‘The Feather Detective’ is a biography of Roxie Layboune, forensic ornithologist

Summary

Summary of NPR's Book of the Day Episode: "The Feather Detective"

NPR's Book of the Day delves into the intriguing life and contributions of Roxie Laybourn, a pioneering forensic ornithologist whose work has significantly impacted both criminology and aviation safety. Hosted by Andrew Limbong and featuring insights from author Chris Sweeney, the episode titled “The Feather Detective” offers a comprehensive exploration of Laybourn's remarkable career and legacy.

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Introduction to Roxie Laybourn

Andrew Limbong opens the episode by introducing Roxie Laybourn, emphasizing her critical role in making air travel safer through her expertise in forensic ornithology. He describes her as someone who "practically invented the field" despite facing challenges in a male-dominated discipline (00:17).

Pioneering Forensic Ornithology

Scott Simon elaborates on Laybourn’s groundbreaking work, portraying it as essential in solving complex criminal cases and aviation accidents. He paints a vivid picture of Laybourn’s role with a cinematic analogy:

“Imagine a police procedural. Cops called to a gruesome scene... Then a hard boiled homicide cop sees something and says, better call in the feather detective.” (02:21)

This analogy underscores the vital importance of her expertise in analyzing bird remains to uncover critical evidence.

The Eastern Airlines Flight 375 Crash

A pivotal moment in Laybourn’s career was her involvement in the investigation of the 1960 Eastern Airlines Flight 375 crash into Boston Harbor, which resulted in 62 fatalities. Scott Simon and Chris Sweeney discuss how Laybourn's meticulous analysis identified European starlings as the culprits behind the bird strike that led to the disaster.

Sweeney explains: “Roxy had found a feather that helped her piece that together and, you know, identify starlings that were for sure the bird that caused that crash.” (03:46)

This discovery not only clarified the cause of the crash but also propelled Laybourn into a specialized role within forensic ornithology.

Early Career and Development of Expertise

Chris Sweeney provides background on Laybourn’s early career, highlighting her beginnings as a taxidermist in North Carolina during the 1930s. Her exceptional skills in handling and preparing bird specimens eventually led her to the Smithsonian during World War II, where she revitalized their faltering bird collection.

“She was the first woman taxidermist in North Carolina to hold an actual job in that field in a museum.” (04:02)

Her dedication and expertise established her as a leading figure in ornithology, despite the era's gender biases.

Engagement in Poaching Cases

One of Laybourn’s notable contributions involved investigating poaching cases, including a high-profile case against the Kluge estate in Virginia. The estate was notorious for protecting species like hawks and owls, where affluent individuals engaged in unethical hunting practices for sport.

Sweeney recounts: “They had an incentive program to whoever killed the most hawks and collected the bands off of them to prove that these were kills.” (05:03)

Laybourn’s role in these cases was crucial in identifying illegally killed birds, thereby aiding in the prosecution and conservation efforts.

Challenges and Gender Dynamics

Despite her professional successes, Laybourn faced significant challenges, particularly related to sexism within the male-dominated fields of ornithology and the Smithsonian Institute. Sweeney discusses how Laybourn’s assertive personality and high standards often “ruffled feathers” among her male colleagues.

“She didn’t suffer fools lightly... She didn’t take criticisms lying down.” (06:23)

Her uncompromising nature and exceptional work ethic earned both admirers and detractors, highlighting the difficulties women faced in scientific communities during her time.

Legacy and Impact on Aviation Safety

Roxie Laybourn's pioneering work has left a lasting legacy, particularly in enhancing aviation safety through better wildlife management at airports. Sweeney emphasizes the ongoing relevance of her contributions:

“Roxy's pioneering work in this field helped airports realize we need to set up practices to keep away birds, to manage them, to keep them out of flight paths.” (07:54)

Her methodologies for identifying bird species involved in strikes have informed modern practices, ensuring safer skies for millions of air travelers.

