Sophie Osborn’s Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds may ostensibly be a memoir, but Osborn isn’t the true protagonist of this book. The birds are. Feather Trails details Osborn’s field work experiences with three different endangered bird species, spanning multiple periods throughout her career in ornithology. Divided into three sections, the book opens with her very first field experience watching over fledgling Peregrine Falcons being released into the wild, then moves on to her time in Hawaii working with the ʻalalā (Hawaiian Crow) reintroduction project, and finally concludes with the period she spent in Arizona as the field manager for the California Condor reintroduction program.

These are not dry scientific reports. In each section, Osborn brings her subjects to life through lively, evocative writing that gives the reader a glimpse of the daily lives of wild birds. Biologists-in-training are often discouraged from anthropomorphizing their subjects—that is, writing about animals as though they have human-like motives, emotions, and personalities. Osborn fearlessly sets this taboo aside and writes about her avian charges as though they were friends—or, perhaps, unruly children she was responsible for—with enchanting results.Readers get to join Osborn as she watches young falcons Osiris, Isis, and Ra discover their amazing predatory abilities on a cliffside in Wyoming. They get to tag along as she delights in the antics of intelligent ʻalalā Hoapili and Lōkahi—and fears for their future. And they get to look over her shoulder as she hikes into a remote section of the Grand Canyon to monitor one of the first wild California Condor chicks in decades. Through it all, Osborn is a pleasant and capable tour guide.Interspersed with these first-person accounts are chapters that explore the biology of each species and the threats it faced—how DDT caused Peregrine Falcon populations to plummet in the mid-twentieth century, the invasive predators and diseases that have decimated ʻalalā and other endemic Hawaiian birds, and how lead poisoning from hunters’ bullets was identified as the key culprit behind the decline of California Condors. As Osborn notes, these three species have gone on to three very different fates since her time working with them. Peregrine Falcons were removed from the U.S. Endangered Species list in 1999 after their populations had rebounded dramatically, but ʻalalā are now extinct in the wild, and the wild California Condor population still relies on ongoing, intensive management.

Osborn’s writing deftly blends the personal and scientific, making decades of conservation history interesting and approachable for the casual reader. And although her primary focus is on the birds she’s known, she doesn’t shy away from recounting the challenges she’s faced over the course of her career. In the section on condors, she describes the sexism she faced as a petite woman hired to handle enormous birds and oversee sometimes grueling field work, although she diplomatically refrains from naming the people who expressed doubts about her abilities.

In the closing chapters of the book, Osborn elegantly makes a case for continued investment in these and other threatened bird species, while also expressing gratitude for the richness that birds both endangered and common have added to her life. “We do well to listen and respond to the tales birds tell us through their declining numbers,” she writes, “since the state of the birds so often warns us of perils that threaten other organisms, including us.” Overall, Feather Trails is an engaging and entertaining memoir that also serves as a call to action. It would be an excellent read for any birder interested in delving into the fascinating world of on-the-ground conservation efforts.

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Rebecca Heisman is a freelance science writer based in Walla Walla, Washington. Her first book, Flight Paths (HarperCollins), explores the history and science of bird migration research. She has written previously for various professional ornithological organizations. Find her online at rebeccaheisman.com.