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The Search for the Rarest Bird in the World
Part detective trail, part love affair and pure story telling at its best.
In 1990 an expedition of Cambridge scientists arrived at the Plains of Nechisar, tucked between the hills of the Great Rift Valley in the Gamo Gofa province in the country of Ethiopia. On that expedition, 315 species of birds were seen; 61 species of mammal and 69 species of butterfly were identified; 20 species of dragonflies and damselflies; 17 reptile species were recorded; three frog species were filed; plants were listed. And the wing of a road-killed bird was packed into a brown paper bag.
It was to become the most famous wing in the world.
When the specimens finally arrived at the British Natural History Museum in Tring it set the world of science aflutter. It seemed that the wing was unique, but they questioned, can you name a species for the first time based only on the description of a wing, based on just one wing?
After much to and fro, confirmation was unanimous, and the new species was announced, Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala, (solus:only and ala:wing).
And birdwatchers like Vernon began to dream.
Twenty-two years later an expedition of four led by Ian Sinclair set off to try to find this rarest bird in the world.
Vernon R.L. Head captivates and enchants as he tells of the adventures of Ian, Dennis, Gerry and himself as they navigate the wilderness of the plains, searching by spotlight for the elusive Nechisar Nightjar.
In 1990 an expedition of Cambridge scientists arrived at the Plains of Nechisar, tucked between the hills of the Great Rift Valley in the Gamo Gofa province in the country of Ethiopia. On that expedition, 315 species of birds were seen; 61 species of mammal and 69 species of butterfly were identified; 20 species of dragonflies and damselflies; 17 reptile species were recorded; three frog species were filed; plants were listed. And the wing of a road-killed bird was packed into a brown paper bag.
It was to become the most famous wing in the world.
When the specimens finally arrived at the British Natural History Museum in Tring it set the world of science aflutter. It seemed that the wing was unique, but they questioned, can you name a species for the first time based only on the description of a wing, based on just one wing?
After much to and fro, confirmation was unanimous, and the new species was announced, Nechisar Nightjar, Caprimulgus solala, (solus:only and ala:wing).
And birdwatchers like Vernon began to dream.
Twenty-two years later an expedition of four led by Ian Sinclair set off to try to find this rarest bird in the world.
Vernon R.L. Head captivates and enchants as he tells of the adventures of Ian, Dennis, Gerry and himself as they navigate the wilderness of the plains, searching by spotlight for the elusive Nechisar Nightjar.
244 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2014
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March 1, 2016Not going to rate this one. Could have been interesting if every other sentence wasn't a metaphor or simile, if the writing wasn't so flowery. Anyway I'm done.
June 5, 2016
This book was amazing...ly bad. It had a great title, blurb, and story--I'd love to know about the Nechisar nightjar! But seventy pages in, we'd found one sentence that made sense. The language was so flowery and not-at-all-descriptive that I could barely pick the story out. I can barely believe it got published!
This book has some of the best bad similes I've ever heard. But my favorite paragraph has to be the one where there's a dead horse, except it's a mule, and it's dancing with the long truck that came out of nowhere, and then it's eating the hippie, and then it IS the hippie (with dreadlocks and smoke coming out of his head), and then it's a horse again. And then in the next paragraph, it's dead again, and the truck has totally vanished. Not sure what was going on there...
Also, on that first page, I did NOT need to know how the bugs in his teeth tasted. Or that more bugs were wriggling in his pants. Why didn't he close his mouth, anyway?
It was also quite interesting when the people were licking the ground...and when he said he made up collective nouns as a hobby..."an incantation of ibises"? Really?
Trust me, most of us birdwatchers are nothing like this.
This book has some of the best bad similes I've ever heard. But my favorite paragraph has to be the one where there's a dead horse, except it's a mule, and it's dancing with the long truck that came out of nowhere, and then it's eating the hippie, and then it IS the hippie (with dreadlocks and smoke coming out of his head), and then it's a horse again. And then in the next paragraph, it's dead again, and the truck has totally vanished. Not sure what was going on there...
Also, on that first page, I did NOT need to know how the bugs in his teeth tasted. Or that more bugs were wriggling in his pants. Why didn't he close his mouth, anyway?
It was also quite interesting when the people were licking the ground...and when he said he made up collective nouns as a hobby..."an incantation of ibises"? Really?
Trust me, most of us birdwatchers are nothing like this.
