Basic Information : Synopsis : Characters : Expectations : Thoughts : Evaluation : Book Group : New Words : Book References : Good Quotes : Table of Contents : References
Basic Information:
Author: Amy Tan
Edition: epub on Libby from Sacramento Public Library
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 9780593536131
Start Date: November 5, 20025
Read Date: November 22, 2025
320 pages
Genre: Biography, Science, Outdoor, OSHER
Language Warning: None
Rated Overall: 5 out of 5
Synopsis (Caution: Spoiler Alert-Jump to Thoughts):
The book is exactly what the title is-her journal of what she sees, experiences and feels in her backyard over a period of roughly five years from 2017 to 2022. The focus is on the habits of the birds who come into her backyard, feeding at her feeders. There is a lot of internalizing what she sees, drawing conclusions from her observations.
Cast of Characters:
- Amy Tan-Author
- Fiona Gillogly-teenage birder guide for Tan
- John Muir Laws-taught Tan how to draw
- Lou DeMattei-Tan’s husband
- Bernd Heinrich-author and authority on birds
- The Birds-Tan has a list of all the birds she mentioned in the back of the book.
- Recommendation: OSHER Book Club
- When: May 1, 2025
- Date Became Aware of Book: October 2024
- Why do I want to read this book: When I saw this book in San Francisco, it sounded really interesting
- What do I think I will get out of it? How to integrate a time in nature with a peacefulness of life.
Thoughts:
I have not read Amy Tan’s books before-I know, I am deficient in my reading. My impression from this book, which is her journal. is that even on an informal basis she knows how to put together words. I am assuming she edited her journal,
I am not a birder. While at Delilah Lookout, there is a hummingbird feeder which fascinates most of us at our lookout. One Christmas I got my wife a hummingbird feeder as well. It has been a source of enjoyment and entertainment. There is wonder for both of us, particularly Sherri as she looks out our front window at all the hummers it attracts. We have not been tempted to branch out to other birds. I can understand a little of Tan’s one.desire to study them.
Throughout each journal are her observations. Also Tan enjoys identifying birds which come to her backyard. I am really suspicious that this is a remnant of all humans from when God told Adam to name all of the animals, even among the non-believers. (Genesis 2:20-the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals.)
Many of her journal entries end with pithy sayings or questions about birds' interactions with her..
In a lot of ways, this book may echo what GK Chesterton said in this January 11, 1913 column in the:
It is very difficult to find an unimportant subject or even
an uninteresting subject. I have done through most of my life
looking for an uninteresting subject--or even an uninteresting
person. It is the romance of my life that I have failed to
find either of them yet.
OSHER Book Group:
- Susan-noted that Tan was more than a passive birder, but a serious observer and devotee to the birds.
- ???-her mother’s mental illness probably had an effect on her looking at birding. The reaction to being that close to mental illness is to withdraw
- Lanny-Views it as a collection of short stories. Such as the demise of the hawk
Foreword by Sibley
Most of the time, a forward by a known entity is what I would say is Ho-Hum. I did recognize the name as I have one of David Sibley’s books-which I inherited one of his bird books. He starts off by saying: When I was seven years old, on a bright and sunny spring day in southern California, a dozen or so male Yellow-headed Blackbirds were lined up along a wire, bold yellow and deep black against a bright blue sky. This sounded really promising. He talks about the quest he started of finding birds when he was young. This is the introduction to what to expect from Tan, a sense of wanting to observe and find as much variety as they could.
He uses a term which Tan used in the book-she originated the term called pencil miles. This is in reference to the amount of drawing which they do.
Drawing is really a different way of seeing, converting something from three dimensions in the real world to lines on a two-dimensional sheet of paper. He notes that drawing a bird is more than just doing a fairly good representation of a bird, but is to really an understanding of the bird, its habits and mannerisms in detail. Watching birds for countless hours is the way to get to know them, and drawing is the test to demonstrate that knowledge.
He foreshadows some of the things which Tan writes about, particularly in rare bird sightings. Birding is not something which you reduce down to a set of equations, rather opportunities come along when you least expect it.
I think one of the biggest reasons for the decades-long increase in interest is a fundamental need to feel connected to the natural world.
