Hope Is the Thing With Feathers: A Personal Chronicle of Vanished Birds

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Summary: Excellent coverage of six amazing birds
Review: In _Hope is the Thing with Feathers_ (the title is taken from a line in an Emily Dickinson poem), author Christopher Cokinos sought to relay some of the natural and human history of six vanished birds of North America.

The first bird he examined is the Carolina Parakeet, once a relatively common bird that ranged in noisy flocks across the eastern U.S., north to Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and New York, south to the Gulf Coast states, west to Kansas, Nebraska, and eastern Colorado. This bird with a "luminous plumage of green, yellow and red" frequented wooded rivers and bottomlands. Once a delight to many Americans the birds unfortunately were persecuted as a threat to crops, for the caged bird industry, and for the demands of women's fashion. Cokinos suggested though that the main cause for its extinction was habitat destruction. Two related theories of extinction were that the thick bamboo canebrakes once common in the bird's range were mostly cleared out for farmland. In addition to providing food, the bamboo may have given a vital breeding stimulus to the bird (as like bamboo, the parakeets apparently did not breed each year). The second theory is that the bird may have been denied the hollow trees it required for roosting and nesting by the rapid spread across the continent by the European honeybee.

Next Cokinos had a lengthy section on the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, once known as the Lord God Bird (presumably because observers would blurt "Lord God!" when they spied the nearly two foot long bird with the two and a half foot wingspan). Once the second largest woodpecker in the world (Mexico's Imperial Woodpecker is larger) it ranged across bottomland forests and swamps in the South, west to eastern Texas, north to Missouri, southern Illinois, southern Indiana, and southern Ohio. Though hunted (later largely by collectors, shooting it in fact because they were going extinct), the bird appears to have perished due to habitat destruction. An extreme specialist, it occupied a niche "almost as slender as a feather;" it primarily fed upon beetle larvae from trees that had only been dead for two or three years. Though they also included seeds and fruits in their diets, they became extremely site dependent on places that yielded the larvae that they favored. Interesting coverage of the Brand-Cornell University-American Museum of Natural History Ornithological Expedition led by Arthur Allen that set out in 1935 on a 15,000 mile scientific expedition to record the sounds of wild birds using brand new technology - one of the places they visited was the Singer Tract in Louisiana where news came out that the last Ivory-bills were found; and the bitter (and lost) fight to save the Singer Tract from destruction by loggers.

Next Cokinos examined the Heath Hen, an extinct subspecies of Greater Prairie Chicken. The bird once favored dry, brushy habitat with low trees as well as meadows from Maine to the Carolinas (though primarily from New Jersey up to Connecticut and Massachusetts). Once called by naturalists - along with its western cousin - the pinnated grouse owing to the dangling neck feathers on the males called pinnae - the bird perished on the American mainland by 1870 thanks to loss of habitat due to fire suppression and farming as well as relentless overhunting. The bird survived on the island of Martha's Vineyard and Cokinos covered at length the intense struggle as well as the political infighting over trying to save the bird there. Despite intense hunting of "vermin" (including feral cats, rats, owls, and hawks), planting of crops to feed the Heath Hen, and other efforts, through a run of bad luck the bird finally perished; the last of its kind apparently died in 1932 in the wild, known from close examination to have been an incredibly old male seven to nine years in age (average lifespan in the wild was one year). The author discussed efforts to reintroduce the Greater Prairie Chicken to Martha's Vineyard while highlighting the plight of the possibly doomed Attwater's Prairie-Chicken of Texas and Louisiana, which in 1999 has a total population of 146.

The Passenger Pigeon was the next subject. After impressing upon the reader just how astronomically abundant it once was (one early 1800s flock was estimated to have 2.2 billion birds and a nesting colony in Wisconsin as late as 1871 covered 850 square miles and had 135 million birds), Cokinos related how this bird was systematically destroyed by market hunters, for a time by the cruel trapshooting business (birds were collected to serve as live target practice), and due to habitat clearance (the birds were heavily reliant on the massive amount of mast (nuts) produced by oak, chestnut, and beech trees). The author went into a great deal of detail about the last known wild pigeon ("Buttons," so called because once mounted its eyes were in fact buttons for a time) and the last pigeon period ("Martha" from the Cincinnati Zoo).

A smaller chapter focuses on the Labrador Duck. A handsome sea duck also called the Skunk Duck and Pie or Pied Duck, this somewhat poorly known waterfowl had a large and odd-looking bill that aided the bird in its search for sand-buried shellfish. The range of the bird was the eastern seaboard though where it bred is still open to conjecture. Cokinos and others speculated that the bird - never common to start with - may have perished due to loss of shellfish due to overharvesting and sewage runoff and thanks to increased ice packs from the Little Ice Age (which lasted till the 1850s), which may have interfered with breeding sites and aided some predators.

Cokinos closed with a by comparison slim chapter on the Great Auk, an interesting chapter that could have been a bit longer. I was struck by the long human contact with them - their images have been found in 20,000 year old French cave art and bones in 4,000 old Newfoundland graves - with care they could have survived to today.