April 6, 2015
Vernon Head's account of an expedition to trace the rarest of all birds, the Nechisar Nightjar deep in Ethiopia is compelling for two reasons. The first is, obviously, the story of the expedition and the business of tracing a rare species. The second, and more surprising element, is his often lyrical asides about the meaning of rarity, other adventures on other continents. These meditations are beautifully written and quite mesmerising and, if they occasionally stray a little too far from the chief subject matter, the author is easily forgiven.
March 4, 2020
This was the wrong book to read after Where the Crawdads Sing. I loved her descriptions and can’t stand his. His descriptions are too forced and don’t make sense to me, like a tent that never again fits in the bag it came in. (I made that up, but the whole book is full of stuff like that.) Why would a taxi be standing there like a shivering young boy? The other thing that drove me crazy is that he had more than one description in the same sentence. If one is bad, two is worse.
December 13, 2015
On its surface, the book didn't seem very promising. But I had been so pleasantly surprised by The Boys on the Boat that I decided to give it a try. And I'm so glad I did. I know little about birds and even less about birdwatching, or more properly put, bird hunting. All that changed with this remarkable work. It would have been enough if Head had simply told the story of the hunt for the Nechisar Nightjar. But he went well beyond simply telling the story, or rather telling it simply. His prose sings, near poetically. I wanted both to race through the book and not have it end. Not only do I now know much more about birds, bird watching, and those who seek to find the rarest of the rare, but my spirit soared, almost like those elusive birds.
I was provided an ARC for an impartial review.
I was provided an ARC for an impartial review.
January 28, 2018
I loved the writing style in this book. Nonfiction written to read like Literary Fiction is by far my favorite way to ingest science information, but... around the half way point most of the place descriptions and birdwatching expeditions began to sound the same. My mind kept drifting. There were still some lush parts in the story in the last 50% of the book, and I am glad I finished reading it (I was good and didn't even skim-read), but I will be honest and say that if it had not been a review book I probably would have abandoned it by 60% in. The author also made some profound statements about the environment and conservation.
I am wondering why the bird on the cover is not the bird in the title. I love nightjars and that's why I requested the book.
I was approved for an eARC, via Edelweiss, in return for an honest review.
I am wondering why the bird on the cover is not the bird in the title. I love nightjars and that's why I requested the book.
I was approved for an eARC, via Edelweiss, in return for an honest review.
June 25, 2025
Alluring premise because who doesn't love reading about extinct, endangered or seen-only-once-and-never-again species? Tired old Earth still has the capacity to surprise. The writing was too flowery, unfortunately. Too many quite baffling metaphors and strange turns of phrase. Had to reread a few sentences not because they were achingly beautiful but because they were frankly incomprehensible.
April 9, 2017
I adored this book, I'm a birder and I love to travel. I especially love travel to Africa. Beautifully written.
August 6, 2019
This book annoyed me for multiple reasons, not the least of it was the overly flowering language and style. For instance, when a guide says (in another language) "There are cows coming", the author spends two paragraphs on how this really was a reference to death and slavery... oh, except there is actually a herd of cattle headed straight at the author and company. There were blanket statements about "THIS is how a birdwatcher really is" which didn't sit well with me. As well as statements that suggested that tagged birds (like those being tracked because the species are critically endangered and they want to keep track of numbers) aren't really free, and don't count as "rare", some status that the author has defined to himself but is never really explained to readers, despite a long chapter going over rare birds that aren't really "rare". For example, for some reason, a bird the author didn't get to see is somehow less rare than the titular bird which the author did manage to see, which just smacks of self-congratulations to make the title fit. Also, the chapter on the definition of species was badly argued and didn't even fit in the book, since there is nothing to suggest that the status of the Nechisar Nightjar is ever under doubt.
While the premise of the book was interesting, the actually meat of the story was clearly only 50 pages, and the author stretches this out through various bad choices in terms of content and style. I only finished because I was interested in the actual search, and was sorely disappointed in how it was covered. In summary, a short book that felt way too long to read and didn't deliver.
While the premise of the book was interesting, the actually meat of the story was clearly only 50 pages, and the author stretches this out through various bad choices in terms of content and style. I only finished because I was interested in the actual search, and was sorely disappointed in how it was covered. In summary, a short book that felt way too long to read and didn't deliver.
November 27, 2016
Author's prose has been described as "flowery" ... which hardly does it justice. I'll admit that I'm not used to seeing four or five similes and metaphors on many pages, and this was somewhat jarring at first. But I got used to it, and this book possesses one quality that I appreciate in a book about looking for birds: the author is at times highly specific about what it means to be a birdwatcher. And so I can envision reading those parts again someday.
