This is a joyous and suspenseful tale of one of the most exciting scientific rediscoveries in recent years. Tim Gallagher was already writing this book on the ivory-billed woodpecker, talking to numerous people who said they had seen one since the last confirmed sighting in the 1930's, when a very credible sounding report came out of Arkansas. From that point on he was in the swamp. And he saw one. The great Southern bottomland forests may be all but gone but this book gives us reason for hope. It is indeed the thing with feathers.

In April 2005, a startling announcement made national and international news: the ivory-billed woodpecker, a bird thought to be extinct for nearly sixty years, had been sighted. The story behind this incredible discovery began more than a year earlier when, after a lengthy search, Tim Gallagher was one of the first people to see this iconic bird, the holy grail of birdwatchers. He persuaded the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology to mount a massive search for evidence of the bird's existence. The news was kept secret while field teams went to work and land was bought to conserve the ivory-bill's habitat. Gallagher's story reads like a mystery novel, and the subsequent conservation efforts provide hope and a lesson for our times.