We have become more isolated from nature. Also from each other. Both technology and progress has forced us into this condition. Birding is one way back to appreciating the world outside of our isolation. Identifying birds is just the beginning of birdwatching. Your wise mentor would say, “Yes, that is the name, but you must know the bird. … This book is really about getting to know the birds, learning their stories, and gaining a new appreciation of the world through that connection. Sibley’s concluding statement notes that with birds, you are never at a loss for discovery, even if you are cooped up like during the pandemic. that maybe the one point if I take away nothing else to open my eyes and never be bored.
Preface
Tan notes that the 90 chapters are excerpts from hundreds of journal entries. Birds have been her obsession for several years where she has written and sketched enough to fill nine journals. She notes that she considers herself an unreliable narrator, at least if you were a bird and she was writing about you.
When she started, she could only recognize three birds. What I did not lack was intense curiosity, and I have had that in abundance since childhood. Nature was her refuge from a chaotic childhood. She talks about her explorations of the surrounding areas during her childhood. She backpacked when she was first married. So she was interested in nature, but just did not know birds. But before 2016, my explorations of nature did not include birds, and that now astonishes me.
She took a class from John Muir Laws on drawing. But what she found most important was As you look at the bird, try to feel the life within it. He also introduced how to categorize information.
In Laws; classes, she met a 13 year old who was annoyingly curious-Fiona Gillogly. From Fiona, she learned how to look at things and ask Why, how, what questions. Fiona became Tan’s mentor of sorts. Fiona possessed intentional curiosity. I liked that term. At my best, that is how I should approach things, curious. Not just asking questions to make myself look important, but to find out something new. It gets too easy to become rote in your questions.
Tan describes what equipment she used in both her observations and her drawings. She noted that because she could not drive, her husband had to take her everywhere. This restriction led her to study nature outside of her back door. She does not include anything outside of her backyard boundaries.
She lured birds in with her feeders and food. She has now identified 63 species of birds which have migrated through her backyard. She does not try for perfection, as she does in her other books. Perfection would have been the antithesis of spontaneity.
75 percent of young songbirds die before the end of their first year.
90 Journal entries
Tan notes in the Preface that there are hundreds of more journal entries than what is shown in the book.
Chapter 1
This first entry is Sept 16, 2017, concerning hummingbirds. She has bought a hummingbird. She got to the point where she could hold a little feeder in her hand and have a hummingbird feed from it. She is able to examine the bird up close, observing its feathers, his throat and tiny feet. She uses a technique of reciting characteristics of the bird, to help her remember it’s characteristics. Then she wonders, What is he noting about me? We are so used to looking at other things and not putting ourselves in their place, whether it is other animals or other people. This theme does run throughout her book.
At a lookout which we sometimes staff, there is a hummingbird feeder along the walkway. Over time, the birds get used to us and we are able to approach the feeder within a couple of yards before they will fly away.
Chapter 2
A sick bird comes to her feeder-she now has more feeders than just for hummingbirds. It is sick enough that the bird even hops over to her hand without hesitation. She wants to take it to a wildlife refuge, but is unable to catch it. She thinks it will die in a day. Because she does not want to infect other birds, she destroys the feed and feeders the bird fed on.
When she tries to draw the bird from photos she took. She feels her drawings are flat and lifeless. She says that she must work her way back to picturing the bird before it became sick. I have to feel the bird is alive again.
Chapter 3
The Pine Siskins are back after their migration and are devouring her food. She was hoping some other species of birds would appear because of the sorrow at losing her bird four months ago. But because they take awhile to eat, she is able to draw them and welcomes them back.
Chapter 5
The inventors of this feeder underestimated the intelligence of both squirrels and crows. Crows in this case can think smart and figure out how to access food in a feeder which is crow-proof. Just shows that sometimes birds have smarts.
Chapter 8
The more I observe, the more I realize that every part of a bird and every behavior has a specific purpose, a reason, and individual meaning. Instinct does not account for everything that is fascinating
Chapter 9
She wonders how wildfires affect the bird. In this case, the Camp Fire is blazing.
Chapter 10
She watches a couple species bickering over a preferred perch on a feeder. She wonders what are they really fighting over? What makes one perch preferable over another? Not that long ago, I would have described what was happening in simpler terms: birds come and go. Now standing still, I am watching them and they are watching me, and we see each other hiding in plain sight.
