Conversations with Birds

Birds are my almanac, according to acclaimed filmmaker and author Priyanka Kumar, who grew up near the Himalayas in northern India and rediscovered her connection to the environment by observing birds. Her perspective is not that of a list keeper, but rather that of a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world. Kumars thoughts on these messengers from our distant past and forerunners of our future provide luminous evidence of her belief that "seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts."

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 304 pages
Publication date: 26 October 2023
Publisher: Milkweed Editions

Birds are my almanac, tuning me into the seasons and myself.

Growing up in northern India, I took for granted my immersion in a lush natural world. However, after moving to North America as a teenager, I felt increasingly distanced from human life and discouraged by the civilization contributing to its destruction. It wasn't until my twenties, living in Los Angeles and working on films, that I began to rediscover my place in the landscape and in the cosmos through my fascination with birds.

Tracing my movements across the American West, this stirring collection of essays brings the avian world richly to life. My perspective is not that of a list keeper, counting and cataloguing species. Instead, from the mango-colored western tanager that rescued me from a bout of altitude sickness in Sequoia National Park to ancient sandhill cranes in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and from the snowy plovers building shallow nests with bits of shell and grass to the white-breasted nuthatch that regularly visits the apricot tree behind my family's casita in Santa Fe, birds become a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world.

At a time when climate change, habitat loss, and the reckless use of pesticides are causing widespread extinction of species, my reflections on these messengers from our distant past and harbingers of our future offer luminous evidence of my suggestion that "seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts. Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us."

Dimension: 215 x 139 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781639550807