Thomas Hardy notes the thrush's ‘full-hearted evensong of joy illimited’, Gilbert White observes how swallows sweep through the air but swifts ‘dash round in circles’ and Rachel Carson watches sanderlings at the ocean's edge, scurrying ‘across the beach like little ghosts’. From early times, we have been entranced by the bird life around us.

This anthology brings together poetry and prose in celebration of birds, records their behaviour, flight, song and migration, the changes across the seasons and in different habitats – in woodland and pasture, on river, shoreline and at sea – and our own interaction with them. From India to America, from China to Rwanda, writers marvel at birds – the building of a long-tailed

tit's nest, the soaring eagle, the extraordinary feats of migration and the pleasures to be found in our own gardens. Including extracts by Geoffrey Chaucer, Dorothy Wordsworth, Richard Jefferies, Charles Darwin, James Joyce, John Keats, Charlotte Brontë, Emily Dickinson, Anton Chekhov, Kathleen Jamie, Jonathan Franzen and Barbara Kingsolver among many others, this rich anthology will be welcomed by bird-lovers,

country ramblers and anyone who has taken comfort or joy in a bird in flight.

托马斯·哈代（Thomas Hardy）注意到画眉鸟的“全心全意的快乐连唱”，吉尔伯特·怀特（Gilbert White）观察到燕子如何在空中掠过，而雨燕则“在空中盘旋”，雷切尔·卡森（Rachel Carson）在海洋边缘观察沙丁鱼，“像小幽灵一样在海滩上窜动”。从很早的时候开始，我们就被周围的鸟类生活所吸引。

这本选集汇集了赞颂鸟类的诗歌和散文，记录了它们的行为、飞行、歌声和迁徙、不同季节和不同栖息地的变化，如在林地、牧场、河流、海岸线和海上，以及我们自己与它们的互动。从印度到美国，从中国到卢旺达，作家们惊叹于长尾山雀的筑巢、老鹰的翱翔、迁徙的非凡壮举以及在我们自己的花园里发现的乐趣。这部丰富的文集包括杰弗里·乔叟（Geoffrey Chaucer）、多萝西·华兹华斯（Dorothy Wordsworth）、理查德·杰弗里（Richard Jefferies）、查尔斯·达尔文（Charles Darwin）、詹姆斯·乔伊斯（James Joyce）、约翰·济慈（John Keats）、夏洛特·勃朗特（Charlotte Brontë）、艾米莉·狄金森（Emily Dickinson）、安东·契诃夫（Anton Chekhov）、凯瑟琳·杰米（Kathleen Jamie）、乔纳森·弗兰岑（Jonathan Franzen）和芭芭拉·金索尔弗（Barbara Kingsolver）等人的摘录，将受到爱鸟人士、乡村漫游者和任何在鸟类飞行中得到安慰或快乐的人的欢迎。