A stellar collection of superb writing about birds and birdwatching from a foremost birder and natural historian.

Many of the world’s greatest natural history writers have penned eloquent, informative, and profound essays about these alluring creatures. This timeless evocation of our passion for birds features twenty works from such esteemed writers as Terry Tempest Williams, Ellen Melroy, Barbara Kingsolver, Richard Mabey, Diane Ackerman, and William Fiennes. Included in this diverse selection are excerpts from popular books as well as articles from science and natural history magazines, about birds from all over the planet and the birders, pishers, twitchers, and listers who love them.

Illuminating, entertaining, literary, and intimate, the varied writing reveals the numerous and often unexpected ways in which birds—spiritual messengers, mythic symbols, personal obsessions, even harbingers of environmental catastrophe—connect us to the natural world.