The inspiring story of David Wingate, a living legend among
birders, who brought the Bermuda petrel back from presumed
extinction
"Rare Birds "is a tale of obsession, of hope, of fighting for
redemption against incredible odds. It is the story of how
Bermuda's David Wingate changed the world--or at least a little
slice of it--despite the many voices telling him he was crazy to
try.
This tiny island in the middle of the North Atlantic was once the
breeding ground for millions of Bermuda petrels. Also known as
cahows, the graceful and acrobatic birds fly almost nonstop most of
their lives, drinking seawater and sleeping on the wing. But
shortly after humans arrived here, more than three centuries ago,
the cahows had vanished, eaten into extinction by the country's
first settlers.
Then, in the early 1900s, tantalizing hints of the cahows'
continued existence began to emerge. In 1951, an American
ornithologist and a Bermudian naturalist mounted a last-ditch
effort to find the birds that had come to seem little more than a
legend, bringing a teenage Wingate--already a noted birder--along
for the ride. When the stunned scientists pulled a blinking, docile
cahow from deep within a rocky cliffside, it made headlines around
the world--and told Wingate what he was put on this earth to do.
Starting with just seven nesting pairs of the birds, Wingate would
devote his life to giving the cahows the chance they needed in
their centuries-long struggle for survival -- battling hurricanes,
invasive species, DDT, the American military, and personal tragedy
along the way.
It took six decades of obsessive dedication, but the cahow, still
among the rarest of seabirds, has reached the hundred-pair mark and
continues its nail-biting climb to repopulation. And Wingate has
seen his dream fulfilled as the birds returned to Nonsuch, an
island habitat he hand-restored for them plant-by-plant in
anticipation of this day. His passion for resuscitating this
"Lazarus species" has made him an icon among birders, and his story
is an inspiring celebration of the resilience of nature, the power
of persistence, and the value of going your own way.
"From the Hardcover edition."
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