Discover how the science of ornithology developed by looking at the lives of 20 famous ornithologists. Entire books have been written about many of these intriguing people. The book is approximately 380 pages.

The book has four parts:

- Early Explorers (Georg Wilhelm Steller, William Bartram, Meriwether Lewis, Sir John Richardson);

- Early Ornithology (James Graham Cooper, Joel Asaph Allen, Elliott Ladd Coues, William Dutcher, William Brewster);

- Transition to Modern Ornithology (Frank Michler Chapman, Witmer Stone, Arthur Cleveland Bent, William Leon Dawson, Louis Agassiz Fuertes);

- Modern Ornithology (Rudolph Martin Anderson, Arthur Augustus Allen, Alexander Wetmore, Ludlow Griscom, Terence Michael Shortt, Ernst Walter Mayr).