The Backyard Bird Chronicles

The lovely latest from novelist Tan (Where the Past Begins) brings together selections from “nine personal journals filled with sketches and handwritten notes of naive observations” about birds spotted in her northern California backyard between 2017 and 2022. A few of the entries are somber in tone, including one recounting how Tan had to take down her feeders during a 2017 salmonellosis outbreak among Pine Siskins, whose large flocks make them vulnerable to viral illness. However, most of the notes are more lighthearted, as when Tan narrates the squabbles between dark-eyed juncos, lesser goldfinches, and fox sparrows over a pile of sunflower seeds as if it were a wrestling match. Tan sprinkles in some trivia, as when she explains that songbirds dispense seeds uneaten from feeders because they’re looking for the ones with the most oil, but she largely sticks to laid-back observations about sparrows playing, hummingbirds eating out of her hand, and a hermit thrush unsuccessfully attempting to slip into a cage feeder. Tan’s drawings, a highlight of the volume, trace the development of her artistry, with respectable if amateurish early colored pencil sketches giving way to impressively detailed and realistic depictions of the oak titmouse, chestnut backed chickadee, and great horned owl. Bird lovers may not learn much, but Tan’s enthusiasm and jaunty descriptions of her avian subjects enchant. This hits the mark. Illus. Agent: Sandra Dijkstra, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Apr.)