In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker [Hardcover]

Jackson Ja (Author), Jerome A. Jackson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2004

A spellbinding history of the one bird every serious birder hopes to find, even as the world doubts its existence.

In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is both a complete natural history of one of the most exciting and rare—perhaps even extinct—birds in the world, and a fascinating personal quest by the world's leading expert on the species. Jerome A. Jackson provides detailed insights into the bird's lifestyle, habitat, and cultural significance, examining its iconic status from the late 1800s to the present in advertising, conservation, and lore. As he relates searches for the bird by John James Audubon, Alexander Wilson, and others, Jackson offers anecdotal tales illuminating the methods of early naturalists, including how Wilson's captive ivory-bill destroys his hotel room in a desperate attempt to escape. Jackson's search for perhaps the last remaining ivory-bill takes him across the United States and into Cuba. He spends hours flying over potential ivory-bill habitat, canoeing through isolated waterways, and trudging through swamps, always playing recorded ivory-bill calls into the wilderness, hoping for a response. 30 halftones.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With its large bill and impressive appearance, the ivory-billed woodpecker, long thought to be extinct, is an ornithologist's holy grail. Organizations have sponsored searches for it; nature Web sites ask visitors to e-mail in their ivory-billed reports; and flocks of hopeful birders descend upon the American South every year hoping to find one. Jackson is a leading scholar and dedicated knight of this impressive bird, having maintained an obsession with it for 30 years. He takes readers on his exhaustive search through history books and records and then on his tireless travels in southeastern America and Cuba looking for the ivory-billed. In a time of multitasking and overwhelming choices, Jackson's life, with its single-minded pursuit, is enviable, and the book's allure derives in part from Jackson's zeal and focus. He provides insight into the interdependence of flora and fauna of the ivory-billed woodpecker's habitat; extensive background on previous ornithologists' work; the woodpecker's history (going back to its possible evolution two million years ago); and the bird's iconography in preservation and even advertising (in Travelers Insurance Company ads and elsewhere). With diligence and exacting scholarship, Jackson makes an important contribution to our understanding of this elusive bird and the impact of human activities on its environment. 30 halftones.
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About the Author

Jerome A. Jackson is editor of Grizmek's Animal Life Encyclopedia: Birds, Second Edition and is the Whitaker Eminent Scholar in Science at Florida Gulf Coast University. He lives in Naples, Florida.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Smithsonian (August 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1588341321
• ISBN-13: 978-1588341327
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,039,136 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read, May 8, 2005

By 

Tamara Nichols (San Francisco, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (Hardcover)

This is a good read for anyone who's interested in the ivory-billed woodpecker. Although it does not have any information about the rediscovery of the bird in Arkansas, Dr. Jackson has spent his entire adult life studying this bird and has some interesting insights. I also just finished reading "The Grail Bird," a brand new book by Tim Gallagher--one of the people who found the bird. It's like a combination detective story and adventure, and is also very funny in parts. I couldn't put it down. Another great book that has a section on the ivory-bill is "Hope is the Thing with Feathers," by Christopher Cokinos, a first-rate writer. If you're truly interested in learning more about this species, I highly recommend reading all three books.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Do Ivorybills still live on?, August 13, 2004

By 

Obsessed Reader (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (Hardcover)

Jerome Jackson's lifetime of study of, and search for, Ivory-billed Woodpeckers has been distilled into this fine volume. He believes (and certainly hopes!) that a few Ivorybills have managed to survive, unlikely as that seems. In this book, he gives a detailed picture of what we know of Ivorybill biology, as well as an idea of the many questions that persist. He also describes very well the decline of Ivorybills, which he attributes largely to habitat loss.
Early ornithologists who saw, collected, painted, and photographed the birds are given life in these pages. Finally, Jackson describes his own careful searches for the bird, both in the southern US, as well as in Cuba: he just may have encountered Ivorybills, but the fleeting encounters are frustrating.
I certainly recommend this book to those interested in birds, or endangered and extinct species, and wildlife in general.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Correction to below review, April 29, 2005

By 

Glenn Angel - See all my reviews

This review is from: In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker (Hardcover)

Just to make a correction to the review written below. The author of this tale is Jackson, not Tanner. Tanner did indeed see and record the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.