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Summary: Perched in the soul...
Review: ...From the second line of the Emily Dickinson poem that both inspired Cokinos and gave him his title for the book. It is only natural that a poet would look to Dickinson and it is appropriate that it is this form which guides this book. HOPE IS THE THING WITH FEATHERS is indeed a poetic and lyrical description of the symbolic significance of six vanished species of North American birds.

The Carolina parakeet, Heath Hen, Great Auk, Passenger pigeon, Labrador duck and Ivory-billed woodpecker have with their passing come to represent for Cokinos a lot more than simply another group of vanished species. They are emblematic of lost time, effort, habitat, environment, and are missing slice of life. Poignant as his descriptions of their loss is, there is always an element of hope that suffuses each of his chapters.

Cokinos with this book successfully blends history with a little bit of biology and adds just enough personal observation and insight. The mix works and his writing is excellent. There is enough science here to satisfy those who wish to remain at a respectable distance. For those who don't mind getting close there is sufficient reason - through what these birds represent about our past and future on this planet - to allow them to come and perch in your soul.

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Summary: A wonderful book - definitely required reading
Review: Although it chronicles several chapters of bull-headed human stupidity, this book also documents the painstaking efforts of the many people who worked hard to save these vanished creatures, and offers some hope that the future need not repeat the past. At times sad, but also funny, and even joyful despite the material.

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Summary: Excellen Book with tons of information
Review: Cokinos, an amateur birder, explores the life histories and conservation problems of North America's extinct birds, and then visits some of the famous zoos and nesting sites that marked the end of a species. Each section is filled with personal stories about the birds to give the reader a better feel for how the birds reacted to their habitats.

The book covers the Passenger Pigeon, Heath Hen, Carolina Parakeet, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Labrador Duck and Great Auk. Every birder has seen large flocks of Cedar Waxwings practically stripping all the berries from a tree- but imagine a flock of 3,000 Passenger Pigeons (considerably larger than a Mourning Dove, and much noisier) flying into a forest and deciding to nest there. That would be a small colony. It was the most populous bird on earth just a hundred years ago- and now it's gone.

The book is filled with interesting, and sometimes witty stories that will keep the reader from closing the cover. Sometimes, though, Cokinos drags on with information that doesn't seem necessary to the rest of the text- but this, by no means, should discourage you from buying the novel. I definitely recommend it.

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Summary: Interesting, well-written, for lovers of wild birds
Review: For the most part, Christopher Cokinos' "Hope is the Thing With Feathers" is an excellent and comfortable book. The author's writing style makes reading this book almost effortless. The pages flew by almost as if I were watching a movie.

The book chronicles, from a very personal level, the author's research on some of America's more recently extinct birds: the Carolina Parakeet, Ivory-billed Woodpecker, Heath Hen, Passenger Pigeon, Labrador Duck and the Great Auk. I imagine that this book would only be of interest to someone who has, at the least, a passing interest in birds. Although the historical context is well represented, it's still a book about birds.

The book is 336 well-written pages with about 30 or 40 black-and-white photographs and drawings. The author included a selected bibliography, index and an interesting Frequently-Asked-Questions (FAQ) style interview at the back of the book.

The only drawbacks were the very few occasions where the wonderful prose gives way to a dry, almost painful, regurgitation of historical fact. In addition there are some brief but awkward inclusions of political correctness that don't seem to fit with the overall text.

I would buy this book again without a second thought!

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Summary: One of the best books I have ever read...
Review: This book touched me deeply, made me both laugh, made me cry, made me angry...and also made me marvel at the what nature created, that I will never see. Months later, this book still touches me, and I often think of the stories in it. I didn't think a book on this subject could be as engaging, interesting and sad. It took me into the lives of these birds, explained their demise, told me about the last of their species. This really is a story that should be required reading for everyone...something that shows us that our actions have costs, shows us how greed and selfishness can really hurt the world around us, permanently...

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Summary: Historical text
Review: This is a fantastic book for those who love birds and are interested in the history of birds in North America. Mr. Cokinos has combined a real passion for birds with a meticuluously researched history of these vanished jewels. He writes with passion and conviction and leads the reader to feel the loss of these species. I now look at Mourning Doves and Pileated Woodpeckers and imagine I could see the Passenger Pigeon and Ivory Billed Woodpecker. A must read.

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Summary: A hidden gem - - beautiful poetic writing
Review: This is a great book.

It's a sad one in realizing the destruction of various bird species. The chronicles of various species during the late 19th/early 20th century are astonishing to read. It was incredible to read and learn of biologists determined to collect species before they vanished - rather than attempt to preserve them.

Particularly entertaining (in an ironic and sick sort of way) was the tale of the last man to shoot the last Passenger Pigeon. The author did an incredible amount of research and weaves a delightful short story worthy of the purchase of this book in itself.

The writing is simple yet incredibly deep; it brings home an important and moving message that can be understood by a variety of audiences - even those who may not be particularly interested in nature, birds or environmental causes. Poetic and beautifully wrapped up. The only troubling portion of the book is the outcome of the fate of these species - obviously not the fault of the author, who provides a hope of preserving "what we still have" - it is moving, nonetheless ...

A wonderful book!!!