Sophie A. H. Osborn is an award-winning environmental author and wildlife biologist whose work has focused on bird conservation across the Americas.
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From DDT and pesticide exposure to collapsing insect populations and habitat disruption, birds are warning us about the growing environmental pressures reshaping ecosystems worldwide.
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Sophie A. H. Osborn is an award-winning environmental author, conservationist, and wildlife biologist whose work has focused on the study and protection of bird species across the United States, Central America, and South America. She contributed to the reintroduction of several endangered birds and served as field manager for the California Condor Reintroduction Program in Arizona. Her books include Condors in Canyon Country, which won the 2007 National Outdoor Book Award for Nature and the Environment, and Feather Trails: A Journey of Discovery Among Endangered Birds, published in 2024. Her writing has appeared in BirdWatching, Birding, Wyoming Wildlife, and Sojourns magazines.
Publications by this author
The Return of the California Condor to the Grand Canyon Region
April | 2007
Ten thousand years ago, the California condor’s shadow raced across the rock faces of canyon walls throughout the Southwest, but, over time, the majestic condor disappeared from this land—seemingly forever. Last seen in northern Arizona in 1924, the California condor was on the brink of extinction. In the early 1980s, scientists documented only twenty-two condors remaining in the wild, all in California. Thanks to a successful captive-breeding program, their numbers have increased dramatically, and dozens now fly free over northern Arizona and southern Utah.
Sophie A. H. Osborn’s groundbreaking book, Condors in Canyon Country, tells the tragic but ultimately triumphant story of the condors of the Grand Canyon region. A natural storyteller, Osborn has written an in-depth, highly personal narrative that brings you along as the author and other condor biologists struggle to ensure the survival of the species. The book’s kaleidoscopic photographs of these huge birds flying free over the Southwest are nearly as breathtaking as seeing California condors live. The only book of its kind, Condors in Canyon Country is a must-read for anyone passionate about endangered species and what humankind can do to save them.
In Feather Trails, wildlife biologist and birder Sophie A. H. Osborn reveals how the harmful environmental choices we’ve made—including pesticide use, the introduction of invasive species, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction—have decimated Peregrine Falcons, Hawaiian Crows, and California Condors.
In the Rocky Mountains, the cloud forests of Hawai’i, and the Grand Canyon, Sophie and her colleagues work day-to-day to try to reintroduce these birds to the wild, even when it seems that the odds are steeply stacked against their survival.
With humor and suspense, Feather Trails introduces us to the fascinating behaviors and unique personalities of Sophie’s avian charges and shows that what endangers them ultimately threatens all life on our planet.
More than a deeply researched environmental investigation, Feather Trails is also a personal journey and human story, in which Sophie overcomes her own obstacles—among them heat exhaustion, poachers, rattlesnakes, and chauvinism.
Ultimately, Feather Trails is an inspiring, poignant narrative about endangered birds and how our choices can help to ensure a future not only for the rarest species, but for us too.