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How to Describe Birds in Writing (17 Best Tips & Examples)

Let’s spread our creative wings together and explore the art of describing birds in our writing.

Here is how to describe birds in writing:

Describe birds in writing by focusing on their feathers, songs, movements, and behaviors. Use vivid words like “iridescent” or phrases like “wings slicing the air”. Employ sensory descriptions, symbolic meanings, and cultural contexts to bring avian characters to life in your narratives.

Keep reading to learn everything you need to know to write about birds in your stories.

Types of Birds in Writing

Table of Contents

Birds, with their vast diversity and striking characteristics, offer a rich palette for writers to paint vibrant scenes and convey emotions.

From tiny, flitting hummingbirds to majestic eagles soaring high, each bird carries its own symbolism and narrative potential.

In this section, we’ll explore a variety of bird types, each with a brief description that captures their essence, providing a broad canvas for writers to draw inspiration from.

• Sparrows – Small and unassuming, sparrows symbolize simplicity and the joy found in everyday life.
• Eagles – Majestic and powerful, eagles are often used to depict freedom, strength, and a bird’s-eye perspective on life.
• Hummingbirds – Tiny and energetic, hummingbirds represent joy, agility, and the incredible beauty of small things.
• Owls – Mysterious and wise, owls often symbolize knowledge, the unseen, and the secrets of the night.
• Robins – Cheerful and common, robins are harbingers of spring and symbols of renewal and new beginnings.
• Peacocks – Vibrant and flamboyant, peacocks epitomize beauty, pride, and the splendor of nature.
• Crows – Intelligent and adaptable, crows often represent transformation, adaptability, and the mysteries of life.
• Pigeons – Ubiquitous and resilient, pigeons are seen as symbols of peace, love, and the persistence of life in urban landscapes.
• Swans – Graceful and elegant, swans are often used to represent love, purity, and the beauty of monogamy.
• Canaries – Bright and vocal, canaries symbolize happiness, the power of voice, and sometimes, a warning.
• Penguins – Endearing and unique, penguins represent adaptability, survival, and the joys of companionship.
• Flamingos – Striking and social, flamingos symbolize balance, community, and embracing one’s uniqueness.
• Parrots – Colorful and vocal, parrots often stand for communication, mimicry, and the vibrancy of the tropics.
• Vultures – Misunderstood scavengers, vultures symbolize cleansing, renewal, and the cycle of life.
• Doves – Gentle and serene, doves are universally recognized as emblems of peace, hope, and spiritual messengers.
• Hawks – Focused and fierce, hawks represent vision, power, and the ability to navigate life’s challenges.
• Seagulls – Noisy and free-spirited, seagulls embody the spirit of the sea, freedom, and a carefree lifestyle.
• Woodpeckers – Persistent and rhythmic, woodpeckers symbolize determination, opportunity, and the heartbeat of the forest.
• Cardinals – Vibrant and spirited, cardinals represent vitality, faith, and the beauty of year-round color.
• Blue Jays – Bold and vocal, blue jays symbolize assertiveness, intelligence, and the vibrancy of life.

17 Best Tips for Describing Birds in Writing

Describing birds in your writing can be a mesmerizing way to add depth, texture, and symbolism.

Whether it’s the delicate flutter of a sparrow or the majestic soar of an eagle, birds can bring a unique dimension to your narrative.

Here are 17 bird-themed tips to help you weave vivid avian imagery into your writing.

Each tip is explored in detail, offering you the tools to make your descriptions take flight.

1. Feathered Flourish – Focus on Feathers

Feathers define birds. When describing them, delve into their color, texture, and what they reveal about the bird’s persona.

For example, depicting a sparrow’s feathers could go beyond mere color.

You might say, “The sparrow’s feathers seemed brushed by twilight; each a small canvas capturing the soft glow of the setting sun.”

This not only paints a vivid picture but also introduces a sensory aspect.

It links the bird to the broader canvas of the natural world, allowing readers to feel the warmth, see the hues, and sense the bird’s place in the world.

This attention to detail can turn a simple description into an evocative image that stays with the reader.

