on a winding, 12,100-mile, yearlong bird-watching odyssey.

A "bird year" is a treasured tradition within the eccentric North American bird-watching community, but the Boothroyd clan - Malkolm and parents Wendy Boothroyd and Ken Madsen, who make their permanent home in Canada's Yukon Territory - has put several spins on the race to see as many species as possible.

First of all, the bikes: The family is fossil-fuel-free on its adventure.

While other birders might use a calendar year to fly around the country, Malkolm is taking a school year off to pedal around it.

He finished three years' worth of coursework in two grades to be able to take a year off from high school.

"It may be I'm normal and the other 30 million teenagers are weird, but it's probably the other way around," he says with a shrug.

The three are nearly at the end of their journey.

After taking refuge with local birder Keith Hackland at his Alamo Inn, they plan to spend a few days camping at Bentsen Rio Grande State Park, Wendy says, after which they will make the long, hot trip west to their finish line at Big Bend National Park.

Behind them are a night spent sleeping in their tent behind the Wal-Mart in Alice and another in a graveyard in Florida, all documented on their Web site and blog, www.birdyear.com.

Malkolm and his parents have added 16 bird sightings to the books for Brownsville, Kingsville and Alamo, including two spotted at Santa Ana on Wednesday morning: the tropical parula and the clay-colored robin, both Mexican species that have strayed into Texas.

"Luckily, the parula was singing - we'd never have spotted him if he hadn't been singing," Malkolm says.

As of Wednesday afternoon, Malkolm's number - the critical number of check marks on the American Birding Association's list of U.S. and Canadian species - was an astounding 528, still several hundred short of the Bird Year record, 745.

The trip through Texas has particularly been a challenge for the family.

"Normally, tents are a refuge," Ken says with a laugh. "It's so hot and humid here; it's like getting into a sauna."

Malkolm says he is unsure how he will adapt to high school when he returns as a junior in the fall.

"I'm sure I'm going to have trouble sitting still all day," he says.

Asked why he abandoned hearth and home for one birding year, the teenager smiles.

"Why not?"

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Sara Perkins covers Mission, western Hidalgo County, Starr County and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach her at (956) 683-4472.