A celebration in word and image of the birds who return each year to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to nest—and how they link every point on the globe • 200 color photos from award-winning nature photographers Subhankar Banerjee, Steven Kazlowski, and Arthur Morris • Essays/text contributions by noted writers, biologists, and conservationists including David Allen Sibley, Debbie Miller, Kenn Kaufmann, and President Jimmy Carter, CD Audio by birdsong recordist, Martyn Stewart • Life histories of individual bird species from every major group including shorebirds, songbirds, and raptors plus dramatic stories of migration and strategies for survival A Buff-breasted sandpiper running along a barrier beach in the Carolinas is only mid-way in an annual journey of incredible magnitude—one that takes it from its nesting ground in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to its winter quarters on the pampas of South America. The Yellow wagtail begins life in a willow thicket in the Arctic but winters in Indonesia, where its return each year signals rice farmers to begin their spring planting. The ecosystems of the world are linked by birds, and nowhere is that more apparent than the Arctic Refuge, where more than 180 species converge from six continents and all fifty states to nest and rear their young. The unique habitats of the Arctic Refuge and the intense Arctic summer produce a rich diet that makes the incredible migrations worthwhile.Essays include DAVID ALLEN SIBLEY on the grand dance of avian migration and the sense of time and place on the earth that it provides; DEBBIE MILLER tells of how the incredible journey of songbirds from the Arctic Refuge and back connects the world’s habitats—and its people—together; biologist MARK WILSON shares his story of discovery canoeing down the Refuge’s Canning River; STANLEY E. SENNER, Vice President of Audubon Alaska, explains the ecological importance of the region and how oil development has impacted the North Slope; and ROBERT THOMPSON, an Inupiat wildlife guide, reveals the relationship between birds and native culture.Three photographers contributed to this project: SUBHANKAR BANERJEE, author of Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Seasons of Life and Land, has had his images featured in major museums such as the Smithsonian Institute of Natural History and in magazines such as Vanity Fair; nature photographer STEVEN KAZLOWSKI was a finalist for Wildlife magazine’s 2004 Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. Among his previous books are Alaska Wildlife Impressions and Bears of the North; ARTHUR MORRIS specializes in bird photography and has had more than 11,000 of his photos published in magazine such as American Bird, Audobon, National Geographic, Outdoor Photographer and many more.Arctic Wings is produced jointly by The Mountaineers Books and Manomet Center for Conservation Science. It is published in the tradition of Seasons of Life and Land—a book (photography by Subhankar Banerjee) that has won critical acclaim and has helped inform the debate over opening the Arctic Refuge to oil drilling.