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Author Head, Vernon R. L., 1967- author.

Title The rarest bird in the world : the search for the Nechisar nightjar / Vernon R.L. Head.

Publication Info. New York, NY : Pegasus Books LLC, 2016.

Copies

Location Call No. Status
 Enfield, Main Library - Adult Department  598.9 HEA    Check Shelf
 Granby, F.H. Cossitt Branch - Adult  598.9 HEAD    Check Shelf
Edition First Pegasus Books hardcover edition.
Description 243 pages : 1 illustration ; 22 cm
Note Previously published: The search for the rarest bird in the world; Auckland Park, South Africa : Jacana, 2014.
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 239-243).
Contents Embossed and singing -- Ameseghinalehu Addis -- The bridge of heaven -- Goat sucking -- Travelling like a bird -- Eye of Solala -- Animalcules and everywhereness -- Rara avis -- Feather crown.
Summary "In 1990, a group of Cambridge scientists arrived at the Plains of Nechisar in Ethiopia. On that expedition, they collected more than two dozen specimens and saw more than three hundred species of birds plus a plethora of rare butterflies, dragonflies, reptiles, mammals, and plants. As they were gathering up their findings, a wing of an unidentified bird was packed into a brown paper bag. It was to become the most famous wing in the world. This wing would set the world of science aflutter. Experts were mystified. The wing was entirely unique. It was like nothing they had ever seem before. Could a new species be declared based simply on a wing? After much discussion, a new species was announced: Nechisar Nightjar, or Camprimulgus solala, which means "only wing." And so birdwatchers like Vernon Head began to dream. Twenty-two years later, he joins an expedition of four to spot the "rarest bird in the world." In this gem of nature writing, Head captivates and enchants as he recounts the searches by spotlight through the Ethiopian plains, allowing the reader to mediate on nature, exploration, our need for wild places, and the human compulsion to name things. The Rarest Bird in the World is a celebration of a certain way of seeing the world, and will bring out the explorer in everyone who reads it."--Dust jacket.
Subject Bird watching -- Ethiopia -- Nechisar National Park.
Bird watchers.
Rare birds -- Ethiopia -- Nechisar National Park.
Caprimulgidae.
Nechisar National Park (Ethiopia) -- Description and travel.
Bird watchers. (OCoLC)fst00832947
Bird watching. (OCoLC)fst00832948
Rare birds. (OCoLC)fst01090092
Travel. (OCoLC)fst01155558
Ethiopia -- Nechisar National Park. (OCoLC)fst01288868
Added Title Search for the rarest bird in the world
ISBN 9781605989631: $26.95
1605989630
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