The idea for the World Series of Birding came from Pete Dunne, one of America's foremost authors on birding and natural history, and currently the director of the Cape May Bird Observatory. The first World Series of Birding was held on May 19, 1984, and the winning team included Dunne, David Sibley (author of the renowned The Sibley Guide to Birds), the late Pete Bacinski (former director of NJ Audubon's Owl Haven Nature Center and Sandy Hook Bird Observatory), Bill Boyle (author of "A Guide to Bird Finding in New Jersey"), and the legendary Roger Tory Peterson (inventor of the modern field guide) and was sponsored by Bird Watcher's Digest. Their total included 201 species, including a fork-tailed flycatcher—a tropical species rarely seen anywhere in the United States, let alone New Jersey.