Why We Love Birds

Birder and naturalist Scott Harris shares first-hand accounts of the inspiration and joys of birding from a who’s who of the birding world.

Why We Love Birds brings together a chorus of birders to solve the mystery of what draws so many different types of people to the hobby. To learn more about this community he loves so much, writer and naturalist Scott Harris interviewed an incredible mix of bird people—from some of the biggest names in birding, to rising voices and passionate everyday birders helping shape the next generation. Each chapter is built around fun, revealing questions like What was your spark bird? and What is your nemesis bird? These poignant, surprising, and personal stories stand to make birders of us all.

• “Ask a birder for their spark bird and you'll get a name. Ask the right way and you'll get a life story. Scott Harris asks the right way, fifty-two times. The voices in Why We Love Birds are funny, unguarded, and often moving. Reading them feels like sharing a scope with old friends.”
  Kimberly Kaufman, Executive Director, Black Swamp Bird Observatory; Founder, The Biggest Week in American Birding and the Ohio Young Birders Club
• “Scott Harris gives us a beautiful portrait of what makes birds so special, as told by some remarkable birders who've followed them passionately for years or decades—ornithologists and citizen-scientists, guides and conservationists, writers and artists, all of them captivated by birds. Harris's subjects come from all walks of life, and their stories will inspire birders of all kinds to pick up binoculars, get outside, and behold the wonder of these amazing creatures.”
  Ryan Goldberg, author of Bird City