February 23, 2015
Wild and wacky and chaotic! What this book loses in sophistication it makes up in passion - and then some. A wonderful way to share the paradox of unbridled joy in the feral chaos of nature together with the careful discipline of science and the patience of the birdwatcher.
January 30, 2019
There is an ambiguity in the title of this book. Ostensibly, it is about an actual journey to see the Nechisar Nightjar, a species then known to science only from a single wing, collected in a remote area of south-west Ethiopia in 1990. Although the story of that journey provides it with a loose narrative thread, the book is instead mostly about a more philosophical journey: a bird-watching quest through the life and understanding of the author.
It was written by a birder of the kind who has the time, money and inclination to travel to all parts of the world, many of them rather remote, in order to see ‘lifers’; bird species that he has never seen before. In this instance, he went with a few other like-minded people (all skilled and knowledgeable birders) to see a species that no-one (other than probably some of the locals) had ever seen before. He relates stories of how he originally came to meet his companions, of how he saw the Oilbird (in Venezuela) and the Potoo (in Brazil), distant evolutionary cousins of the nightjars, and various other species, mostly more or less rare. He touches on the preparations that they made for their visit to the Nechisar Plain, to become ‘nightjar-ready’, in order to be able to recognise their target if and when they saw it. He explores the attitudes and motivation of birders like him, what a species is (particularly what a bird species is), making the point that his ‘life-list’ is counted in that currency, and, in what is arguably the most interesting part of the book, the nature of ‘rareness’, why some birds are rare, and some of the related conservation issues.
So this book has merits, I enjoyed it and I found parts of it insightful. However, it is a book that is badly in need of a good editor. As travel writing, it is barely adequate. I learnt too little about the writer, his companions, the places they travel to or even the logistics of their journey. There is too little characterisation and, mostly, any sense of place is sketchy at best.
As an extended essay on aspects of birdwatching, it is much more successful, even though the author has an overwhelming habit of expressing himself in purple prose of the most vivid hues, to the extent that some sections are unintentionally humorous. Some of this verbosity comes over as flights of fancy, some just as padding and some as pretentious nonsense. For example, on p.59, in Ethiopia, ‘dusk grabbed at the sun like a greedy child … The huts bore an ephemeral grin of instability as if the architecture did not trust itself.’ On p. 98, in Venezuela, ‘forests make clouds intimately and the sky is tactile like breath’. On p. 104, the Potoo ‘sang cryptically, a silent song that was difficult to see’. The word ‘pristine’ occurs at least 20 times at intervals throughout the book, both as an adjective and, less conventionally, as a noun. ‘The pristine’ seems to have a significance to the author, which is nowhere explained but appears to refer to his sense of ‘nature untouched by mankind’.
Of course, such things are something of a matter of taste, and other readers may lap this stuff up. Indeed, the author clearly has a way with words, and when he gets them right, he comes up with some brilliant descriptions. On p. 47, Lake Langano is ‘a beautiful, wide, brown lake, muddy and slithering, crocodile-slippery and bobbing with hippos.’ On p. 49, a flight of glossy starlings alights in a row, ‘regimental, steely and confident as naval officers’. And on p.223, (spoiler-alert!) having seen their quarry the night before, the team sits in the early morning light, ‘dappled in happiness, the kind that hops around inside the gut, appearing and disappearing in thoughts and murmurs.’
It was written by a birder of the kind who has the time, money and inclination to travel to all parts of the world, many of them rather remote, in order to see ‘lifers’; bird species that he has never seen before. In this instance, he went with a few other like-minded people (all skilled and knowledgeable birders) to see a species that no-one (other than probably some of the locals) had ever seen before. He relates stories of how he originally came to meet his companions, of how he saw the Oilbird (in Venezuela) and the Potoo (in Brazil), distant evolutionary cousins of the nightjars, and various other species, mostly more or less rare. He touches on the preparations that they made for their visit to the Nechisar Plain, to become ‘nightjar-ready’, in order to be able to recognise their target if and when they saw it. He explores the attitudes and motivation of birders like him, what a species is (particularly what a bird species is), making the point that his ‘life-list’ is counted in that currency, and, in what is arguably the most interesting part of the book, the nature of ‘rareness’, why some birds are rare, and some of the related conservation issues.
