“A gripping historical eco-adventure with the suspense of a good Grisham or Turow novel. Bendorf’s wonderfully drawn main characters feel like real birders, not caricatures. I devoured The Last Warbler in two days, savoring it from start to finish.”
A historical eco-adventure of birding, mystery, and conservation
The Last Warbler
Laura Erickson
Award-winning author and recipient of the American Birding Association’s Roger Tory Peterson Award
AVAILABLE IN NOVEMBER
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You’ll also receive a free copy of 25 Things You May Not Know About Bachman’s Warbler.
There hasn’t been a confirmed sighting of Bachman’s Warbler in decades. Most ornithologists consider it gone. But whispers persist in the swamp country of South Carolina, and Chicago lawyer Luke Peterson—an obsessive birder—thinks he has a shot at rediscovering it.
What begins as a search for proof becomes a race against disappearing habitat. Luke, his birding partner Martin, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Maria Lopez follow the trail left by a deceased local birder whose records raise troubling questions about the warbler, its habitat, and what happened to both.
Set in the late 1970s, The Last Warbler is an atmospheric historical eco-adventure about birding, evidence, conservation, and the uneasy intersection of government and commercial interests.
THE STORY
One of the very few photos of Bachman’s Warbler. Charleston, 1958.
Jerry A. Payne, USDA Agricultural Research Service
PRAISE FOR THE LAST WARBLER
“In his debut novel, The Last Warbler, Carl Bendorf, an experienced bird adorer, speaks to the search for an elusive species, Bachman’s Warbler—a tiny bird wrapped in the enormity of U.S. history and a mysterious ecology. For the reader, his words are vicarious drama and adventure. If a forever-gone bird might be felt, Carl brings us into this absence and what it takes to chase a ghost.”
J. DREW LANHAM Author of The Home Place, ornithologist, and 2022 MacArthur Fellow
“The Last Warbler is a compelling and deeply informed novel that captures both the passion of birding and the difficult conservation choices that can determine whether a species survives.”
GEORGE FENWICK Founder and former president, American Bird Conservancy
“This engaging novel slaked my thirst for a compelling blend of birds and conservation. Bendorf presents the moving transformation of an avid birder into a committed conservationist, while giving the reader a glimpse of an avian ghost of the Southern swamps.”
WAYNE KLOCKNER Executive Director, American Birding Association
ABOUT CARL J. BENDORF
Carl J. Bendorf has been a birder since childhood, exploring the fields and woods of small-town Iowa with a friend, binoculars, and a growing fascination with birds. By his early teens, he was keeping handwritten life lists and experimenting with homemade equipment to record bird songs.
He founded Colorado Birding Adventures and has served as president of the Iowa Ornithologists’ Union, on the board of the American Birding Association, and as the ABA’s Director of Development. He has also guided for Birdwatcher’s Digest and the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival.
In 2011, Bendorf founded Iowa Young Birders, serving as Executive Director through 2015. He chronicled the experience in Iowa Young Birders: Story of a Startup, published by the American Birding Association.
His lifelong interest in birds, birding history, and conservation inspired The Last Warbler, a historical novel centered on the search for Bachman’s Warbler in the late 1970s.
He lives in Longmont, Colorado, with his wife, Linda, director of Blue Sage Writing.