Chapter 13
She talks about crows and them driving away other birds until they realize the other birds and crows can co-exist. But she then goes and buys a fake crow which plays dead and this drives away the crows. She wonders if there is empathy among crows for those who have fallen, even if they are not connected. Is this any different than us feeling sorrow when we see death on TV or even read about somebody in a book? Even if there are tears, is this truly connecting with those who died? And what about those who do not connect, are they less human?
Chapter 15
I should not deny that they too have good days and bad. Some of the birds always act pissed off, like the male hummingbirds. When I marked these sentences, I was not sure why I did. But upon reflection, I realized that the phrasing reminded me of Anne Lamott’s writing. I was wondering if they knew each other since they both live in the same area. According to Google’s AI, they have spent time together particularly at writer’s conferences. It is a phrasing which I like. Just a good rhythm to it.
There are no rules of politeness when a tiny bird can starve in twenty-four hours. True among birds and true among humans.
Chapter 17
I’ve discovered that when birds have been successful in finding food in a certain location, they don’t immediately give up looking for it. Sort of like humans, once we have figured out the solution to a problem, we keep to that solution rather than improving on it. Tan ends that we, and the birds, are creatures of habit.
Chapter 18
Chapter on Scrub Jays. They are intelligent, finding ways around the preventive deterrents which she has for protecting food meant for other birds.
Chapter 19
Tan has developed a relationship of trust with the male Anna hummingbirds. But then she is gone and so are they. She does not know where they nest, but knows it is not in the store bought birdhouses. But people do hope to be part of a hummingbird’s life. She asks, What’s wrong with hope? Hope is important to human function. Another book which I am reading, Every Valley, talks about how conditions were so bad in the 1600 and 1700’s in England, that is pretty much the only thing which people had, was a hope that things would get better. But hope must have a basis in something for it to be nothing but mist.
Tan also puts anthropomorphic explanations onto her bird’s behaviors. She knows that they do not love her or have affection. Yet she likes to think that they have an affinity for her since she takes care of them.
Chapter 22
Cats and birds. She turned from letting cats roam to protect the birds.
Chapter 24
Description of her mornings with birds with the interesting comment that the birds are now taking over her life. I do not think this is necessarily a bad thing. Each of us have a need to be wanted, needed and driven by something, else our lives become rote and seemingly meaningless. In my Christmas newsletter, I just put in this quote-I do not know if it will make the final cut:
Oh, don’t the days seem lank and long
When all goes right and nothing goes wrong.
And isn’t your life extremely flat
With nothing whatever to gumble at!
- William S. Gilbert, Princess Ida
Even if we are dealing with birds, we want to know that what we are doing has an impact.
Chapter 26
Chapter on trying to deter rats. Her conclusion is that They are never defeated, only momentarily deterred. Tan has not found an acceptable deterrent. She only hopes a hawk will get them.
Chapter 27
Comical chapter on Scrub Jays.
Chapter 30
Several reflections. Some on how she draws and the pleasure she gets when she identifies a bird. But then she also thinks about the names birders will call common birds which are similar to names the Chinese have been called. It gives her pause. She just want to be amazed by birds.
Chapter 32
A Hermit Thrush are ground feeders. But she observes one trying different ways of getting into her bird feeders. How much does curiosity and persistence play a role in a bird’s chances of survival? I have a new opinion of Hermit Thrushes. They are not shy and secretive. They are solitary nonconformists. Maybe I should be more inquisitive, like Tan’s Thrush was.
Chapter 34
Tan notes she is not proficient enough to distinguish one bird of a species from another bird of the same species-she can tell male from female and the young ones from the old ones. Size is not a distinguishing factor as she calls them shapeshifters. How do the birds identify each other? Then she gets on a train of thought about naming the birds. She is not trying to domesticate them, even though feeding them like she does could easily be considered that. They are wild birds, not birds which are attached to her. Interesting train of thought.
She ends with do birds care about identifying each other or even differentiating between humans?
