Conversations with Birds

Starred review from October 17, 2022
Novelist Kumar (Take Wing and Fly Here) wows in this sparkling exploration of her relationship with the birds that serve as her “almanac” and help her tune “in to the seasons” and to herself. Kumar recalls her childhood in a “remote mountainous area” in India, where she was “immersed in nature.” When she moved to California as a teenager, her relationship with the outdoors changed: “My thoughts were leafy green but all around me was the roar of a petrochemical civilization,” she writes. In her 20s, she found solace—and lessons—in birding: the curlew, for example, whose “unhurried pace combined with its focus and laser-sharp moves when it found an invertebrate to eat was nothing short of arresting,” showed her Zen principles in practice, while sandhill cranes are “like us... transient visitors here.” Kumar’s reflections are rendered in elegant prose and are rich with vivid descriptions: “At the brink of the water, turquoise with milky sprays, the birds pirouetted and scooted away from the vigorously choppy waves.... Watching the sanderlings flirt assuredly with the waves and scuttle up and down the beach like delirious children at play in the honey-gold light, my heart lightened.” These outstanding reflections will inspire and enlighten, and are perfect for readers of Diane Ackerman.

Starred review from October 15, 2022
A delightful ode to birds and a powerful defense of the planet we share with them. In this moving memoir, filmmaker and novelist Kumar explores encounters with birds as meditations on the natural world. Told in a series of vignettes comprised of notable bird sightings, the narrative offers countless magnificent reminders of the beauty and force of nature as well as warnings of human-caused destruction as bird populations plummet due to such factors as habitat loss, water shortages, and changing temperatures. Kumar didn't take up birding until her 20s, when a chance encounter on the beach with some avid birders and a flock of curlews transformed her life. This experience became her access point to nature, and she nurtured that connection, whether living in urban settings like Los Angeles or, later, rural New Mexico, where "even the winters are sun-drenched." Through birds, the author was able to revisit the childhood intimacy with her surroundings that she cherished growing up in the heavily forested mountains of northeastern India. "Birds became a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world," she writes, and "allowed me once again to relish solitude in the way I had as a child." This sense of enchantment permeates the book as she brings us along on her adventures, including long odysseys to see bald eagles, bobcat sightings through her living room window, and glimpses of the mango-colored tanager in a city park. The author is clearly concerned about leaving a planet rich with wildlife for her children, but her ancestors are also on her mind. She lost both her parents and brother as a young adult, and she connects to their spirits through birds and nature. Ultimately, this is a book about the interconnectedness of generations and ecosystems, and birds are the conduit between the two. "Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us," writes Kumar. An eloquent depiction of how birding engenders a deep love of our ecosystems and a more profound understanding of ourselves.

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