How Far Would You go to Get 'The Perfect Bird Photograph'?

The best (worst?) I've done was spend 6 hours walking through dense forest, feeding leeches, to get some photographs of fungus and orchids. People who take their photography seriously (whether bird watchers or not) go through far more than that - sometimes walking for weeks, waiting for weeks, coming back at a different time of year etc. I can imagine looking for the famed birds of paradise in Papua New Guinea - rugged terrain, malaria, bandits, a few hostile tribes - and with the forest being as thick as it is, good luck getting a decent picture even if you do spot the bird.

Oh, I forgot to mention - I do recall attempting to photograph three birds:

1. a red-breasted Cardinal (failed - it wouldn't sit still and I thought I'd better leave it alone before I'm tempted to trade the camera for the rifle on my back)

2. some large colorful bird in an Asian rainforest - it was a very pretty bird but I'm no ornithologist and remain clueless as to what it was (other than a large colorful bird running on the ground). Another fail: poor lighting + fast moving bird = nothing to show for it.

3. the monster pigeon of Queenstown, New Zealand. The damned pigeon's the size of a mallard duck (or slightly larger, but much smaller than a Muscovy). One perched on a tree branch near me but I didn't have my camera - stupid me forgot that my phone has a camera. I came back with my real camera and spent almost 5 hours looking for the bird and I finally spotted one again - flying from the top branches of one tree to another. Yet another fail, and no one believes me when I tell them about the monstrous New Zealand pigeons.