Chapter 35
She spots an American Tree Sparrow in her North Bay Area backyard-this is an East Coast bird. Only two years ago, I would not have noticed that bird at all. How many other yards had this same bird visited, places where people paid no attention to little brown birds? Reminds me of Annie Dillard’s quote about being there for beauty.
Chapter 37
A bit of humor to make me smile-birds scattering to make Tan’s dog feel good about himself.
Chapter 38
Starts off the entry with a minor rant about Facebook know-it-alls, who feel like beginner questions are beneath them. I do not think this is limited to Facebook or even social media as I am sure we have met that kind of a person in face-to-face conversations. The know-it-all I think does it to bring another person down so they can feel superior. Hopefully I have not been that kind of a person too many times.
Chapter 39
She talks about nature journaling. It is not enough to just describe the situation, such as drawing a bird accurately, but to also explore the why. Why is a bird acting like it is? Why is the bird having to be the way it is? She says the why is essential. This includes the context of the surroundings-the brush the bird is by, the tree it is in, or the way it is feeding. That is what Audubon did which made him significant-he tried to find all the birds in America, not only drawing them, but understanding the significance of them and their environment.
Chapter 41
More new birds will come, I can feel it. I cannot command them to come, so when they do visit, I feel hope enough to override the dread I sometimes feel for what may be coming for planet Earth.
Chapter 42
She talks about the memory ability of squirrels to find their hidden store of food. Then about the Scrub Jay’s similar abilities to find stored acorns. Perhaps I should be grateful they[Scrub Jays] are wasting time at my feeders and not planting more acorns on our green roof. Imagine a grove of oaks being on top of a crushed house in a hundred years
Chapter 43
Talks about a Red-shouldered Hawk which sent the songbirds into a tizzy. She is in awe of the hawk. I guess I should be more appreciative of the Red-tailed and Red-shoulder hawks I see in my lookout.
Chapter 44
There is talk that the shutdown will continue into April. A lot can change. The pandemic may subside. In the meantime, I will never feel bored. How many people were bored during the pandemic? I for one was not.
Chapter 45
Not sure if Tan is talking about all birds or Oak Titmice. 40% of all fledglings die within three weeks; 75% do not make it into adulthood.
Chapter 46
So I presented to the nine-year-old boy next door a business proposition, outlining how he could make a small fortune growing mealworms. I’d buy the supplies. He’d have a built-in customer base. Plus, I added, it would be fun for him to watch them grow. He would learn some really cool science. His mom did not agree. 🙂
Chapter 48
Part of fun is discovering what’s fun.
Chapter 51
We have a couple humming bird feeders/ This journal entry is about the needs of humming birds to feed while awake. She says that a hummingbird’s heart will beat up to 1,000 beats per minute. Then at night they go into a suspended animation type state called torpor where their heart rate is 50 beats per minute. She says that if you could touch them while they are in torpor and they would not wake up. They have to feed every 15 to 30 minutes or die. At dusk, they do their final feeding where they have to get enough to sustain themselves during the night. At daybreak, they need to replenish themselves. Interesting stuff.
Chapter 54
Yellow Jackets have been attracted to her feeders. The birds stay away. She does not want to kill the yellow jackets, just wants them away from her feeders. She gets some traps. At the end she says I don’t feel indifferent to any creature struggling to survive. I think my distress over theirs is a good thing. That indicates a sensitive heart. But how do you not get overwhelmed by a world full of hurts, not only animals but people. Those kills in Stockton this weekend or those drowned in Bangladesh? Let alone the killing going on in nature? She does not seem to be too distressed over the deaths of the mealworms she feeds to the birds. Our sensitives I think stop at some point or we get driven crazy.
Chapter 56
She had observed that size usually wins arguments among the birds. I am always happy to find exceptions to what I hastily judged to be the rule. Nature abhors a generalist.
Chapter 57
Every day I stand at the sink, brushing my teeth, a spectator to endless dramas and comedies that set the tone for what might otherwise be an ordinary day in pandemic times.
Chapter 60
Watching the birds, she never felt cooped up during the pandemic. Discovery can happen in your own backyard. She felt free.
Chapter 61
Maybe the next time I see a hummingbird in our yard, I should try taking it in slow-motion.
