Rising from sandbars on the Platte River with clarion calls, the sandhill crane (Grus Canadensis) feels the urgency of spring migration. Elegant, noble and spiritual, the sandhill is one of the most ancient of all birds. More than a half-million strong, flying in squadrons, these majestic creatures point northward to their Arctic and sub-Arctic breeding ranges.  Theirs is an epic story of life endurance through the ages.

With stunningly beautiful photography, On Ancient Wings presents sandhills in their wild, but increasingly compromised habitats today.  With an intimate lens, photographer and author Michael Forsberg documents the tall gray birds from the Alaskan tundra, to the arid High Plains, to Cuban nature preserves and suburban backyards. With an eye for beauty, an ear to those for whom cranes matter most, and an uncommon persistence the author shares his discoveries during a five-year journey across North America.  This personal exploration documents the cranes’ challenges to adapt and survive in a rapidly changing natural world, and argues that humankind, for its own sake, should secure their place in the future.

On Ancient Wings intertwines the lives of cranes, people and their common places, to tell a timeless story at a time when sandhill cranes and their wetland and grassland habitats face daunting prospects.

“When I am photographing prairie wildlife, I often feel like I am chasing ghosts,” said Forsberg. “Photographing the survivors of prairie species whose numbers have been decimated, or all but eliminated from these wide-open spaces. Even on the Platte River, where 500,000 sandhill cranes and millions of ducks and geese find critical refuge each spring, there is the underlying reality that only a fraction of the habitat remains that existed a century ago.”

Featuring the stunning photography of Michael Forsberg, this book is the culmination of a five year personal project on sandhill cranes and their habitats across the North American continent.  On Ancient Wings was a 2004 Nebraska Book Award winner and 2005 Book of the Year, Gold award winner with Foreword Magazine.

168 pages, 150+ full color photographs.