So this book has merits, I enjoyed it and I found parts of it insightful. However, it is a book that is badly in need of a good editor. As travel writing, it is barely adequate. I learnt too little about the writer, his companions, the places they travel to or even the logistics of their journey. There is too little characterisation and, mostly, any sense of place is sketchy at best.
As an extended essay on aspects of birdwatching, it is much more successful, even though the author has an overwhelming habit of expressing himself in purple prose of the most vivid hues, to the extent that some sections are unintentionally humorous. Some of this verbosity comes over as flights of fancy, some just as padding and some as pretentious nonsense. For example, on p.59, in Ethiopia, ‘dusk grabbed at the sun like a greedy child … The huts bore an ephemeral grin of instability as if the architecture did not trust itself.’ On p. 98, in Venezuela, ‘forests make clouds intimately and the sky is tactile like breath’. On p. 104, the Potoo ‘sang cryptically, a silent song that was difficult to see’. The word ‘pristine’ occurs at least 20 times at intervals throughout the book, both as an adjective and, less conventionally, as a noun. ‘The pristine’ seems to have a significance to the author, which is nowhere explained but appears to refer to his sense of ‘nature untouched by mankind’.
Of course, such things are something of a matter of taste, and other readers may lap this stuff up. Indeed, the author clearly has a way with words, and when he gets them right, he comes up with some brilliant descriptions. On p. 47, Lake Langano is ‘a beautiful, wide, brown lake, muddy and slithering, crocodile-slippery and bobbing with hippos.’ On p. 49, a flight of glossy starlings alights in a row, ‘regimental, steely and confident as naval officers’. And on p.223, (spoiler-alert!) having seen their quarry the night before, the team sits in the early morning light, ‘dappled in happiness, the kind that hops around inside the gut, appearing and disappearing in thoughts and murmurs.’
April 1, 2019
[img src="http://www.hbw.com/sites/default/file...
The Nechisar Nightjar is the only bird that has been named and designated a species based upon a single wing. The wing was all that survived when the crushed body was retrieved, and it was determined to not be an known species. Even the proper name of it reflects that solala, single wing. The species is mysterious, elusive, and until relatively recently never actually seen in the wild. This book is about that quest in the wild, the sighting, and birdwatching in general in a very philosophical way.
The essence of the book is what drives people to birdwatching, conservation, and the search for the rare. It is about the very designation of rare, why it matters, and how it is decided. The book is poetic in its descriptions of travel, discovery, the importance of biodiversity and bird. Even the romanticizing of Africa and how wilderness and societies change over time. The love of the pristine.
This book was eye-opening for me in that I knew nothing about nightbirds prior to reading it. I felt I learned a lot, and got to see the world however briefly through another person's eyes. The writing style, however, didn't appeal to me. I would have preferred this to be a different sort of book, but for the right person I know this book will be both inspirational and compelling. Sadly, that person just wasn't me.
The Nechisar Nightjar is the only bird that has been named and designated a species based upon a single wing. The wing was all that survived when the crushed body was retrieved, and it was determined to not be an known species. Even the proper name of it reflects that solala, single wing. The species is mysterious, elusive, and until relatively recently never actually seen in the wild. This book is about that quest in the wild, the sighting, and birdwatching in general in a very philosophical way.
The essence of the book is what drives people to birdwatching, conservation, and the search for the rare. It is about the very designation of rare, why it matters, and how it is decided. The book is poetic in its descriptions of travel, discovery, the importance of biodiversity and bird. Even the romanticizing of Africa and how wilderness and societies change over time. The love of the pristine.
This book was eye-opening for me in that I knew nothing about nightbirds prior to reading it. I felt I learned a lot, and got to see the world however briefly through another person's eyes. The writing style, however, didn't appeal to me. I would have preferred this to be a different sort of book, but for the right person I know this book will be both inspirational and compelling. Sadly, that person just wasn't me.
August 8, 2017
A short book about the author's trip (with three fellow birdwatchers) to Ethiopia, to try to be the first people to spot a bird called the Nechisar Nightjar, which had only been known from one wing specimen. Large portions of the book are also taken up by the author's favorite birdwatching memories, descriptions of other rare birds, overwrought ruminations on nature and man's place in it, and the meaning of birdwatching and conservation.
The writing style is extremely florid; some passages could easily be entries in a bad-writing contest like the Bulwer-Lytton. "The morning sun lay like a bright, crumpled ball of wrapping paper peeled by a child from a new toy"... really, now. Later on, there's also the marginally less painful "Dusk grabbed at the sun like a greedy child"; I wish people would keep their children from bothering the sun.
