I’ve always loved birds. Living in Southern California and coastal Massachusetts, I enjoyed watching big white sea birds like gulls and albatrosses soar overhead anytime we went to the beach. Later, when we relocated to Arkansas, I marveled at the huge blue jays that would dive bomb our cats and dogs and send them scurrying for cover. In New York City, sparrows built a nest on my apartment’s windowsill, and I checked every day to see if their tiny eggs had hatched. And then in Ohio, when we lived in our old farmhouse and owned some land, we watched all kinds of birds make their homes in the trees surrounding our property.

The point is, no matter where we live, birds surround us (although thankfully not in the eerie way Alfred Hitchcock depicted in his classic film The Birds). Even in the most urban areas, these airborne creatures are our constant connection to nature. This is a lesson ornithologist Noah Strycker learned early on in fifth grade when his teacher mounted a bird feeder to the classroom window. The birds he saw sparked his imagination and began a lifelong love affair with his feathered neighbors, and his fascination with them has given him a career and led him around the world. Now, in National Geographic Birding Basics, he shows us how all of us, regardless of where we may live, can become birding enthusiasts too.

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