He wears a black band on his lower right leg and an orange flag on his upper left, bearing the laser inscription B95. Scientists call him the Moonbird because, in the course of his astoundingly long lifetime, this gritty, four-ounce marathoner has flown the distance to the moon─and halfway back! B95 is a robin-sized shorebird, a red knot of the subspecies rufa. Each February he joins a flock that lifts off from Tierra del Fuego, headed for breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic, nine thousand miles away. Late in the summer, he begins the return journey. B95 can fly for days without eating or sleeping, but eventually he must descend to refuel and rest. However, recent changes at ancient refueling stations along his migratory circuit―changes caused mostly by human activity―have reduced the food available and made it harder for the birds to reach. And so, since 1995, when B95 was first captured and banded, the worldwide rufa population has collapsed by nearly 80 percent. Most perish somewhere along the great hemispheric circuit, but the Moonbird wings on. He has been seen as recently as November 2011, which makes him nearly twenty years old. Shaking their heads, scientists ask themselves: How can this one bird make it year after year when so many others fall? National Book Award–winning author Phillip Hoose takes us around the hemisphere with the world's most celebrated shorebird, showing the obstacles rufa red knots face, introducing a worldwide team of scientists and conservationists trying to save them, and offering insights about what we can do to help shorebirds before it's too late. With inspiring prose, thorough research, and stirring images, Hoose explores the tragedy of extinction through the triumph of a single bird. Moonbird is one The Washington Post's Best Kids Books of 2012.


牠的右腳腳踝戴著黑色腳環，左腿上方裹著橘色旗幟，上面有雷射刻上 B95 編號。科學家稱牠為奔月鳥，因為這隻韌性十足、四盎司重的鳥有如馬拉松選手，在牠長壽的一生中，飛行的距離足以抵達月球，甚至多出半趟！奔月鳥 B95 體型與知更鳥相似，主要棲息於岸邊，是屬於鷸科亞種的紅腹濱鷸 屬於鷸科亞種的紅腹濱鷸。每年二月，B95 會從火地群島跟隨鳥群起飛，前往 9000 英哩遠的北極群島的繁衍地，夏末再返回火地群島。牠可以連續好幾日不進食，不眠不休地飛行，但終究還是需要降落休息，補充體力。然而，牠以往遷徙途中的落腳處卻產生改變──主要是人為因素所導致。這些休息站不只食物來源減少，甚至還讓鳥類難以抵達，因此，1995 年首次捕捉及標記奔月鳥 B95時，全世界的鷸科數量已經減少了 80%，大部分是在遷徙過程中消失不見，但奔月鳥 B95 卻仍然振翅飛行。最近一次看到奔月鳥 B95 是在 2011 年 11 月，代表牠將近 20 歲了。科學家們紛紛搖頭問道：究竟為何這隻鳥可以年復一年的飛行，而其他同類卻紛紛死去呢？作家菲利普‧胡斯曾獲美國國家圖書獎肯定，在本書，他將帶領我們走過半個地球，認識這隻世界最知名的濱鳥，探討紅腹濱鷸面臨的困難，介紹來自世界各地致力於拯救牠們的科學家與保育人士，也分享如何幫助濱鳥免於絕種。激勵人心的文筆、深入透徹的研究，加上鮮明動人的圖片，作者憑藉著一隻鳥的勝利來探討絕種的悲劇。《Moonbird》榮獲《華盛頓郵報》2012 年的最佳兒童書籍。