- Hardcover: 1 pages
- Publisher: Smithsonian; illustrated edition edition (Aug 30 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1588341321
- ISBN-13: 978-1588341327
- Product Dimensions: 21.1 x 13.7 x 3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 454 g
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,993,192 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
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.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Book Description
In Search of the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker is a complete natural history of one of the most exciting and rare birds in the world. Noted ornithologist Jerome A. Jackson takes the reader on his fantastic and personal quest, providing 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 one captive ivory-bill destroyed a naturalist's hotel room in a desperate attempt to escape. Jackson's search for one of the few remaining ivory-bills takes him across the United States and into Cuba. A new epilogue disputes the putative rediscovery of the bird in April 2005.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.8 out of 5 stars (8 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 - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Search Of Ivory Billed Pb (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?, Aug 13 2004
By Obsessed Reader - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Search Of Ivory Billed Pb (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 - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: In Search Of Ivory Billed Pb (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.
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