Louisiana’s ghost bird

The elusive ivory-billed woodpecker was all but forgotten until a Cornell University team announced in 2004 the rare bird had been rediscovered in Arkansas.

For Michael Steinberg, who nurtured a lifelong interest in the bird, the news proved problematic, instead of joyous. His latest book, Stalking the Ghost Bird, was already near completion when he heard the news on National Public Radio.

“That announcement essentially set me back a year,” he says. “The Cornell team produced data that many dispute, and the debate over the ivory-bill started all over again. I had to go back and re-interview everyone, but it was exciting and really got people inside and outside of the birding community talking and swapping theories.”

The ivory-billed woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in the United States, and second largest in the world. Nicknamed the “grail bird,” this specimen has eluded bird watchers for years. It made the endangered species list in the late 1960s, and is now widely believed to be extinct. The alleged discovery in Arkansas would make the ivory-bill a Lazarus species, meaning it had been rediscovered alive after being declared extinct.

Steinberg’s fascination goes back more than 30 years. As a young boy growing up in the suburbs of St. Louis, he built birdhouses and feeders and kept handy his old hardcover copy of the Golden Field Guide Birds of North America. As a young man he learned to identify game birds and waterfowl while hunting with his father. While vacationing with his family in Florida in the mid-1970s he thought he spotted a trio of ivory-billed woodpeckers.

“I’ve since convinced myself that what I saw wasn’t an ivory-bill, but it really spurned an intense fascination with the bird,” Steinberg says. “Even though I realize now that what I saw was probably a pair of pileated woodpeckers involved in a courtship ritual, since that childhood experience in Florida I have always followed the quest for the ivory-billed woodpecker with keen interest.”

In college, however, Steinberg abandoned a future in ornithology to study geography, receiving his undergraduate and master’s degrees from the University of Missouri and his doctorate from LSU. He has been a professor of geography at the University of Alabama since 2007.

Although the ivory-bill has been spotted in several states, Steinberg chose to focus on Louisiana, where numerous sightings from wildlife and fisheries officials to rural hunters and fishermen have been documented. John James Audubon even documented the ivory-bill during his tenure in St. Francisville.

Published by LSU Press, Stalking the Ghost Bird hit bookstores in March and Steinberg hopes it will fuel the debate and foster awareness about the destruction of natural habitats—and species—in Louisiana.

“There are huge areas of wilderness largely preserved, but not for long,” he says. “The landscape in Louisiana is very diverse, and conservation efforts are needed to save these areas from loggers and developers. I also hope people will gain a greater respect for hunters and fishermen. They are truly stewards of these sanctuaries.”