Charles Hagner is the state director of Bird City Wisconsin, the board chair of the Western Great Lakes Bird and Bat Observatory, in Port Washington, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative. From 2001 to 2017, he was the editor-in-chief of nationally distributed BirdWatching magazine, which he joined after a successful thirteen-year career as a writer and editor with Time Life Books in Alexandria, Virginia. He is the author of two previous books about birds—Guide to Ducks and Geese and Wings of Spring: Courtship, Nesting, and Fledging —an editor of several natural history books, and a frequent speaker at meetings and festivals. He has birded in over a dozen countries. He lives in Milwaukee, his hometown.