Chapter 62
I keep running into these questions about instinct and intention in birds
Chapter 64
Bird feeders create an artificial environment, bringing together birds which do not normally congregate together. Leads to a couple things. First behaviors you see because you have a feeder may not be behaviors you would find in the wild. Second, you may be drawing birds which normally do not stay in your area.
Chapter 69
I am aware I have committed the naturalist’s sin of stereotyping the towhee as jolly and Scrub Jay as conniving. Science would require me to be objective and to not let personal bias obstruct more accurate observations. Thank God I am not a scientist. I love the jolly towhee and the smart and conniving Scrub Jay. And maybe this is why I like this book-as much as she wants to articulate avian activities in more precise and scientific ways, her humanness breaks through with a type of joyfulness.
Chapter 70
Three birds which are out of place visit her feeders.
Chapter 71
Young hawk crashed into her feeder cages. Tan goes through what she did, but even though she took it to a wildlife center, it never was able to fly correctly. The wildlife center had to euthanize it. Sadness.
Chapter 73
Is she being sarcastic or factual? The situation is that males tend to hog the feeder, driving away female hummingbirds. But during courtship, the male allows the female to use the feeder. Tan wonders if this is a ploy for the male to pass along their superior genes.
Chapter 74
I am always curious how birds accommodate humans in their space. What is needed to dampen fright and flight? The birds see me every day. I am their patron of good eats. They are unperturbed if I sit at the dining table inside and watch them eat, bathe, and cavort on the patio. … What factors must be in place for a bird to trust me? Consistently bringing food. Staying my distance and letting them come to me. Not moving. I’ve made great progress. They are less wary. But is that a good thing? She points out, what if she turns hungry and wants a little bird to eat? Or if the birds think all bipeds are as friendly as Tan? Can she transfer bird behavior to human emotions? Or maybe there are human emotions which have its equivalents in bird behavior, such as love, care, trust?
Chapter 75
Impressive problem solving skills Scrub Jay’s have
Chapter 77
Do birds, and/or other animals, do things because it is fun? This would imply motivation and motivations beyond just survival.
Chapter 78
For birds, each day is a chance to survive
Chapter 80
I am learning I must be careful about information sources. How can anyone know everything about birds? This is true of many things. I know that on occasion I have overreached my knowledge. Sometimes I have been wrong. Most of the time it is an extrapolation of what I already know. But that is dangerous.
Chapter 81
A crow does something which indicates he blames a branch for a predicament he got into. Tan wonders, does a crow have enough self-awareness that it would be embarrassed? Does embarrassment occur only with an audience? Last Summer I tripped over a rock, falling on my chest. If I was 40, I would be looking around to see if anybody had seen me. Now that I am in my 70’s, my first reaction is to check all of my body parts to see if they are working, even if I had an audience. And yes Amy, I think I have been embarrassed without anybody else present.
Chapter 84
What makes me feel lucky? To Tan it is the joy of discovery of her birds.
Chapter 89
I have neglected to look up more often at what happens in the trees. I have empathy with this. As a fire lookout, it is easy to concentrate on the smoke you just spotted without looking around for anything else. In Tan’s case, because she is looking for the owl, she also sees other birds she would not have noticed which are close by. Had I not looked for the owl, I would have missed this.
Six years ago, I started watching birds knowing that feeders are an artificial situation that brings many species together at the same time and same place. She has grown as a bird watcher. Not only just being able to recognize the bird’s species, but now understanding their behaviors. This will lead her to start a new journal which will include what she sees in the trees as well as on the ground around her feeders.
That will require I remain frozen still, making no sound or twitch. To remain there motionless for an hour or so means I will also be frozen…
One must suffer for beauty, happily, for birds.
Chapter 90
This is what Tan has learned: Each bird is surprising and thrilling in its own way. But the most special is the bird that pauses when it is eating, looks and acknowledges I am there, then goes back to what it was doing.
Gratitude
Interesting what repetition can teach us. She gives credit to Bernd Heinrich who showed me the importance of observing the same thing in the same place over many seasons. I think this is true with close observation, you can see differences if you can remember them in your mind or note them in either drawings, writings or photographs.
And then being able to look at Nature as a child she credits Fiona Gillogy. There is a sense of awe. Even well worn items can be grounds for fresh discovery if you look.
