A Wing and a Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds

The global decline of bird populations, even entire species, is catastrophic. Andes and Beverly Gyllenhaal join the growing concern to preserve ecological diversity in which birds play a key role. The chronicle of their efforts is extraordinary, conducting some three hundred interviews to learn more at first hand from avian organizations, scientists, and amateur devotees. Together, the authors take a year traveling in an Airstream across North America, focusing on the dimensions of the tragedy.

In A Wing and a Prayer, the interviews, copious notes, and such technology as bioacoustics that records and analyzes wildlife sounds across cyberspace are woven into the narrative. The Gyllenhaals travel overseas to learn more, and record multiple ongoing projects like restoring Passenger Pigeons from extinction, a fifteen-generations study of the Central Florida Scrub Jay, and an enthusiastic researcher donning a white smock and a puppet head disguise to scrutinize whooping crane behavior in Louisiana.

The Gyllenhaals’ account, illustrated with full-color images of birds and conservationists, reveals three hopeful pathways: successive Acts supporting Congressional environmental protection; US military encouragement, especially on large bases in the US southeast; and a measure of faith in utilizing the astronomical cost of bird salvation, supported by a number of billionaires.