whilst a kayaker proposal he noticed an ivory-billed woodpecker in 2004, the birding neighborhood took realize. birders traveled to the bayou the place the sighting happened, good acutely aware that the final proven sighting of an ivory-bill had taken position over sixty years in the past. either males stuck a glimpse of the fowl, and a group started to seek the encircling swamplands. Even after lengthy hours of surveillance and a number of sightings, the scientists carefully refused to reveal their rediscovery of the extinct chicken until eventually they captured it on movie. ultimately, armed with a quick video and sound clip, they released their findings in technological know-how, triggering a frenzy of media assurance and sparking an issue between birders and scientists who proceed to disagree approximately no matter if the chook particularly nonetheless exists.

In Stalking the Ghost chook, Michael ok. Steinberg engages the long debate over the ivory-bill's prestige by means of studying the mentioned sightings and vast efforts to discover the infrequent fowl in Louisiana. Louisiana has lengthy been on the heart of the ivory-bill's tale. John James Audubon wrote concerning the chook and its habitat in the course of his remain in St. Francisville, and scientists James Tanner and George Lowery studied the ivory-bill in Louisiana within the Thirties and Nineteen Forties. extra lately, fowl specialists have carried out special searches in Louisiana. Steinberg discusses those and different clinical expeditions, and he catalogs suggested ivory-bill sightings because the Nineteen Fifties, utilizing a close timeline that comes with either dates and particular locations.

Interviews with conservation officers, ornithologists, and local Louisianans remove darkness from the continued controversy and discover why the ivory-bill, greater than the other chicken, arouses quite a bit awareness. Steinberg meets aged citizens of the Atchafalaya Basin who observed the ivory-bill whereas searching within the Thirties or even ate the bird-which they known as the "forest turkey"-during difficult instances. He paddles into O'Clock Bayou with one flora and fauna professor and travels to a cypress-filled natural world safe haven with the director of Louisiana's Nature Conservancy. His interviews illustrate how specialist critiques fluctuate, in addition to how a lot neighborhood non-experts know.

Steinberg additionally explores intimately the human effect on either the ivory-bill and its bottomland wooded area habitat, explains how forest-management practices within the South might pose difficulties for an ivory-bill restoration, and descriptions the place destiny searches for the poultry should still ensue. during this soaking up learn, Steinberg turns his lifelong curiosity within the majestic ivory-billed woodpecker right into a story that encapsulates either the secret and intrigue surrounding the mythical chook and our fascination with it.