The Rarest Bird in the World: The Search for the Nechisar Nightjar

Synopsis

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.