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Lost Among the Birds
- Author
- Neil Hayward
- Narrator
- Sam Devereaux
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Publish Date
- 4 August 2026
- Run Time
- 10 hours 56 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
Early in 2013 Neil Hayward was at a crossroads. He didn’t want to open a bakery or whatever else executives do when they quit a lucrative but unfulfilling job. He didn’t want to think about his failed relationship with "the one" or his potential for ruining a new relationship with "the next one." And he almost certainly didn’t want to think about turning forty. And so instead he went birding.
Birding was a lifelong passion. It was only among the birds that Neil found a calm that had eluded him in the confusing world of humans. But this time he also found competition. His growing list of species reluctantly catapulted him into a Big Year--a race to find the most birds in one year. His peregrinations across twenty-eight states and six provinces in search of exotic species took him to a hoarfrost-covered forest in Massachusetts to find a Fieldfare; to Lake Havasu, Arizona, to see a rare Nutting’s Flycatcher; and to Vancouver for the Red-flanked Bluetail. Neil’s Big Year was as unplanned as it was accidental: It was the perfect distraction to life.
Neil shocked the birding world by finding 749 species of bird and breaking the long-standing Big Year record. He also surprised himself: During his time among the hummingbirds, tanagers, and boobies, he found a renewed sense of confidence and hope about the world and his place in it.
Critics Review
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As we follow Hayward from Key West to Vancouver, the Pribilofs to Texas, we are treated to his trenchant observations of the human worlds he encounters along the way, a wonderful leavening of avian tidbits, and sheer wonder at some of the species he sees…Readers will be intrigued and inspired.
Booklist, starred review
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Neil Hayward’s prose is disarmingly honest--I found it piercing and fascinating, with its seamless blend of memoir, gentle wisdom and bird-revelations. This is a nature cure for bird-geeks: a hilarious adventure that reignites the will to live, to love and to follow the bird-balm of The Big Year.
Miriam Darlington, author of OTTER COUNTRY
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Hayward is a remarkable observer--not only of birds and landscapes, but also of human nature. His keen insights and candid introspection, with a fine balance of humor and poignancy, elevate this story to something more than a mere birding tale, and you don't have to know a thing about birds to love this book.
Kenn Kaufman, author of KINGBIRD HIGHWAY
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It's a delight to join brilliant, witty Neil Hayward on this year-long, madcap dash through some of America's weirdest, wildest places. And while chasing rare birds yields excitement aplenty, his story shares even more: these are transformative journeys. The author's feathered quarry give his broken life wings
Sy Montgomery, author of BIRDOLOGY
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A quirky, entertaining and often surprising account of how one man pitted himself against the ultimate North American birding challenge--and won!
Stephen Moss, naturalist and author of BIRDS BRITANNIA
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Birders and non-birders alike will relate to his search for fulfillment and his delight in the simple joy that comes from seeing the unexpected. A dryly witty account of one birder's quest for a record-breaking Big Year, and the simple joy it afforded him.
Shelf Awareness for Readers
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[T]he birding tales are very good -- exactly the kind you want from a book like this…Most of us will never attempt a Big Year; LOST AMONG THE BIRDS will make you glad that Neil Hayward did.
Hipster Birder
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Written in Hayward’s self-ironic yet disarmingly friendly style, this is an absorbing memoir and Big Year book. Hayward smartly re-crafts the birding adventures related in his Accidental Big Year blog to create a different kind of narrative . . . The book tells about these quests within the framework of Hayward’s personal journey . . . and the surprising ways in which his birding obsession made his life whole.
10,000 Birds
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Inherently interesting and impressively well written, organized and presented, LOST AMONG THE BIRDS: ACCIDENTALLY FINDING MYSELF IN ONE VERY BIG YEAR is especially recommended as an enduringly popular addition to community library collections.
Midwest Book Review
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LOST is the best Big Year story I’ve read, a blend of a man trying to find birds and his emotional footing.
Everett Herald
User Reviews
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Details
- Author
- Neil Hayward
- Narrator
- Sam Devereaux
- Duration
- 10 hours 56 minutes
- Release Date
- 4 August 2026
- ISBN
- 9798260201091
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Bloomsbury Publishing
- Genre
- Wildlife: birds and birdwatching: general interest, Travel writing, Memoirs
Synopsis
Bloomsbury presents Lost Among the Birds by Neil Hayward, read by Sam DevereauxEarly in 2013 Neil Hayward was at a crossroads. He didn’t want to open a bakery or whatever else executives do when they quit a lucrative but unfulfilling job. He didn’t want to think about his failed relationship with "the one" or his potential for ruining a new relationship with "the next one." And he almost certainly didn’t want to think about turning forty. And so instead he went birding.Birding was a lifelong passion. It was only among the birds that Neil found a calm that had eluded him in the confusing world of humans. But this time he also found competition. His growing list of species reluctantly catapulted him into a Big Year--a race to find the most birds in one year. His peregrinations across twenty-eight states and six provinces in search of exotic species took him to a hoarfrost-covered forest in Massachusetts to find a Fieldfare; to Lake Havasu, Arizona, to see a rare Nutting’s Flycatcher; and to Vancouver for the Red-flanked Bluetail. Neil’s Big Year was as unplanned as it was accidental: It was the perfect distraction to life.Neil shocked the birding world by finding 749 species of bird and breaking the long-standing Big Year record. He also surprised himself: During his time among the hummingbirds, tanagers, and boobies, he found a renewed sense of confidence and hope about the world and his place in it.
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