There's enough substance here that one can mostly forgive the excesses of style; Head's descriptions of Ethiopia, and of rare birds worldwide, are certainly worthwhile. Throughout the book, though, I oscillated between being fascinated by Head's story; and wincing at his manner of telling it.
The writing style is extremely florid; some passages could easily be entries in a bad-writing contest like the Bulwer-Lytton. "The morning sun lay like a bright, crumpled ball of wrapping paper peeled by a child from a new toy"... really, now. Later on, there's also the marginally less painful "Dusk grabbed at the sun like a greedy child"; I wish people would keep their children from bothering the sun.
There's enough substance here that one can mostly forgive the excesses of style; Head's descriptions of Ethiopia, and of rare birds worldwide, are certainly worthwhile. Throughout the book, though, I oscillated between being fascinated by Head's story; and wincing at his manner of telling it.
November 28, 2018
My comments won't come as a surprise to anyone who read other reviews here. Interesting material to try and learn about, but goodness the writing is bad. Remember that Star Trek episode where Paul Winfield could only communicate in metaphor? This was 250 pages of that. The florid, multi adjective, metaphor driven writing made it virtually impossible to read or concentrate. By the end of the page, I'd have no memory of what I just read.
The jacket notes this is the author's first book. It is the kind of book where you don't blame the author for the results, you blame the editor for encouraging the author to think this is good writing.
One star for being on natural history, and a 2nd star for being a specific topic new to me, but that's all I can give it.
The jacket notes this is the author's first book. It is the kind of book where you don't blame the author for the results, you blame the editor for encouraging the author to think this is good writing.
One star for being on natural history, and a 2nd star for being a specific topic new to me, but that's all I can give it.
April 11, 2016
I really wanted to enjoy this book. I'm a keen twitcher myself and truly wanted to understand, maybe more from a scientific view, what these legends of the bird watching community had done when they went on this journey.
However, it ended up falling short.
The writing style irritated me, almost as if the author had simply sat down and did a lot of free writing. I wasn't interested in his thoughts, his metaphors, his imagery. I wasn't interested in him. I wanted to know more about the bird.
So, if you want a lengthy bit of prose this is the book for you. If you're interested in the rarest bird in the world, rather google it.
However, it ended up falling short.
The writing style irritated me, almost as if the author had simply sat down and did a lot of free writing. I wasn't interested in his thoughts, his metaphors, his imagery. I wasn't interested in him. I wanted to know more about the bird.
So, if you want a lengthy bit of prose this is the book for you. If you're interested in the rarest bird in the world, rather google it.
February 21, 2018
Just let the words flow over you. Most of them are flowery, only there for flavor and texture: unimportant as far as nonfiction is concerned, a distraction from both the facts and the story. This reads as a fantastical travelogue.
Spoiler alert: They found the bird (briefly.) That story, such as it is, could've been told in a single chapter. The rest of the book is a philosophical ramble on life, birds, and the meaning of rareness. Not a bad day's read for all that.
Spoiler alert: They found the bird (briefly.) That story, such as it is, could've been told in a single chapter. The rest of the book is a philosophical ramble on life, birds, and the meaning of rareness. Not a bad day's read for all that.
July 15, 2016
Parts of this book and the author's musings were very engaging. Head talking about his fellow birdwatchers, the parts actually addressing the search. These were the sections I breezed through. Unfortunately, there were also many lingering descriptions of inconsequential details. Still, a nice book which has made me observe the birds around with more interest.
February 14, 2021
This premise of this book was really intriguing: the author and his birdwatching friends head to the Nechisar national park in Ethiopia to try and spot a rare bird which has so far only been identified by a single wing found in 1990 and preserved at the Cambridge university.
The writing was absolutely revolting, the author no doubt meant this as a literary attempt but every other line was a simile or metaphor. And most of the times the metaphors made no sense. Why was the scent of the land curved like muscle and fruit? Why would the alien speech of a "elephant like gravitas possessing", "deliberately beetle crunching", machete tapping guard at the National park "fill the air with fun"?
There was a paragraph on how they passed a mule on the road which was totally confusing: the mule is compared to a horse and a street dog in the same breath leaving us wonder why and how these metaphors were used.
After a long winded recounting of various expeditions which the author has been a part of (most are vague and we are lectured half heartedly about genetics, evolution and conservation: none of which come across clearly owing to the flowey flowery words), a chapter on rare birds and finally how the team (**Spolier alert**), spotted the bird but didn't think of photographing it: not once but twice. It made no sense.