Conclusion

The episode concludes by honoring Roxie Laybourn's enduring impact on both forensic science and aviation safety. Chris Sweeney’s book, “The Feather Detective: Mystery, Mayhem and the Magnificent Life of Roxy Laybourn,” serves as a testament to her extraordinary contributions and the challenges she overcame as a trailblazing woman in science.

“We have a lot to thank her for including safer practices at airports... Roxy's identifications really helped inform modern day practices of how airports are managed and maintained.” (07:54)

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Final Thoughts

NPR's Book of the Day effectively showcases Roxie Laybourn’s indispensable role in forensic ornithology and her broader impact on public safety and conservation. For those interested in the intersections of science, history, and gender dynamics, Sweeney’s portrayal of Laybourn offers a compelling narrative of resilience and expertise.

Transcript

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[Andrew Limbong]

Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbong. Roxy Laybourn has made my life safer. If you've ever flown on a plane before, she's made your life safer too. She was a forensic ornithologist, that is someone who studies birds and feathers at crime scenes, sometimes involving an aircraft. She practically invented the field and it wasn't easy. At the time she was working, ornithology was very much a male dominated field, but she overcame that through the sheer force of her skill. That's according to the writer Chris Sweeney, who's got a book out about Laborne titled the Feather Mystery, Mayhem and the Magnificent Life of Roxy Laborn. And he talked to NPR's Scott Simon about how a birder forever changed the airline industry. That's ahead.

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[Scott Simon]

Imagine a police procedural. Cops called to a gruesome scene. Evidence techs secure the area. They dust for prints and blot up stains. Then a hard boiled homicide cop sees something and says, better call in the feather detective. Well, thank Roxy Laborn, the Smithsonian taxidermist and forensic ornithologist. I think in fact the term was invented for her. She practically wrote the textbook on examining bird feathers having to do with catastrophes and crime scenes from murders to plane crashes. Chris Sweeney has written her story in his book the Feather Detective Mystery, Mayhem and the Magnificent Life of Roxy Laborn. He joins us now from the studios of WBUR in Boston. Thanks so much for being with us.

[Chris Sweeney]

Thanks so much for having me.

[Scott Simon]

Let's begin by telling Roxy Laborn's story through, well, a famous and tragic event. 1960, Eastern Airlines Flight 375 crashed into Boston Harbor. 62 people died. Turns out struck by a flock of birds. How did Roxy Laborn get involved?

[Chris Sweeney]

At that time it was known that airplanes and birds were not a good recipe and no one really understood though that a commercial airliner would be at risk. So when that airplane went down, there was speculation that it was birds. Some witnesses said they saw birds, but the cab, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the faa, which was in its infancy at that stage, they didn't know what species was struck and how many. And so when they extracted the airplane out of the harbor, they found some bird remains gunked up in the engines, and they needed to figure out what kind of. And so they sent them to the Smithsonian down in Washington, D.C. which has an enormous bird division with a lot of specimens. And Roxy and her boss kind of dug in, and lo and behold, it was a large flock of European starlings that caused that crash. And Roxy had found a feather that helped her piece that together and, you know, identify starlings that were for sure the bird that caused that crash. And that kind of led her boss to say, you know, Roxy, I think this is gonna be your work from here out.

[Scott Simon]

Mm. How did Roxy Leiburn develop what I'll just call this area of interest?

[Chris Sweeney]

She had worked as a taxidermist very early in her career. In the 1930s, she worked at a museum in North Carolina, working in taxidermy. And she was good at handling birds and preparing bird specimens.

[Scott Simon]

She'd been dissecting birds from a young age, hadn't she?

