That sounds like a fun class! Wish they had offered something like that for an elective when I was in college.Fantastic! I got interested in birds properly after studying for a year in the US when I was 30. I had a spare subject I needed to take so I did Ornothology. We studied the birds in a forest on the banks of the Mississippi - we must have got to know about 40 birds and most of their calls too which I am now hopeless at. I studied the pileated woodpecker for my oral talk, a wonderful bird, and was lucky to see their courtship. The course made it so much easier for me to identify birds in the future knowing the classification.
Funnily enough I’ve done hardly any birding in the UK even though I’m a member of the RSPB - too busy with life. My favourite is probably South Africa. Costa Rica was a little disappointing only because I felt we should have seen more. Goa sounds right up my street!