2. Melodic Metaphors – Use Birdsong

Birdsong is more than a sound; it’s an emotion.

When describing it, use metaphors and similes to create an emotional connection.

Rather than saying a robin chirps, you might describe its song as “a melody rippling like a gentle brook, cutting through the quiet of dawn.”

This method transcends mere auditory description.

It paints a picture, sets a mood, and plunges the reader into a moment.

It’s about crafting a scene that’s almost palpable, using the bird’s song as a tool to transport the reader to that tranquil morning, where they can almost feel the coolness of the dawn and the serenity it brings.

3. Winged Whimsy – Capture Movement

A bird’s movement can be highly expressive.

Whether it’s an eagle’s dignified glide or a hummingbird’s frenetic dance, capturing this can add dynamism to your writing.

Consider a description like, “The hummingbird hovered in the air, its wings a blur, as if stitching the very fabric of time.”

This kind of imagery does more than describe movement.

It infuses the bird with a magical quality, making it a creature not just of feathers and flight but of wonder and fantasy.

Descriptions like this elevate the bird from a mere creature to a symbol, a bearer of meaning, and an entity that transcends the ordinary.

4. Aerial Acrobatics – Highlight Flight Patterns

Flight patterns can reveal a lot about a bird’s nature and the mood of a scene.

For instance, describing an eagle’s flight can convey majesty and power.

You might write, “The eagle ascended with a regal ease, each wingbeat a testament to its dominion over the skies.”

This goes beyond the physical act of flying. It touches on the eagle’s symbolic power, portraying it as a ruler of its realm.

It’s about capturing the grace, the strength, and the sheer majesty of its flight.

Descriptions like these can elevate your narrative, turning a simple action into a powerful metaphor that reflects broader themes or emotions in your writing.

5. Nest Narratives – Describe Bird Habitats

Bird habitats can set the scene and context for your narrative.

Describing a nest, a tree hollow, or even a cliff ledge can add authenticity.

You could say, “The sparrow’s nest, a woven tapestry of twigs and leaves, cradled the tree’s nook, a testament to nature’s ingenuity.”

This type of description does more than just portray a physical location.

It gives insight into the bird’s life and survival.

It can create a sense of intimacy, pulling the reader closer to the bird’s world, and highlighting the intricate connections between creatures and their environments.

6. Beak Banter – Focus on Vocalizations and Calls

Bird calls and vocalizations can be very expressive.

Describing these can add auditory texture to your writing. For example, instead of just stating a crow cawed, you could write, “The crow’s call was a harsh caw, echoing like a laugh across the empty fields.”

This captures the nature of the sound and its impact on the setting.

It’s not just about what the sound is, but how it resonates with the environment and the characters.

It can set a mood, be it ominous, cheerful, or soothing.

The key is to use these sounds not just as background noise, but as active elements that contribute to the atmosphere of your scene.

7. Plumage Palette – Explore Colors and Patterns

The colors and patterns of a bird’s plumage can be striking.

Describing these can add visual vibrancy to your narrative.

Take a peacock for example. Instead of simply stating its feathers are colorful, try, “The peacock’s tail unfurled like a kaleidoscopic fan, each feather a vibrant brushstroke of nature’s palette.”

This kind of description paints a vivid picture.

It turns the bird into a living work of art, inviting readers to visualize not just the colors, but the beauty and intricacy of the patterns.

It’s about capturing the awe and wonder such a sight can evoke, making the reader pause and appreciate the natural splendor.

8. Avian Antics – Capture Characterful Behavior

Birds often display unique and characterful behaviors that can enliven your writing.

Describing these antics provides insight into their personalities.

For example, a raven solving a puzzle or a bowerbird decorating its nest demonstrates intelligence and resourcefulness.

Writing such as, “The raven, with a click of its beak, nudged the puzzle piece into place, its black eyes glinting with a hint of glee,” invites readers into the bird’s world.

It’s about painting a fuller picture, showcasing birds not just as animals but as beings with their quirks, habits, and intelligence.

By bringing these behaviors to the fore, you can add another layer to your narrative and engage your readers on a deeper level.

