Ghost Birds: Jim Tanner and the Quest for the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, 1935-1941 Book

I don't why I am so intrigued by the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and the efforts of those dedicated scientists who have spent a large part of their lives searching for it. The first part of the book is the story of James Tanner, an ornithologist at Cornell University, who, along with several others, made a 14,000 mile trip throughout the US in 1934 locating and documenting many rare bird species, including the Ivory-billed, through photographs and sound recordings. The second part of the book describes Tanner's 3-year (1937-39) search throughout the southern US looking for remnant populations of the birds as part of his PhD thesis.

Travel at the time was not as easy as it is today and the efforts expended in such searches make for worthy adventure stories all by themselves.

Although the book is about the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, the reader should not miss the point that had it not been for the wholesale destruction of much of its habitat, the bird may still be present in viable populations today. Throughout the book, I wondered if the Endangered Species Act had been in effect and some of the conservation measures recommended by Tanner had been implemented, perhaps the bird, along with some its cohorts, could have been saved.