Internationally celebrated bird conservationist and best-selling author, Scott Weidensaul, will deliver an
illustrated public lecture titled “Saving Birds to Save the Planet”, on Tuesday, May 5, 2026 at 7:00 PM in
Fleischmann Auditorium at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. This special event is presented
by the Santa Barbara Audubon Society and the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. Courtesy of
Chaucer’s Bookstore, books by Scott Weidensaul including his just released new book, The Return of the
Oystercatcher, will be available for purchase and signing at the event.
Weidensaul will deliver an uplifting and hopeful lecture about avian recovery, bird reintroduction and habitat
restoration. He show how conservatioinists restored faltering bird populations in the past, bringing back once
nearly extinct raptors and waterfowl. And despite the odds today, all around the world, people are reviving bird
populations, providing a roadmap for wider recovery.
In his newest book, The Return of the Oystercatcher: Saving Birds to Save the Planet, Weidensaul shows why
we should never underestimate the resiliency of birds, and why creating a world that works for birds will work
for everything, including us. He’ll trace this inspiring arc from a tiny island off the Maine coast to the bird-rich
Danube Delta on the Ukrainian border where even war has not stopped progress; from vulture restoration in
the mountains of Bulgaria to oases of sanctuary for endangered seabirds in the highlands of Hawaiʻi, and
across the world’s largest and most intact forest in Canada where Indigenous communities are permanently
protecting hundreds of millions of acres of some of the most important migratory bird habitat on Earth, a win as
well for social justice.
Scott Weidensaul is a Fellow of the American Ornithological Society and an active field researcher, studying
saw-whet owl migration for 30 years, as well as winter hummingbirds in the East, bird migration in Alaska, and
the winter movements of snowy owls through Project SNOWstorm, which he co-founded.
He is the author of nearly 30 books on natural history, including the Pulitzer Prize finalist Living on the Wind
and the New York Times bestseller A World on the Wing. He is a contributing editor for Audubon magazine, a
columnist for Bird Watcher’s Digest, and writes for a variety of other publications including Living Bird.
This lecture is open to everyone. Advance ticket purchase is recommended in order to guarantee admission.
General admission tickets are $10 and are available in advance on the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural
History’s website and will also be available for purchase at the door the night of the event, if still available.
https://tickets.sbnature.org/events/019c5427-860f-72bb-52ba-e857902f64b1
For more information, please call the Santa Barbara Audubon Society at 805-964-1468.
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