Birds & Birding

“What was your spark bird?” It’s a question birders often ask one another. Which bird sparked their interesting birding, turning a passing interest in one slice of the natural world into a life-long passion. Or obsession.

I don’t have a spark bird. I grew up in Florida, where packs of ibis roamed my front lawn and bald eagles dropped fish-guts in the driveway. But it was only after I’d moved to the urban jungle of New York City that I found my spark bird in a Barnes & Noble.

Starved of wildlife (aside from the too-friendly rats on the subway platform) I found myself in the field guide section, paging through the familiar The Sibley Guide to Birds, which my parents kept on the coffee table. But next to it there was a tiny volume on the birds of Brazil. Page after page of bizarre, foreign, beautiful, and almost unbelievable birds unfolded before me. An entire world of birds — nearly 10,000 of them.

Birds unlocked the world for me. No matter how new a landscape or distant a country, there are birds. South Africa has a white-headed fish-eating eagle, and gangs of ibis patrol Australia’s wetlands, too. For every astonishing difference there is a heartwarming similarity.

In the years since, countless other birders (including you readers) have expressed the same sentiment: Whether in their back yard or traveling the globe, there are birds. And wherever there are birds we feel at home.

I hope you enjoy our best birds and birding posts from the past year, and good birding to all.