Keynote Speaker - Whooping Crane Festival
Mike serves as the keynote speaker at the 2026 Whooping Crane Festival in Port Aransas, Texas. The festival runs February 19-22, 2026. More info here: https://www.portaransas.org/whooping-crane-festival/the-2026-festival/festival-speakers/
Keynote Speaker - Alaska Forum
Mike serves as the Keynote speaker at the Alaska Forum on the Environment in Anchorage, Alaska. The festival is February 2-6, 2026, at the Dena’Ina Center in Downtown Anchorage or online. More info here: https://akforum.org/
Into Whooperland Presentation + Book Signing
On Saturday, January 10, from 2:00-3:00 PM, Mike presents at the Festival of the Cranes in Decatur, Alabama, gives a presentation, book signing, and photo workshop in partnership with Friends of Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge. More info here: https://www.friendsofwheelernwr.org/events/whooperland-michael-forsberg
Whooperland Exhibition
Mike’s newest whooping crane exhibition, inspired by his book, Into Whooperland, is available January 2026 at WallSpace-lnk in Lincoln, Nebraska. Publicity and more information of the event is coming soon.
Nancy Armitage Wildlife Lecture Series
The Nancy Armitage Wildlife Lecture Series features a variety of speakers each year who are leading conservation efforts around the world. On Thursday, September 4, 2025, at 6:30 PM, Mike presents his talk Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes at the Omaha Henry Doorly Zoo for this series.
NANPA Exhibition
On Friday, August 8, the Roger Tory Peterson Institute hosts an opening night celebration for its new exhibition featuring winners of the NANPA Environmental Impact Award. This exhibition will be on display at RTPI until March 15, 2026. This exhibition is sponsored by the Nature Photography Foundation. For more info, CLICK HERE to visit the RTPI site. Mike is a NANPA Environmental Impact Award recipient for Platte Basin Timelapse, and work from the project will be on display.
Whooping Crane Animation with Cornell
Standing five feet tall and angel white, Whooping Cranes are the tallest birds in North America and the rarest crane species in the world. Once widespread throughout the Great Plains, the last wild migratory flock plummeted to 15 birds in the 1940s. Today, their number has climbed to some 540 birds, thanks to the conservation work by many. However, in a world inundated with urban development, habitat loss, water quality and quantity issues, and climate change–much is at stake.
Over five years, photographer and writer Mike Forsberg, working alongside researchers, documented the lives of this last wild population of whooping cranes. In the spring of 2022, he followed the birds on their migration north.
This six-minute narrative animation uses cutting-edge science and telemetry data to follow that migration through the lens of one family's remarkable and poignant journey of 37 days and 2,500 miles up the heart of the continent, connecting critical wetland and grassland habitats along the way.
This video was produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in partnership with Mike Forsberg, the members of the Whooping Crane Tracking Partnership in the US and Canada, and Platte Basin Timelapse. Animation created by 422 South.
Into Whooperland Presentation + Book Signing
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on June 6, 2025, at 7:00 PM MT at the WYO Theater in Sheridan, Wyoming. A book signing follows his presentation. This event is sponsored by Brinton & Bighorn Audubon and is free to the public.
More details can be found here: https://www.wyotheater.com/event/michael-forsberg-into-whooperland
Gold Medal 2025 IPPY Awards
We’re thrilled to share that Mike’s recent book, Into Whooperland, has been awarded the Gold Medal in the Nature category at the 2025 Independent Publisher Book Awards.
The Nature Conservancy Book Review
Jennifer Winger wrote a review of Mike’s latest book, Into Whooperland, in The Nature Conservancy’s Issue 2 of their 2025 magazine.
Into Whooperland Presentation + Book Signing
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on May 17, 2025, at the Tri-State Birding Conference in South Dakota.
Under the Wire - Film Screening + Panel Discussion
Mike, Mariah Lundgren, and Benjy Duke attend a screening of their film, Under the Wire, and lead a panel discussion at the Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival in Cottonwood, Arizona on April 24, 2025.
More details about the festival found here: https://verderiver.org/events/verde-valley-birding-and-nature-festival-2025/
The Photo Society Presentation
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on April 15, 2025, at 12:00 PM ET for The Photo Society’s online TPS Presents series.
More details can be found here: https://thephotosociety.org/tps-presents-michael-forsberg/
Into Whooperland Presentation
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, as the Keynote speaker on April 9, 2025, at 11:45 AM at the Nebraska Innovation Campus Conference Center in Lincoln, Nebraska for the Wild Great Plains conference.
More details can be found here: https://plains.unl.edu/events-conferences/2025-conference-wild-great-plains/
Into Whooperland Presentation + Book Signing
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on April 4, 2025, at 8:30 AM at the Funk School Community Center in Funk, Nebraska for their Crepes and Cranes event. A book signing follows his presentation.
More details can be found here: https://visitnebraska.com/holdrege/events/crepes-cranes-aka-pancake-feed
Into Whooperland Presentation + Book Signing
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on April 3, 2025, at 7:00 PM at Kaneko in Omaha. A book signing follows his presentation from 8:30 – 9:00 PM.
More details can be found here: https://thekaneko.org/programs/into-whooperland-a-photographers-journey-with-whooping-cranes/
Into Whooperland Presentation + Book Signing
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on March 29, 2025, from 1:00 – 3:30 PM at the Younes North Conference space in Kearney, Nebraska, for Rowe Sanctuary’s 50th Anniversary celebration. A book signing will precede the presentation and is from 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM at this location 44450 Elm Island Road, Gibbon, 68840, NE.
More details about the presentation and registration can be found here: https://rowe.audubon.org/events/rowes-50th-anniversary-celebration-receptions-and-program
More details about the book signing can be found here: https://rowe.audubon.org/events/book-signing-whooperland-michael-forsberg
Into Whooperland Presentation
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on March 16, 2025, at 2:00 PM at the Crane Trust for their March Speaker Series.
More details can be found here: https://www.cranetrust.org/event/march-speaker-series-into-whooperland-with-michael-forsberg/
Into Whooperland Presentation
Mike presents his talk, Into Whooperland: A Photographer’s Journey with Whooping Cranes, on March 13, 2025, at 7:00 PM at the Unitarian Church in Lincoln, Nebraska for Wachiska Audubon’s meeting.
More details can be found here: https://www.wachiskaaudubon.org/