Kenn Kaufman

At 16, Kaufman dropped out of high school and started hitching across America in an effort to see the most birds in a year. "Kingbird Highway" is a unique coming-of-age story, combining a lyrical celebration of nature with wild adventures and some unbelievable characters.

The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder

Kingbird Highway

The author recounts his trek across the country at age sixteen in search of birds, his efforts to set a record for the most North American species seen in a year, and how he gained a deeper understanding of the natural world. Reprint.

The Story of a Natural Obsession That Got a Little Out of Hand

rumbledethumps

I loved this book. I serendipitously got to go birding with Kaufman for a few hours earlier this year, and decided to read his memoir of his Big Year. But it is so much more than that. 

Towards the end of his year, and of this book, he started to tire of the competitive listing he was doing. He just wanted to focus on the birds. Though I am nowhere near the level of birder he is, I reached the same conclusion late in Spring migration. I stopped caring about adding birds to my total, and just started focusing on the birds that were in front of me. Reading this book has made me more steadfast in my position about why I bird.

I think this book can be enjoyed by birders and non-birders alike, but it is essential reading if you are a birder.

An ornithologist’s account of his youthful, year-long, cross-country birdwatching adventure: “A fascinating memoir of an obsession.” —Booklist At sixteen, Kenn Kaufman dropped out of the high school where he was student council president and hit the road, hitching back and forth across America, from Alaska to Florida, Maine to Mexico. Maybe not all that unusual a thing to do in the seventies, but what Kenn was searching for was a little different: not sex, drugs, God, or even self, but birds. A report of a rare bird would send him hitching nonstop from Pacific to Atlantic and back again. When he was broke he would pick fruit or do odd jobs to earn the fifty dollars or so that would last him for weeks. His goal was to set a record—most North American species seen in a year—but along the way he began to realize that at this breakneck pace he was only looking, not seeing. What had been a game became a quest for a deeper understanding of the natural world. Kingbird Highway is a unique coming-of-age story, combining a lyrical celebration of nature with wild, and sometimes dangerous, adventures, starring a colorful cast of characters.

Kingbird Highway The Biggest Year in the Life of an Extreme Birder

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