"In Stalking the Ghost Bird, Michael K. Steinberg engages the lengthy debate over the ivory-bill's status by examining the reported sightings and extensive efforts to find the rare bird in Louisiana. Louisiana has long been at the center of the ivory-bill's story. Steinberg discusses scientific expeditions, and he catalogs reported ivory-bill sightings since the 1950s, using a detailed time line that includes both dates and specific locations." "Interviews...

Nancy Drew determines whether an ivory elephant charm really protects its wearer from harm when she investigates the involvement of a member of the Bengleton Wild-Animal Show in a mysterious scheme.

In 1949, Jake Hamrick, a 19-year-old who has been obsessed since childhood with the ivory-billed woodpecker, leaves Illinois for Louisiana accompanied by Robin, his tiny girlfriend. They search in the bayous where the bird was last reported, and Robin, as obsessed as Jake, dresses like the bird, smearing her naked body with white clay, wearing a cloak of black crow feathers, her hair in a red crest. Local hunters pursue Robin and Jake deep into the...

"Woody's Last Laugh explores a simmering controversy amid scientists, conservationists, birders and the media: the supposed "extinction" of American ivory-billed woodpecker. Among the first to identify rampant mental errors inside conservation and environmental professions, the book identifies 53 distinct kinds of cognitive blunders, psychological biases, and logical fallacies on both sides of the woodpecker controversy. Few species have ever provoked...

Academy Award-winning filmmaker reflects on his extraordinary life and career.