Gallagher set out to interview every living person who had seen an Ivory-billed Woodpecker and to visit every spot where a credible sighting was made since 1944, the last generally-accepted sighting. While following up a sighting in eastern Arkansas in early 2004 along the White River, he and a companion spotted an Ivory-bill flying across in front of their canoe. A team of ornithologists from Cornell and other nature groups converged on the area and had a handful of other sightings, two brief video clips and some recordings.

The book is a lot longer than it needs to be, with details of what Gallagher was wearing, what he and his companions were eating, what roads they traveled. But the historical stuff was interesting and the start of the recent flurry was cool. It just spent too much time on inconsequential stuff.