5.0
Feather Trails
ByPublisher Description
Named ABA Birding Book Club’s Best Book of the Year
"Empathy matters. Individuals, and individuality, matter. For Osborn, these principles transcend species boundaries and guide conservation efforts. . . . Feather Trails is a remarkably well-rounded and well-researched book . . . [that] clearly articulates the joy that birds inspire and precisely illustrates how that inspiration can lead to a life of purposeful action."—Ornithological Applications (The Journal of the American Ornithological Society)
The story of one woman’s remarkable work with a trio of charismatic, endangered bird species—and her discoveries about the devastating threats that imperil them.
In Feather Trails, wildlife biologist and birder Sophie A. H. Osborn reveals how the harmful environmental choices we’ve made—including pesticide use, the introduction of invasive species, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction—have decimated Peregrine Falcons, Hawaiian Crows, and California Condors.
In the Rocky Mountains, the cloud forests of Hawai’i, and the Grand Canyon, Sophie and her colleagues work day-to-day to try to reintroduce these birds to the wild, even when it seems that the odds are steeply stacked against their survival.
With humor and suspense, Feather Trails introduces us to the fascinating behaviors and unique personalities of Sophie’s avian charges and shows that what endangers them ultimately threatens all life on our planet.
More than a deeply researched environmental investigation, Feather Trails is also a personal journey and human story, in which Sophie overcomes her own obstacles—among them heat exhaustion, poachers, rattlesnakes, and chauvinism.
Ultimately, Feather Trails is an inspiring, poignant narrative about endangered birds and how our choices can help to ensure a future not only for the rarest species, but for us too.
“An intimate look at the wonder and effort needed for working with endangered species in the wild. [Osborn’s] matter-of-fact writing style and wry humor make the reader part of the action.”—Booklist (starred review)
“[This book] deserves to be read widely, because it is only in coming to understand these animals, suggests Osborn, that we can choose to love and help them.”—New Scientist
"Empathy matters. Individuals, and individuality, matter. For Osborn, these principles transcend species boundaries and guide conservation efforts. . . . Feather Trails is a remarkably well-rounded and well-researched book . . . [that] clearly articulates the joy that birds inspire and precisely illustrates how that inspiration can lead to a life of purposeful action."—Ornithological Applications (The Journal of the American Ornithological Society)
The story of one woman’s remarkable work with a trio of charismatic, endangered bird species—and her discoveries about the devastating threats that imperil them.
In Feather Trails, wildlife biologist and birder Sophie A. H. Osborn reveals how the harmful environmental choices we’ve made—including pesticide use, the introduction of invasive species, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction—have decimated Peregrine Falcons, Hawaiian Crows, and California Condors.
In the Rocky Mountains, the cloud forests of Hawai’i, and the Grand Canyon, Sophie and her colleagues work day-to-day to try to reintroduce these birds to the wild, even when it seems that the odds are steeply stacked against their survival.
With humor and suspense, Feather Trails introduces us to the fascinating behaviors and unique personalities of Sophie’s avian charges and shows that what endangers them ultimately threatens all life on our planet.
More than a deeply researched environmental investigation, Feather Trails is also a personal journey and human story, in which Sophie overcomes her own obstacles—among them heat exhaustion, poachers, rattlesnakes, and chauvinism.
Ultimately, Feather Trails is an inspiring, poignant narrative about endangered birds and how our choices can help to ensure a future not only for the rarest species, but for us too.
“An intimate look at the wonder and effort needed for working with endangered species in the wild. [Osborn’s] matter-of-fact writing style and wry humor make the reader part of the action.”—Booklist (starred review)
“[This book] deserves to be read widely, because it is only in coming to understand these animals, suggests Osborn, that we can choose to love and help them.”—New Scientist
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesFeather Trails Reviews
5.0
“This book was awesome! An incredible and perfect mix of storytelling, memoir, science, conservation, and endangered species. The writing is beautiful and I was immediately swept up in the fascinating world of birds that Sophie Osborn writes about! Peregrine falcons, Hawaiian crows, and California condors…species that represent the challenges facing bird conservationists across the globe. Sophie combines wonderful storytelling, personal experiences, and easy to understand science and has created an inspirational, exciting, engaging, and illuminating book!”
About Sophie A. H. Osborn
Sophie A. H. Osborn is an award-winning environmental author and wildlife biologist whose work has included the study and conservation of more than a dozen bird species in the Americas and small mammal research in the backcountry of Grand Canyon National Park. She has contributed to reintroduction efforts for several endangered birds and served as the field manager for the California Condor Recovery Program in Arizona for nearly four years. Her books include Condors in Canyon Country, which won the 2007 National Outdoor Book Award for Nature and the Environment. Her writings have been published in BirdWatching, Wyoming Wildlife, and Sojourns magazines.
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