All this apart, the authors entitled stand on various things about Africa and his subtle disdain for captive breeding programs (apparently this reduces the "true, wild" rareness for bird watchers) and his treating his birdwatching like a trophy list to be ticked off all irked me to no end. I almost ended up DNFing this one, the cheaper on the rare birds was informative even if long winded.
The writing was absolutely revolting, the author no doubt meant this as a literary attempt but every other line was a simile or metaphor. And most of the times the metaphors made no sense. Why was the scent of the land curved like muscle and fruit? Why would the alien speech of a "elephant like gravitas possessing", "deliberately beetle crunching", machete tapping guard at the National park "fill the air with fun"?
There was a paragraph on how they passed a mule on the road which was totally confusing: the mule is compared to a horse and a street dog in the same breath leaving us wonder why and how these metaphors were used.
After a long winded recounting of various expeditions which the author has been a part of (most are vague and we are lectured half heartedly about genetics, evolution and conservation: none of which come across clearly owing to the flowey flowery words), a chapter on rare birds and finally how the team (**Spolier alert**), spotted the bird but didn't think of photographing it: not once but twice. It made no sense.
All this apart, the authors entitled stand on various things about Africa and his subtle disdain for captive breeding programs (apparently this reduces the "true, wild" rareness for bird watchers) and his treating his birdwatching like a trophy list to be ticked off all irked me to no end. I almost ended up DNFing this one, the cheaper on the rare birds was informative even if long winded.
July 14, 2025
Traveling through the barley-governed plains of Nechisar, Ethiopia, to find a bird species hardly known to science is quite an adventure. It’s a unique narrative, shared by almost no one. I was hoping for a well-written piece that thoroughly explained the events of the expedition in detail. That is not what this book offers. This book is more concerned with backstory and unwanted birding philosophy than the expedition at hand. I wasn't a fan of this book for several reasons. Those reasons include poor use of figurative language, a lack of representation of birding culture, a disorganized narrative that made the text hard to follow, and the use of unnecessary absolute phrases.
Different styles of figurative language are very important to make your writing piece stand out as well-written. It helps your reader to experience the moment as you did. This book was jam-packed with figurative language, but the only problem was that it wasn’t done well. There were so many similes and metaphors in the book that the text became almost comical. The text was so “bubbly” (as described by another reviewer) that it was hard to follow along because you’d be contemplating the meaning of poorly written similes. The majority of the metaphors and similes in the text don’t make much sense, or at least they don’t help the reader experience the event as the author did. They seemed like they were almost purposefully made to sound intricate and complex, so it would give the illusion of a mature writing style. I will say that some metaphors and similes were well written, but these descriptors were few.
A minor detail that slightly bugged me was the way he described birders. As a birder of 10+ years, I feel qualified to complain. The main part that bugged me was his use of the words “birdwatcher” as well as “birdwatching”.“Birdwatching” is a term used to describe someone who enjoys watching birds for relaxation and pleasure, perhaps while on a walk in the park, or drinking their coffee in the morning. Meanwhile, “birding” is an activity with a more competitive and extreme nature. A good way to differentiate the two terms is that once an individual starts a bird life list, or travels to find certain species of birds, then they may be considered a birder. The author, Vernon Head, is by all definitions a birder, as are his friends accompanying him. Yet throughout the book, he uses the term “birdwatcher” to describe himself, as well as every other birder. This language would stand out to any devoted birder. You may be thinking this is an unimportant detail to be criticizing, which definitely could be true. I highly doubt the author is unaware of birding lingo, so he may have excluded “birding” from the novel to appeal to a larger audience. He also expressed the view that “birdwatching” is in no way a sport, which is true, but what he’s describing as “birdwatching” in the book is “birding”, the much more devoted activity. Regardless of the reason, I think redacting important birding lingo turns off a willing audience of birders.
The worst part about the book was how much of the book was solely philosophy and backstory. I counted which pages of this 236-page book were actually about the expedition. The result was that two-thirds of the book is backstory and philosophy, leaving only one-third of the book describing the actual adventure. Keep in mind that there are still randomly placed analogies within the “adventure” part of the book that take you away from the expedition. Reading this book is like talking to your senile grandfather, who can’t finish a single story without moving on to something unrelated. I’m not sure why the author included so much filler in the book. Maybe he thought the expedition itself wasn’t long enough or worthy enough to fill a book alone, so he filled in the gaps with rants about existence and his views of the world.