[Chris Sweeney]

She had been, and she always had. She was a real outdoorsy type young woman, had an interest in birds biology, ornithology, and she was quite good with a fleshing knife and understood the basics of taxidermy. And as got better at it, she got a position at a museum. She was the first woman taxidermist in North Carolina to hold an actual job in that field in a museum. And then come World War II, the Smithsonian's bird collection was falling into a state of disrepair. A lot of the men who worked there had gone off to fight, and so they needed to bring in taxidermists. And Roxy came up from North Carolina and really impressed some of the staff with her abilities to repair these old specimens and to breathe new life into them. And these specimens are very important for research purposes.

[Scott Simon]

One year alone, Roxy Leyburn was called into 45 criminal cases.

[Chris Sweeney]

That is correct. And a lot of them were poaching cases.

[Scott Simon]

Help us understand some of the poaching cases there. One against a very prominent family.

[Chris Sweeney]

The one against the prominent family was the Kluge estate. And they had a British style hunting preserve on their estate in Virginia where you line up with a rifle and the birds are chased into the air, and mostly affluent people kind of shoot them, and they call that hunting, I.

[Scott Simon]

Think John Clooney, he might have been the richest person in the United States at that point, too.

[Chris Sweeney]

The richest or the second richest. He was very well off. And it was a bizarre case in which one of the people who worked at the shoot kind of started getting queasy about the work. And they were awful. They were murdering dozens of hawks, owls. They had an incentive program to whoever killed the most hawks and collected the bands off of them to prove that these were kills. They would clip the hawk feet off and they were killing, I believe, you know, into the hundreds of these. All of these were protected species. And so they raided the estate, and Roxy was part of that raid because they needed to identify the evidence at the site. They didn't want to risk bringing this into court. And so Roxy, the feather detective, was at the crime scene analyzing dozens and dozens of bird remains there.

[Scott Simon]

Yeah. Did she. As her professional success grew and it's, you know, irresistible to put it this way, did she ruffle a lot of feathers?

[Chris Sweeney]

I think she did. And she also got a lot of admirers. She ruffled feathers because she was a bit of a mess at work. She took up a lot of space. There were actually complaints I found in her files about how she would stack reams of her case reports just on shared workspaces. Her office was a mess. And she didn't suffer fools lightly. She was very demanding, and she expected her mentees and her proteges to work as hard as she did, which was often six or seven days a week, ten hour days. And she stood up for herself. She didn't take criticisms lying down. And she didn't get bullied by middle management, despite how much bullying they tried to enforce on her.

[Scott Simon]

Did she ruffle a lot of feathers among men in particular?

[Chris Sweeney]

She did. And if you look back at the history of the Smithsonian, this was a male dominated institute for its entire existence. And Roxy was a woman in this. And if you look at ornithology, that was a male dominated field of science, as so many were. So Roxy got under the skin of men because of how she operated, who she was, and I think her skill level, I think people were jealous of how good she was and how hard she worked. So she did confront a lot of sexism throughout her career. And she was approached by a lot of women seeking advice on how do you make it as a woman in science? And she always just said, work harder than everyone.

[Scott Simon]

Roxy leyburn died in 2003 at the age of 92. What do you think? We have to thank her for today.

[Chris Sweeney]

I think we have a lot to thank her for including safer practices at airports in terms of managing birds. This is not a problem that has gone away. It's not like you can snap your finger and make all the birds go away from an airport. Every year there are thousands, tens of thousands of bird strikes. Roxy's pioneering work in this field helped airports realize we need to set up practices to keep away birds, to manage them, to keep them out of flight paths. And knowing the species may tailor. You know, you don't want long grass. If you want certain bird species, you gotta get rid of standing water. So Roxy's identifications really helped inform modern day practices of how airports are managed and maintained in terms of wildlife.

[Scott Simon]

Chris Sweeney's new book, the Feather Detective. Thank you so much for being with us.

[Chris Sweeney]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Andrew Limbong]

And just a reminder that signing up for book of the day plus is a great way to support NPR's book coverage and public media. And you'll get to listen to every episode sponsor free. So please go find out [e-mail] BookOfTheDay.

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