As Entrancing as Snowy Egret Feathers
The Feather Wars: And the Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds by James H. McCommons (St. Martin’s Press, 2026)
Reviewed by Elizabeth Stice
You might say that Americans were “bird crazy” at the turn of the nineteenth into the twentieth century. We wanted to eat them, wear them, collect them. We did all of that, which cost us the passenger pigeon, the Carolina parakeet, and very nearly many other birds. The Feather Wars is the tale of America’s fascination with birds and feathers and the remarkable people who helped slow our overconsumption of birds and redirect our enjoyment of their beauty.
It is nearly impossible to imagine the ways in which birds were part of the scenery of American life at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries. We are accustomed to seeing birds in trees and occasionally in cages, but not often as hats or brooches. Entire bird wings might be part of an outfit back then. A large beanie baby collection may be considered passé today, but how might people react to a room filled with stuffed birds? Or cabinets filled with bird skins, lovingly collected and catalogued, after being shot by the collector? But all kinds of Americans stole and purchased eggs, shot and skinned birds, practiced amateur taxidermy, and amassed large personal collections of birds. They did on behalf of themselves and they did it for the sake of others. From 1909-1910, Teddy Roosevelt collected about 4,000 birds for the Smithsonian. This was considered a heroic feat. As you already know or suspect, the American zeal for feathers and bird collecting led to the devastation of many bird species.
We might not be surprised that over-hunting and belief that birds would never run out cost us, but it will be surprising to many readers that some of the most passionate hunters and collectors were bird enthusiasts and scientists. Before the rise of binoculars, the best way to study birds was to shoot them. As The Feather Wars documents, bird identification by sight and sound was revolutionary when promoted by people like Florence Merriam, author of Birds Through an Opera-Glass, and Roger Peterson, author of A Field Guide to the Birds. Peterson told readers, “No longer was it necessary to shoot birds to learn about them.” This was revelatory to many of his readers. His methods of identification helped people make that transition.
The Feather Wars is a fascinating book, full of interesting people and passages of history. It covers the ways in which people consumed and studied birds, the organizations that grew up around the study and the protection of birds, the crusaders for the cause, and the very real cost in human lives given for the protection of birds. In Florida, game warden Guy Bradley was murdered by poachers for enforcing laws limiting the killing of birds.
Anyone interested in the time period 1880-1940 should read this book. Among other things, McCommons manages to explore the diversity of the American diet, regional distribution of bird species, muzzle-loaded punt guns, side hunts, Teddy Roosevelt and the Boone and Crockett Club, the Audubon Society, E.A. McIlhenny and Tabasco sauce, the early days of photography, and the gossamer wings of the snowy egret. This book even illuminates the relationships between state and federal law and private and public collaboration—many of the early game wardens were paid by the Audubon Society but were deputy sheriffs appointed by the county. No chapter in this book will bore you.
There are many lessons in this book, one is obvious. Natural resources, including birds, have limits which need to be respected. America was blessed with such an abundance of passenger pigeons that they would roost in gatherings miles wide and long. Yet, believing them to be limitless, we hunted them to extinction, as we nearly did the buffalo. What has kept so many birds alive has been passionate advocacy by organized citizens, willing to put time and resources into protecting the birds they loved, even if they also hunted them. As The Feather Wars documents, many of the best advocates for birds have been hunters. Consumption and care for birds are not always opposites, but careless consumption will leave us all in a bad place. And networks of individuals and the private organizations they build are capable of political advocacy and practical leadership. If apathy had reigned, we would not have many of the birds you can enjoy watching today.
As we may or may not be entering a new Gilded Age, one could be cynical about the possibility of engaged citizens shaping culture and legislation today. But it would be quite hard to convincingly argue that the average citizen is less empowered now than they were in 1895 or 1905, when a very high percentage of Americans could not legally vote and your CEO could hire the Pinkertons to shoot at you. America is not less conservation-minded now than it was in an age when women used roseate spoonbill wings as fans and people dined on sea turtles and their eggs. The Feather Wars demonstrates that change is possible, if not easy or cheap, when people take initiative.
One other lesson in Feather Wars then is the value of gravity, metaphorically speaking. Some of the best early ornithology was done by amateur scientists, even teenagers, who formed groups like Nuttall Club and held serious meetings, presented and critiqued scientific papers, and launched small ornithology journals. Excellent citizen science was the order of the day, in part because people were not afraid to be serious and devote real time and effort to the pursuit of knowledge. The remarkable photography of Finley and Bohlman took days and weeks, hikes and climbs, patience and precision. They did their early work as young men passionate about ornithology, only later did it become a career path for Finley. Bohlman spent his professional life in his family’s plumbing business.
Some of the ire toward experts today is the result of the fact that many of us have surrendered all expertise to the experts. If it was 1890, someone you know would be spending their entire weekend studying butterflies or collecting igneous rocks or trying to decipher a dead language. You would know a dentist who sometimes contributes to academic journals about philosophy. You would be engaged in some amateur theatrical productions, you would have some poetry memorized, and you would be going to many more book signings than you are now. Bringing back some of the gravity of that era might spare us some of the brain rot we are currently experiencing and maybe even some of the dissatisfaction. Many of the lives documented in this book can be signposts in the right direction.
If you like birds or enjoy American history, The Feather Wars will not disappoint. It is not an ornithological textbook, but it traces American interests and habits of consumption related to birds across many decades. It is written with engaging prose and incorporates many different topics. It is one of the rare books in which each chapter is interesting enough to be the subject of its own book. The Feather Wars is a great book, capable of inspiring a deeper appreciation for birds and the outdoors.
The Feather Wars is scheduled to be published on March 17, 2026.
Elizabeth Stice is a professor of history and assistant director of the honors program at Palm Beach Atlantic University. When she can, she reads and writes about World War I and she is the author of Empire Between the Lines: Imperial Culture in British and French Trench Newspapers of the Great War (2023).