From the Foreword by David Sibley to the last journal entry by Amy Tan, this book explodes with joy. Not just the joy of watching and discovering birds, which I am not a birder, but with the joy of discovery. And then there are the drawings by Tan. She notes that she has taken classes from John Muir Laws which accounts for some, but I think she must have a lot of natural artistic talent.
The only real weakness to the book is the repetition of 90 selected entries from a journal. But in many ways, if you look at how Tan develops as a birder, you see progression. Instead of studying birds, you are given a window into how Tan goes from just being in awe of birds in general to individual bird species and then to individual birds.
Tan says that I am aware I have committed the naturalist’s sin of stereotyping the towhee as jolly and Scrub Jay as conniving. Science would require me to be objective and to not let personal bias obstruct more accurate observations. Thank God I am not a scientist. And maybe this is why I like this book-as much as she wants to articulate avian activities in more precise and scientific ways, her humanness breaks through with a type of joyfulness.
Notes from my book group:
Do you have an interest in birding? If so, how did you begin? If not, did this book get you interested in birding?
A good part of the attraction of this book is Tan’s drawings. Which attracted you more, her writings or drawings?
Sibley notes that Drawing is really a different way of seeing, converting something from three dimensions in the real world to lines on a two-dimensional sheet of paper. How does Tan’s drawings help you understand this statement?
Tan notes that she is an unreliable narrator-my words-of what is going on with the birds she is observing. Do you think she is an unreliable narrator? How can one be reliable in describing what a bird is doing and why it is doing it?
As you look at the bird, try to feel the life within it. How does Tan show us how to do this through her book?
Tan’s friend, Fiona, possessed intentional curiosity. How would you describe this attribute?
Throughout the book, Tan wonders what are the birds noting about her. Do you think wildlife thinks about people which they come into contact with? What kind of thoughts would they be having? Do you think there is any emotional bonding which happens over a period of time?
Talk about her statement: The more I observe, the more I realize that every part of a bird and every behavior has a specific purpose, a reason, and individual meaning. Instinct does not account for everything.
Is being interested in birding the result of boredom? What gets you interested in an activity? What do you do when you are bored?
Tan says I don’t feel indifferent to any creature struggling to survive. I think my distress over theirs is a good thing. When do you get concerned about something’s wellbeing? When do you feel indifferent to something’s demise? What do you do when you see something struggling to survive? Can you assist everything?
After reading this book, what have you discovered in your own backyard? What have you missed by not looking?
I am learning I must be careful about information sources. How can anyone know everything about birds? How do you evaluate information which you receive?
What expectations can a birder have?
How has this book made you more conscious of birds and their habits?
How do you want your life to change because you read this book?
Many of these questions are either from or adapted from LitLovers.
Why the title of The Backyard Chronicles?
Did the ending seem fitting? Satisfying? Predictable?
Every story has a world view. Were you able to identify this story’s world view? What was it? How did it affect the story?
Why do you think the author wrote this book?
What would you ask the author if you had a chance?
What “takeaways” did you have from this book?
What central ideas does the author present?
How did this book affect your view of the world?
Of how God is viewed?
What questions did you ask yourself after reading this book?
Talk about specific passages that struck you as significant—or interesting, profound, amusing, illuminating, disturbing, sad...?
What was memorable?
From the CSU, Fresno OSHER Book Club:
Discussion Questions
- What surprised you most about Amy Tan’s relationship with the birds?
- How did the format of the book — diary entries + sketches — affect your reading experience?
- Do you feel the book is more about birds or more about the human need for grounding?
- Which bird (or bird encounter) stood out to you the most, and why?
- Tan started journaling during a time of stress and division. How do you think this background shapes the tone of the book?
- What does the book say about paying attention as an act of healing? Did that resonate with you personally?
- There’s a strong theme of coexistence — humans and wildlife trying to share space.
- How does Tan portray that relationship, especially when things get messy?
- She often wonders about birds’ inner lives (curiosity, love, loyalty).
- Do you think it’s helpful or misleading to interpret animal behavior through a human lens?
- How do the illustrations impact the emotional tone?
- Did the book change how you notice or think about your own local wildlife?