9. Sensory Symphony – Engage All Senses

Engaging all the senses can make your bird descriptions more immersive.

Describe not just how a bird looks, but how its feathers feel, how its movement sounds, or even how its habitat smells.

For instance, “The duck’s feathers were a tapestry of textures, from the silkiness of its undercoat to the oil-slicked toughness of its outer quills.”

By involving multiple senses, you can create a richer, multi-dimensional portrayal of birds.

It’s about giving the reader a sense as if they’re experiencing the bird’s presence firsthand, making the encounter with the bird more vivid and memorable.

10. Behavioral Beacon – Signal Seasonal Changes

Bird behaviors often change with the seasons, and this can be a poignant aspect to capture.

Migratory patterns, mating dances, or nesting can signal the passage of time in your story.

Describing these seasonal behaviors, like “With the first blush of spring, the robin returned, its song a cheerful herald of warmer days,” can add layers of depth to your setting.

It aligns the life of birds with the rhythm of the natural world, providing a backdrop that can reflect changes in your story or the internal states of your characters.

11. Symbolic Soaring – Use Birds as Symbols

Birds have rich symbolic meanings across cultures.

They can symbolize freedom, hope, or even foreboding. Integrate these symbols into your writing to add a layer of meaning.

For example, an owl in a story might not only be a background creature but also a symbol of wisdom or a harbinger of change.

“The owl perched silently above, its presence a solemn reminder of the wisdom that comes with age and experience,” illustrates how you can weave symbolism into your description.

This allows the bird to embody deeper themes and resonate with the reader on a symbolic level.

12. Dynamic Duos – Contrast with Characters

Use birds to create contrast or to mirror your characters’ journeys.

A caged bird can reflect a character’s own trapped situation or desire for freedom.

For example, “As she watched the caged finch flutter against the bars, its plight echoed her own sense of confinement.”

This approach does more than depict the bird; it uses the bird as a reflection of the character’s emotions and circumstances, offering a powerful emotional connection and a mirror to human experiences.

13. Rhythmic Renderings – Mimic Bird Movement in Prose

The rhythm of your prose can reflect the movement of birds.

Long, flowing sentences can mimic the graceful soaring of a swan, while short, choppy sentences can echo the flitting of a finch.

For instance, “The heron glided over the water—a slow, seamless waltz—its reflection a ghostly dance partner below.”

By mirroring the rhythm of bird movements in your sentence structure, you provide the reader with a literary echo of the bird’s physical grace.

This creates a harmonious reading experience that’s almost like watching the bird in motion.

14. Habitat Harmony – Align Descriptions with Environment

Birds are deeply connected to their habitats, and reflecting this in your descriptions can add authenticity.

Describe how a bird interacts with its environment, like a woodpecker tapping into a tree or a seagull wheeling over the ocean.

You might write, “The woodpecker drummed against the old oak, a staccato rhythm that seemed to breathe life into the forest.”

Such descriptions root the bird in its setting, giving a sense of place and showing the interconnectedness of nature’s tapestry.

15. Perspective Play – Vary Your Viewpoint

Changing your narrative perspective can offer a fresh angle on bird descriptions.

Describe a bird from far away, then up close, or even from the bird’s perspective. For example, “From afar, the hawk was a mere speck against the vast blue. Up close, every feather was a detail in a masterpiece of evolution.”

This technique can add depth and scale to your descriptions, offering a richer visual experience and drawing readers into the scene more effectively.

16. Emotional Echo – Reflect Mood through Birds

Birds can be used to echo the emotional landscape of your story.

A joyful scene might be accompanied by the lively chatter of sparrows, while a somber moment could be underscored by the solitary call of a crow.

Writing that “The crows’ solemn cries seemed to mourn the day’s end, as shadows gathered in the silence,” can tie the atmosphere closely to the narrative, using the birds to deepen the emotional impact of your scenes.

17. Cultural Context – Weave in Folklore and Myth

Birds often have a place in folklore and myth, and tapping into these stories can add a layer of richness to your writing.

Integrate cultural stories or myths about birds to give your descriptions a deeper resonance.

