The world’s most famous shorebird was re-sighted yesterday in Mispillion Harbor, Delaware.

Researchers had begun to despair that the celebrated 20-year-old Red Knot — with a book, legions of fans and even costumed human impersonators — had died.

The bird was originally named B95 because of the number on the leg band that biologists in Tierra del Fuego attached in 1995. B95 came to be called Moonbird because he has flown more miles in his life than the distance between the earth and the moon.

“The news that B-95 was seen in Delaware is a joy,” said Charles Duncan, director of the Manomet Center’s Shorebird Recovery Project. “So many people have learned about shorebird conservation through this iconic little hero.”

The famous Moonbird has now migrated every year since 1993 between the southern tip of South America and breeding grounds in the Canadian Arctic. Moonbird: A Year On The Wind With The Great Survivor B95 was also the title of a critically-acclaimed biography written about the bird in 2012.

“Researchers looked for him on southbound migration last summer in Mingan, Quebec, but conditions were poor and they had no luck. Then, during the boreal winter, teams in Tierra del Fuego did not find him in course of their work. I thought perhaps the end had come. But the Moonbird is indeed, ‘the great survivor.'”

The Manomet Center’s Shorebird Recovery Project studies and works to conserve shorebird populations throughout the Western Hemisphere. Manomet researchers — and scientists from all over the world — are currently gathered in the Delaware Bay region to study migrating shorebirds as they move north.

For more than 40 years, the Manomet Center has used science and partnerships to build a more sustainable world. The Center is a non-profit research organization headquartered in Massachusetts with scientists working across North and South America.

For more information about the Moonbird sighting please contact David McGlinchey at dmcglinchey@manomet.org or 508-224-6521 x232.