What is the rarest bird in the world? That’s a loaded question, one that is not answered impartially in this novel. The author himself explains that “Rareness is, of course, a human construct. It is our way of describing the special few” (Head 181), yet he prescribes the Nechisar Nightjar with the absolute title of “The Rarest Bird In The World”. The use of absolute phrases in this text is very confusing. For example, he states, “Never point at a bird. This vital rule is known to every birdwatcher…” (Head 83) Uh… what? Not me, and I’m sure none of my birding acquaintances have heard of this “vital rule”. This seems like something either niche to his area, or just made up to make himself seem like he’s with it when it comes to birding. There are many other examples of where he clumps together all birders and explains on their behalf what they feel about certain topics, such as traveling, hunting, and pets.
I believe this book wouldn’t appeal to devout birders or lovers of well-written literature, but it's worth reading if you want to learn about a single man’s opinion or views of the world, disguised as a book about a fantastic birding adventure.
Different styles of figurative language are very important to make your writing piece stand out as well-written. It helps your reader to experience the moment as you did. This book was jam-packed with figurative language, but the only problem was that it wasn’t done well. There were so many similes and metaphors in the book that the text became almost comical. The text was so “bubbly” (as described by another reviewer) that it was hard to follow along because you’d be contemplating the meaning of poorly written similes. The majority of the metaphors and similes in the text don’t make much sense, or at least they don’t help the reader experience the event as the author did. They seemed like they were almost purposefully made to sound intricate and complex, so it would give the illusion of a mature writing style. I will say that some metaphors and similes were well written, but these descriptors were few.
A minor detail that slightly bugged me was the way he described birders. As a birder of 10+ years, I feel qualified to complain. The main part that bugged me was his use of the words “birdwatcher” as well as “birdwatching”.“Birdwatching” is a term used to describe someone who enjoys watching birds for relaxation and pleasure, perhaps while on a walk in the park, or drinking their coffee in the morning. Meanwhile, “birding” is an activity with a more competitive and extreme nature. A good way to differentiate the two terms is that once an individual starts a bird life list, or travels to find certain species of birds, then they may be considered a birder. The author, Vernon Head, is by all definitions a birder, as are his friends accompanying him. Yet throughout the book, he uses the term “birdwatcher” to describe himself, as well as every other birder. This language would stand out to any devoted birder. You may be thinking this is an unimportant detail to be criticizing, which definitely could be true. I highly doubt the author is unaware of birding lingo, so he may have excluded “birding” from the novel to appeal to a larger audience. He also expressed the view that “birdwatching” is in no way a sport, which is true, but what he’s describing as “birdwatching” in the book is “birding”, the much more devoted activity. Regardless of the reason, I think redacting important birding lingo turns off a willing audience of birders.
The worst part about the book was how much of the book was solely philosophy and backstory. I counted which pages of this 236-page book were actually about the expedition. The result was that two-thirds of the book is backstory and philosophy, leaving only one-third of the book describing the actual adventure. Keep in mind that there are still randomly placed analogies within the “adventure” part of the book that take you away from the expedition. Reading this book is like talking to your senile grandfather, who can’t finish a single story without moving on to something unrelated. I’m not sure why the author included so much filler in the book. Maybe he thought the expedition itself wasn’t long enough or worthy enough to fill a book alone, so he filled in the gaps with rants about existence and his views of the world.
What is the rarest bird in the world? That’s a loaded question, one that is not answered impartially in this novel. The author himself explains that “Rareness is, of course, a human construct. It is our way of describing the special few” (Head 181), yet he prescribes the Nechisar Nightjar with the absolute title of “The Rarest Bird In The World”. The use of absolute phrases in this text is very confusing. For example, he states, “Never point at a bird. This vital rule is known to every birdwatcher…” (Head 83) Uh… what? Not me, and I’m sure none of my birding acquaintances have heard of this “vital rule”. This seems like something either niche to his area, or just made up to make himself seem like he’s with it when it comes to birding. There are many other examples of where he clumps together all birders and explains on their behalf what they feel about certain topics, such as traveling, hunting, and pets.
I believe this book wouldn’t appeal to devout birders or lovers of well-written literature, but it's worth reading if you want to learn about a single man’s opinion or views of the world, disguised as a book about a fantastic birding adventure.
