Important Bird Opera (music, photographs, and film by Ryan Moritz with a libretto by Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb) is an experimental opera in three acts about birds, migration, climate crisis, and rewilding. The piece began as a research project and experiment in nature photography, sound documentary, and the twentieth-century tone poem. Built on an archive of music, migration photographs, video footage, and recorded birdsong from across the hemisphere, Important Bird Opera evolved into a more argumentative and political piece, one that follows climate writer Alan Weisman’s prompt to imagine—perhaps even dream—of a world without us. The title of the piece, a nod to international non-profit alliance BirdLife International’s designation of “Important Bird Areas,” also registers the artist’s ongoing activist and volunteer work with specific bird conservation efforts. The libretto, “Unflocked Heart,” set in the opera alongside images and footage of birds in stunning motion and sometimes humorous repose, tells the story of a diverse avian community riven by doubt and hesitation and brought together unexpectedly in hope. Important Bird Opera explores avian population decline; climatological and built-environment challenges to traditional migratory patterns; and the possibility of reforestation and ecological remedy undertaken by non-human consciousnesses.