Audubon Day: George Shiras III and the Great Crusade to Save America's Birds

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James McCommons, author of The Feathers Wars and Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds (2026), tells of the story of George Shiras III, a Pittsburgh lawyer, congressman, world’s first wildlife photographer and inventor of the trail camera, and the originator of what became the Migratory Bird Act, one of the most effective wildlife protection laws in American history. A member of a storied Pittsburgh family, Shiras joined the unlikely coalition of writers, photographers, conservationists, politicians, socialites, game wardens, business leaders, gunmakers, hunters and bird watchers who halted the decimation of wildlife and established the conservation movement to protect American wildlife.

James McCommons is a professor emeritus at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan where he taught journalism and nature writing for 20 years. A 1981 graduate of the University of Pittsburgh, majoring in English, McCommons worked as a newspaper and magazine journalist, professor, and author. Specializing in ecology, environmental and travel topics, he contributed to Better Homes and Gardens, Discover, Audubon, Wildlife Conservation, Organic Gardening, Backpacker, the Los Angeles Times, and the New York Times. He is the author of the narrative, non-fiction book: Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail named by The Library Journal as a best nonfiction book of 2009. In 2019, the University of New Mexico Press published Camera Hunter, a biography of George Shiras III. The Feather Wars and Great Crusade to Save America’s Birds was released March 2026 by St. Martin’s Press.

Books will be available to purchase through a third-party vendor.

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