February 14, 2021
I throughly enjoyed this book. For someone that loves birds and is a birdwatcher myself, this was a great read. It also had great insight and information on important topics such as what defines a species and rarity. The zoologist and birdwatcher in me was so happy while reading this book. Also, I had my copy of "Birds of Africa south of the Sahara" handy so that I could lookup the birds being seen and discussed in the book. This added greatly to the experience. And Ian Sinclair helped create this bird book as well as being one of the men on the expedition in this novel! Awesome.
If you love birds and want to read about an adventure while simultaneously being educated on important topics, definitely read this book.
If you love birds and want to read about an adventure while simultaneously being educated on important topics, definitely read this book.
March 21, 2017
How this author can write! His prose is rich and descriptive, replete with simile and imagery on every line. It is not a light read, but an intensely introspective one - for the intellectual birdwatcher, not your average casual weekend twitcher. And the reason for this is that the book is really about the fragile state of the planet and the ever-urgent need to understand our role and place in the environment. The mood and sub-plot (if one can call them that) therefore are quite melancholy. The blurb mentions that it is like a 'boys-own' adventure, but it is far more meditative and grown-up than that. I enjoyed especially Chapter 7 which discusses what makes a bird species, and in general I loved Vernon Head's poetic writing and profound musings.
I am a confirmed bird-watcher, but now aspire to greater challenges, including more reflection on the context in which I enjoy this activity.
4,5
I am a confirmed bird-watcher, but now aspire to greater challenges, including more reflection on the context in which I enjoy this activity.
4,5
April 14, 2024
As much as I wanted to like this book - I am deeply interested in birds, birding and birdwatching, and amazingly I too have gotten to see a fairly rare nightjar myself, ultimately it was deeply disappointing. There were barely a fraction of chapters specifically about the nightjar expedition, the entire hook meandered aimlessly with no apparent connections between chapters and stories (chronological, subject matter...), and the language was exceedingly ornate and flowery, crammed end to end with similes and metaphors that obscured rather than highlighted elements of description.
December 17, 2024
I am a birder, and I was intrigued by this one. I really wanted to rate it a two-star but I’m feeling generous. The title is misleading because really this is a short account of a mysterious bird, and then a whole lot of tangents and flowery language and the author rubbing shoulders with birders more well-known than him.
Take out all the meanderings and navel-gazing, and you’ve got an article for a birding magazine describing a sponsored birding expedition. Had the title better described the contents, I might not have been so disappointed.
Take out all the meanderings and navel-gazing, and you’ve got an article for a birding magazine describing a sponsored birding expedition. Had the title better described the contents, I might not have been so disappointed.
August 7, 2017
Won this book through the giveaway. This was not my type of book, however I found it to be well written. The majority of this book seems to be anecdotes rather than the story of the Nechisar Nightjar, which makes sense because it is the "rarest bird in the world" and almost nothing is known about it. However, there are pages and pages of anecdotes between sections of the search for this bird. If you are an ornithologist or bird lover, however, this might be the book for you.
October 16, 2017
Captivatingly aware and thoughtful account of learning to both physically and emotionally search for a tangible manifestation of an idea. Though Head occasionally steps over--or crosses in leaps and bounds--the line between poignancy and sentimentality, his prose adds breadth and depth to the concept of birdwatching, highlighting the disproportion of time, energy, and expectation between the searching and the finding and proving that the most discovery occurs during the search for discovery.
December 17, 2024
I enjoyed this but only because I like birds. His descriptions are much too whimsical and often make it harder to imagine what the heck he's talking about. I had to put the book down on many occasions to try to wrap my head around the metaphors he was conjuring up. With regards to the plot, I thought it was much too weak a story to justify a whole book. It felt like an excuse to ramble about the "art" of birdwatching in an unreadable way.
July 17, 2017
Lavish and sincere but at times frustrating, this tale of avian pursuit tells a fascinating story but is marred by a romanticized dualism that obscures real African people, places, and wildlife under a gauzy fairy-tale veneer; I sometimes felt as though I was seeing through the wrong end of the binoculars, even when scenes and encounters were richly described.
July 17, 2018
This is a book of extremes for me. On one end the lessons of birding, places to go, birds to see, the value and mindset of ‘hunting the bird’ were exceptional. On the other end, the writing was so floral and riddled with metaphor and simile (which I’m generally quite a fan of) that it made it difficult to read while trying to get to the next point.
February 7, 2020
An adventure, through and through. Lyrically written, it describes the search for the Nechisar Nightjar, the implications of man on environment, questions how different birds exist in the “wrong place” and makes one see the subtle shift of how environment and genes and location all play a part in the subtle shift of species and what it means.
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