“The raven, long a harbinger of fate in local lore, watched from atop the church spire, its black eyes knowing.”

This not only gives your bird descriptions a more profound significance but also ties them to the cultural and historical context of your setting.

Check out this video about how to describe birds in writing:

30 Best Words to Describe a Bird in Writing

Here are 30 of the best words to talk about birds in writing.

• Plumage-rich
• Resplendent

Each of these words holds the power to conjure a specific image or feeling about birds.

Use them to craft descriptions with precision and emotion.

Moving beyond single words, crafting phrases that reflect the nuanced behaviors and attributes of birds can add an evocative layer to your writing.

30 Best Phrases to Describe a Bird in Writing

The following phrases blend imagery and emotion, ideal for enhancing your narratives with finely-tuned bird descriptions:

• Wings slicing the air
• Beak glistening at dawn
• Tail feathers fanning out like rays of the sun
• Eyes gleaming with intelligence
• Song piercing the morning haze
• Silhouette against the twilight sky
• Claws gripping the branch with silent authority
• Nest cradled in the crook of a tree
• Feathers ruffled by the whispering wind
• Shadow flitting across the ground
• Plumage blending with the autumn leaves
• Beating wings stirring the calm air
• Calls echoing in the forest canopy
• Flight cutting through the mist
• Dance of courtship, intricate and full of zeal
• Reflection skimming the surface of the lake
• Perched like a sentinel atop the old pine
• Darting through the underbrush
• A flash of color in the verdant meadow
• Aloft in the updraft, effortlessly suspended
• A symphony of calls at dusk
• The soft cooing at day’s end
• Feathers coated in the morning’s dew
• A swift chase over the water’s surface
• Migratory arc etched across the sky
• Preening meticulously, every feather an artifact
• The sudden stillness before the strike
• A solitary silhouette on a weathered fence post
• Inquisitive gaze from within the thicket
• The serene float on a tranquil pond

3 Examples of How to Describe Birds in Writing (in three Different Genres)

Let’s look at examples of how to describe birds in writing in different kinds of stories.

Fantasy Genre: The Enchanted Eagle

In the twilight-shrouded realm of Eldoria, the Great Eagle, guardian of the Whispering Woods, unfurled its shimmering wings. Each feather shimmered with ethereal light, casting prismatic glows against the gnarled branches of the ancient trees. With eyes like molten gold piercing through the dusk, the creature let out a call that sang of ancient magic and secrets untold. Its talons, relics of a bygone era, grasped the mystical Stone of Sight, which pulsed in harmony with its heartbeat. The Eagle soared upwards, the air around it alive with whispers of enchantment, its majestic form a silhouette against the canvas of the constellations.

Mystery Genre: The Clue of the Crimson Cardinal

Detective Lila Grey stood motionless, the crunch of the autumn leaves underfoot breaking the silence of the morning. Her gaze fixed on the flash of red that flitted above the crime scene—a cardinal, its vibrant plumage a stark contrast to the somber mood. The bird’s keen eyes seemed to scrutinize the area, darting from the body to the blood-stained note left behind. As it sang a trilling melody, Lila pondered if the cardinal was an unwitting witness to the misdeed. The way it circled, almost protectively, around the oak tree, hinted at a secret only this avian bystander knew.

Romance Genre: The Dance of the Doves

Amidst the gentle hum of the garden party, two doves cooed softly, their gentle ballet a mirror to Eleanor and Thomas’s newfound love. The birds, with their silken white feathers, glided side by side, wings almost touching, embodying the tenderness shared between the two hearts below. As the pair nuzzled beak to beak, so too did Eleanor and Thomas lean in for their first, shy kiss, their audience of doves bearing witness to the silent promise of enduring affection. In the soft glow of dusk, the lovers and doves alike were wrapped in the warm embrace of a love as pure as the driven snow.

Final Thoughts: How to Describe Birds in Writing

With feathers unfurled and tales told, remember that the sky’s the limit when describing our avian friends in writing.

And if this flight of fancy has your creativity soaring, wing your way through our trove of articles for more literary inspiration.

