A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Bird of Prey

A lavishly talented nature writer * Wall Street Journal * A book about almost everything... The clarity, the verve and precision of his writing is perfect * Tim Dee, author of The Running Sky * I'm in love with this book. If you like great writing, strange historical twists, adventure, nature, music and/or birds, this will quickly become one of your all-time favourite books * Laurie Anderson * Captivating ... full of insights into not only our planet's evolutionary past but also its future -- Hephzibah Anderson * Mail on Sunday***** * A lavishly talented nature writer, [he] weaves a seamless narrative from the most diverse observations ... a master of descriptive nuance * Wall Street Journal * Hugely entertaining and enlightening * Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Genius of Birds * 'Utterly captivating and beautifully written, this book is a hugely entertaining and enlightening exploration of a bird so wickedly smart, curious, and social, it boggles the mind. Along the way, Meiburg takes us from the Falklands to the UK, from Guyana to the Antarctic and Florida, and from deep time to the present and back again, describing in brilliant language why these birds--and their planet--are the way they are. If you love birds, natural history, science, travel, adventure, or just great writing, you will be rapt' -- Jennifer Ackerman, author of The Genius of Birds A book about almost everything... Meiburg tells the biggest of stories via the odd Falkland Islands' raptor, the Johnny Rook... The clarity, the verve and precision of his writing is perfect -- Tim Dee, author of The Running Sky A fascinating, entertaining, and totally engrossing story of these under-appreciated birds, deftly intertwining natural history and human history, and with insights and lessons that go far beyond the subject birds -- David Sibley, author of What It's Like to Be a Bird I'm in love with this book. If you like great writing, strange historical twists, adventure, nature, music and/or birds, this will quickly become one of your all-time favourite books -- Laurie Anderson, artist and musician Caracaras are not like other birds, or even other birds of prey. Curious, wide-ranging, gregarious, and intelligent, the ten species of caracara are a scientific puzzle that has intrigued biologists since the days of Darwin. And this book - as curious, wide-ranging, gregarious, and intelligent as its subject - is not like any other book that I have encountered. A Most Remarkable Creature is not only about a bird, but about the community of people that has formed, almost accidentally, around the bird, and beyond that about humankind itself -- Charles C. Mann, author of 1491 Does what only the very best science and nature writing can. Jonathan Meiburg reminds us that our world is not fully known, that the prehistoric walk among us, and, most of all, how exciting and unnerving it feels to encounter an animal you've never seen before, and, even more, to find that animal staring right back -- Steven Rinella, author of American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon Has the breadth and raciness of a Robert Louis Stevenson novel and the warmth of a David Attenborough natural history program ... What is delightful about his book is the love of the world it expresses, and the calm fortitude with which it considers our current predicament -- John Banville, author of The Sea What a remarkable feat: taking a mysterious, oddly social, keenly intelligent bird of prey that most of the world has never heard of and animating the creature with such beauty that it comes fully alive in our imaginations. Jonathan Meiburg went on an equatorial search for the latter-day descendants of the age-old caracara and brought back - a little like Darwin himself - travel report, documentary, biography, social history, scientific treatise. And all of it so wonderfully readable -- Paul Hendrickson, author of Hemingway's Boat This book is an evolutionary labyrinth, taking Meiburg to the end of the world following a single, curious predator. Vivid, beautiful, and scientifically rich, crawling with jungle ants, blasted by Antarctic winds, his tales will transport you from the page to wilder places -- Craig Childs, author of Atlas of a Lost World If you've ever been at a dull party and then met a person who suddenly brightened the vibe with energetic conversation about his abundant enthusiasms, you know a little of what it's like to come upon Jonathan Meiburg and his first book during a pandemic * Washington Post * A wonderful book about a fascinating species of bird. I loved its layering of ethology, travel writing and part biography of the author and naturalist, William Henry Hudson. I found myself as enthralled by the birds as I was by the landscapes of South America - from Patagonia to Guyana - Meiburg travels through in search of them -- James Macdonald Lockhart, author of Raptor In A Most Remarkable Creature, Jonathan Meiburg introduces us to surely South America's most misunderstood birds, the caracaras. Written sensitively and with an artist's eye for detail, this beautiful and well-researched book sets the record straight, and leaves us yearning to spend time with these intelligent, curious creatures -- Jon Dunn, author of 'The Glitter in the Green' [An] elegant debut... Meiburg's voice is poetic... clear and beautiful * NPR * Meiburg's writing possesses that rare, and very readable, ability to tread surely between the studious and the conversational that renders his obvious deep knowledge pleasingly lightly-worn -- Will Burns