Attention Ornithophiles: Birdbrains Wings its Way to PT

Call me Scarlett Bottle Rocket, Love Nectars, Helicopter 

of the Heliotrope, Queen of the Spider Webs 

Wintering. Call me Hot Lips Sugar-Blossom, Candy Crooner,

Call me Watermelon-Kisser. I think you might be a flower

In your red dress …

So begins “Renaming Anna’s Hummingbird,” one of the poems in “Birdbrains: A Lyrical Guide to Washington State Birds.” Penned by Anya Kirshbaum, the piece faces a sumi-e painting of the diminutive bird and a field note about calypte anna. In this, we learn the hummers’ wings beat 80 times per second, allowing them to be the only birds capable of flying backwards.

Altogether, “Birdbrains” covers a wild world of avian life, zooming in close to 107 species of all colors, sizes and behaviors. After signing the contract with Raven Chronicles Press, editor Susan Rich brought together 98 writers from across the continent and matched them with particular birds. She then added illustrations by artist Hiroko Seki, and bird facts written by urban birding expert Stephanie Delaney. The 342-page hardcover is available from local bookstores and at https://www.ravenchronicles.org/. 

This Saturday at 3 p.m., a subset of the “Birdbrains” contributors will give short readings at the Kaleidoscope Open Mic, a gathering for writers and listeners in Port Townsend. Rich, who lives in West Seattle, will read along with Pamela Moore Dionne and Sharon M. Carter of Port Townsend, Stacy D. Flood of Seattle and Risa Denenberg of Sequim, at the Friends Meeting House, 1841 Sheridan St. Held there every other month, Kaleidoscope is free and open to the public. 

Each reader will offer two pieces from “Birdbrains”: a favorite that’s not their own, and then the poem or prose they contributed to the book. This has been the practice at all of the “Birdbrains” events over the past few months, Rich noted. Nearly all of the readings, she added, have been standing-room only. 

Among writers and bird lovers, “there’s a feeling of generosity and community . . . These [writings] have been pure joy in a way I could not have anticipated,” Rich said. She’s found there’s something about birds that brings people together in their sense of wonder.

Rich started birding herself not very long ago, and brought her beginner’s mind—and much delight—to the “Birdbrains” project. 

Rich embarked on it all in the summer of 2024, and as she contacted writers, birds began alighting—in poems, stories and essays—in her inbox. Juncos, swans, herons, raptors, ducks, cranes, swallows, flycatchers, wrens, loons, a lazuli bunting and a kingfisher are among those appearing in the book, along with Seki’s sumi-e paintings, made en plein air or in her studio. 

“Birdbrains” is a guide the reader can open to any page—to reveal a portrait of a wondrous bird, along with facts made poetic. 

“All black and with a striking long orange-red bill, red eyes, and short pink legs, the Black Oystercatcher can’t be mistaken for any other bird,” goes one description by Delaney.

“The Western Tanager is a small bird with a bright red head, bright yellow body, and striking black wings with light-colored bars. They look surprisingly tropical for the Pacific Northwest,” says another of Delaney’s notes.  

Rich knows of a woman who uses “Birdbrains” as a kind of nightcap, reading about one bird before she goes to sleep. She savors the writers’ work and remembers her grandfather, who first opened her eyes to the birds around her. 

Anna Quinn, the Port Townsend novelist and educator who orchestrates the Kaleidoscope Open Mic, said she’s eager to hear the various odes to birdlife. The writing in the book is frolicsome at times, reflective at other times, Quinn noted, and it has the power to whisk the reader off to new and surprising places. 

She added that she created the Kaleidoscope to give writers a nonjudgmental space to be heard. At each gathering, selected featured writers read; people also can put their names in the hat and, if drawn, share five minutes of their published or unpublished writing. 

“Most are raw and wild and still in motion, which makes the reading feel especially alive and present. Whether you go up to the mic or come to listen, each person adds something to the room by their presence,” Quinn said. 

For her part, Quinn identifies as a raven lover. 

“I love their playfulness in the wind, their astonishing intelligence,” she said. Quinn has had ravens find their way into her novels, as they seem to occupy that in-between space she’s attracted to: the line between the everyday and the uncanny. 

For Rich, birds and good writing are a natural match—whether we’re talking about a little brown sparrow or a magnificent eagle. 

“Get up from wherever you are sitting right now and go outdoors, binoculars or not,” the editor writes. “Watch what is happening around us. With the right kind of attention, what might we see?”