Read This Next:

• How to Describe a Beach in Writing (21 Best Tips & Examples)
• How to Describe a Bed in Writing (10+ Tips and Examples)
• How to Describe a Train in Writing (30+ Words & Examples)
• How to Describe a Dog in Writing (100+ Examples)

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (Research on Birds)

JournalBuddies.com

Journal Buddies Jill | April 3, 2024 March 20, 2023 | List of Prompts

25 Creative Writing Prompts About Birds

If you’re looking for creative writing prompts about birds, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got dozens of ideas for you to use in stories, poems, journaling, essays, and more. Read on to learn more.

There are reasons games like Angry Birds have become cultural icons. Typically, it’s because people are fascinated by the idea of winged creatures soaring in the sky above us. Yeppers! Birds are a fascinating topic for anyone and kids seem to especially love them.

Now, learning to write about birds can help aspiring writers in many ways.

Let’s take a look quickly at some of the top reasons why writing about birds is so wonderful. And then I’ll share with you some writing prompts about birds. You see…

Writing about birds can help a writer expand their vocabulary in new ways. Pro tip: Google the phrase “bird vocabulary words”.

Additionally….

Writers can use birds as characters in fictional pieces. After all, who doesn’t like reading a story about a penguin waddling through the snow trying to find its parents?

Further, writers may choose to use birds in their stories for allegorical purposes. In other words, birds may be used as symbolism in various ways in story writing.

For instance, some writers will will use birds chirping loudly to signal the start of something promising. Likewise, others may opt to describe the sky as being filled with crows as they depict something ominous in their writing. These are just two of the endless ways birds may be used to enhance one’s story in new and interesting ways.

Whether you’re writing poems, notebook entries, or short stories about birds, these prompts will help you considerably. Take a look now and enjoy!

Write an exchange between a talking parrot and a pirate captain. 

A family of birds is migrating when a strong gust of wind knocks the baby bird out of the sky. Write a story about the little bird searching for and reuniting with its family. (You could use famous movies like Finding Nemo as inspiration.)

Write a story about a high school student whose best friend is a talking owl.

Develop a story around an owl leaving its nest at night to go on an adventure.

Base a story around a group of penguins in Antarctica having an underwater swimming contest.

Write and dedicate a poem to your favorite bird species. 

Explain in detail which species of large birds you like the most and why.

Write a story about an a character you create partnering with a large eagle to find hidden treasures in the Caribbean. 

Explain why kids are typically so fascinated by birds.

You find an injured bird in your backyard. How do you help it?

Let your creative juices flow by imagining and penning a conversation between a group of frogs and a falcon.

What would your wings look like if you could snap your fingers and turn into a bird at will?

You’re playing in the schoolyard when you find golden feathers. What do you do?

You’re swimming in the ocean with your friends when you notice a crow dive down for a closer look. What happens next?

You feed a bird some food and thereafter it keeps following you everywhere. You bring it home, but your mom says you can’t keep the bird. How do you convince her to change her mind?

Write some story ideas in your notebook about a bird that has lost its happiness and must regain it.

You’re trekking in the forest when you get lost. Suddenly, the wise old owl starts talking, startling you. Continue this prompt idea.

You’re swimming in the ocean. You see thousands of birds flocking to the coast. Write about what you think is attracting the birds.

A pigeon enters the king’s castle with a small note tied to its leg. It has a very important message. What does it say?

The world’s richest man invites you to his headquarters. He says he can create a jetpack to let you fly like your favorite bird. Which bird do you choose?

Write a journal entry about feeling as free as a bird. 

Detail a bird’s journey as it migrates during the winter.

A pigeon flies into a bakery and sneakily eats the baker’s bread. Write a story about the pigeon avoiding detection.

You’re in your local park when you find a dozen unhatched eggs. They’re the size of your head. Suddenly, you hear a sound. Continue this prompt.

Imagine you’re a sparrow who is best friends with an eagle. Write a story about your friendship.

I hope you enjoyed our list of creative writing prompts about birds.

