A popular Galveston Island birding guide is found dead in Christmas Bay. Was the killing random or does someone have it out for birders? Can private investigator Xena Cali solve the crime without ruffling too many feathers?

Honeymooners hoping to find a quiet spot for a romantic picnic instead discover the dead body of Forrest Yates, a top birding guide and bottom dweller human. The murder rattles the local birding association as they prepare for the yearly influx of Sandhill Cranes and the wanna-be ornithologists who flock to the island to watch them.

Xena Cali is a somewhat overzealous investigator with a passion for poetic justice. With Ned "The Pelican Man" Quinn as their sidekick, Xena and her team explore the dark side of birding and the tenuous relationship between commerce and nature to solve the case.