- Have you ever used nature-watching, journaling, or a hobby as a way to cope with overwhelm?
- Would you ever keep your own “backyard chronicle”? What would you focus on?
- What does the book suggest about the boundary between observer and participant?
- At what point does Tan become part of the birds’ world rather than just watching it?
- How does Tan
balance scientific curiosity with emotional storytelling?
Do you think the book leans more toward memoir or naturalism? - What does
her persistent attention — even to tiny daily changes — reveal
about the nature of devotion?
Do you see it as discipline, obsession, comfort… or something else? - Tan often
describes conflict among birds (bullying, dominance, territorial
fights).
How does observing those dynamics shape her reflections on human behavior? - What role
does humor play in the book?
Did you find the tone playful, serious, or a mix? - Which sketch felt the most alive or expressive to you, and why?
- What differences do you notice between her early drawings and later ones?
- How does the presence of art shift your sense of time in the book?
- Tan writes about how long it took her to truly see the birds.
- What do you think she means by “seeing” versus simply “looking”?
- Did this book shift your ideas about what counts as “interesting”? Has it made you notice small, everyday things differently?
- If you kept a wildlife journal, what would your first entry be today?
- Is there a moment when Tan’s emotional response to a bird made you reflect on your own attachments — maybe to pets, places, or small daily rituals?
- Which entry or observation brought you the most unexpected sense of calm?
FUN Questions
- Favorite bird in the book
- Sketch you’d hang on your wall?
- Funniest bird moment?
- Saddest bird moment?
- Most chaotic feeder incident?
- Did you prefer her writing or her drawings?
- Morning observer or evening observer — what vibe did the book give you?
- Would you keep a bird journal now: yes or no?
- Which bird would you invite to dinner?
- Which bird would absolutely start drama at that dinner?
- Calmest moment in the book?
- Biggest “aww” moment?
- Biggest “wow I didn’t expect that” moment?
- Bird you’d least want to cross paths with?
- Did the book make you want binoculars?
- More compelling: her observations or her inner monologue?
- Better teacher in the book: the birds or Tan herself?
- Most relatable feeling she shares?
- One word to describe the book’s vibe?
IF YOU COULD ASK AMY TAN ONE QUESTION AT TOWN HALL ON APRIL 15 WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Checkout Amy Tan on Wikipedia – very interesting background – what stood out most, how has her background shaped her writing, what did you find most interesting………..
New Words:
- staticky-containing or producing static electricity. affected by random noise due to electrical interference.
- thermoregulate-the maintenance or regulation of temperature
- suet-Cakes of suet are popularly used for feeding wild birds and may be made with other solid fats, such as lard. Rolled oats, bird seed, cornmeal, raisins, and unsalted nuts are often incorporated into the suet cakes
- The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackerman
- The Nesting Season by Bernd Heinrich
- eBird (app)
- Merlin (app)
- www.JohnMuirLaws.com (website)
- See also the appendix on A selected Reading List
Good Quotes:
- First Line: These pages are a record of my obsession with birds.
- Last Line: But the most special is the bird that pauses when it is eating, looks and acknowledges I am there, then goes back to what it was doing.
- I think one of the biggest reasons for the decades-long increase in interest is a fundamental need to feel connected to the natural world. David Sibley, Foreward
- Part of fun is discovering what’s fun. Chapter 48
- Nature abhors a generalist. Chapter 56
- Frontispiece
- Foreword by Sibley
- Preface
- 90 Journal entries
- Gratitude
- The Backyard Birds
- A selected Reading List
- Appendix: Illustrations in Plain Text Format
- A Note About the Author
References:
- Publisher's Web Site for Book
- Author's Web Site
- Wikipedia-Author
- Amazon-Book
- Amazon-Author
- Barnes and Noble
- GoodReads-Book
- GoodReads-Author
- NPR Interview and Review
- PBS Interview and Facebook Book Club
- YouTube
- Bird Book Club Interview with Amy Tan
- Diane Rehm Book Club Interview with Amy Tan
- Petaluma Community Access - Talk by Amy Tan with her pictures
- Alta Magazine/California Book Club September 22, 2025 Interview with Amy Tan
- Audubon book review
- Kelp Journal
- John Muir Laws interview with Amy Tan
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