Now, check out these…

Fabulous Writing Resources

• 47 Free Ocean Writing Ideas to Inspire
• 34 Nature Writing Prompts for Kids
• 15 Writing Prompts about Pets
• 37 Reflective Writing Prompts about Reading

Ok, that’s all for today.

Until next time, write on…

If you enjoyed these  Writing Prompts about Birds … please share them on Facebook, Twitter, and/or Pinterest. I appreciate it!

Sincerely, Jill journalbuddies.com creator and curator

PS – take a look at the 10 Best Children’s Books About Birds !

Tap to See Prompts 70 Fun and Creative Nature Writing Prompts Writing about Pets - 15 Fun Pet Writing Topics 47 Free Ocean Writing Ideas to Inspire ------------Start of Om Added --------- @media (min-width: 320px) and (max-width: 767px) { .inside-right-sidebar { display: none !important; } } Search Now Offering You 18,000+ Prompts!

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by Joe Bunting | 46 comments

The window in my living room opens out to a wide field that ends in a line of trees. The birds live in the trees and in the mornings they fly out over the field.

There's something about birds.

Sometimes you see a yellow one or a blue one. Mostly, though, they are shades of white and brown. I watch as two white birds chase each other, loop around, and fly out of my view.

Some people spend hours and days watching birds. I imagine it sharpens their senses. Their eyes learn to pick out flashes of movement in the overwhelming green of the canopy. Their ears learn the distinct song of each bird.

I, however, am content to watch the field from my living room window, and if a bird flies through my view, so be it.

Bunting is what you do in baseball (as I have heard all my life). It is that red, white, and blue half-circle of fabric they put up to play patriotic. It is also a family of birds.

My instinct tells me birds feel like hope and joy and a oneness with nature that I've experienced only a few times. They are also synonymous for my soul.

And once, I wrote about a bird in a story and was shocked at how much the bird, my “character,” moved me. Just now, a yellow bird flew the whole length of my window.

What do birds mean to you?

PRACTICE Birds can add a touch of detail that lights up your writing with life. Practice writing about birds. If it would help, go outside with a notebook and a pen and look for them. They're everywhere. As you describe them, think about what they communicate subconsciously. Write for fifteen minutes . Post your “bird watching” in the comments.

Joe Bunting

Joe Bunting is an author and the leader of The Write Practice community. He is also the author of the new book Crowdsourcing Paris , a real life adventure story set in France. It was a #1 New Release on Amazon. Follow him on Instagram (@jhbunting).

Want best-seller coaching? Book Joe here.

46 Comments

I adore birds. I have a feeder on my back deck just outside my dining room window. It attracts blue jays, wrens, cardinals, titmouses, chickadees, and gold finches. Watching them fly in to grab a nibble then fly away is a delight. Sometimes they take a rest on the crook that holds the feeder and spend a few moments primping and preening in the sun. There is something soothing and fulfilling about watching them. I think of their evolutionary orgin and enjoy the notion that I have dinosaurs on my back deck.

Dinosaurs on your deck? What a wild idea.

I adore birds. I have a feeder on my back deck just outside my dining room window. It attracts blue jays, wrens, cardinals, titmouses, chickadees, and gold finches. Watching them fly in to grab a nibble then fly away is a delight. Sometimes they take a rest on the crook that holds the feeder and spend a few moments primping and preening in the sun. There is something soothing and fulfilling about watching them. I think of their evolutionalry orgin and enjoy the notion that I have dinosaurs on my back deck.

I love how birds just do their thing. All day long. Yesterday it was windy and when I left I saw three large birds, likely hawks, who were just playing in the gusts of wind. They hung in the sky with their wings open, nearly motionless, and then suddenly one would dive towards the earth, only to pull back up at the last second and loop around and join his friends again in the wind currents. All of this activity and it seemed effortless. He must have taken 3 flaps with his wings. Beautiful.

Mmm… that sounds beautiful.

Joe! Your blog is great. I’m going to start doing the exercises and posting what I write. Sooo here’s the one from today!

It’s about 10:30am  and I’m sitting at a picnic table on Gainesville college’s campus looking for birds. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with birds for some time now. They annoy me at 7am and at the beach, but they are beautiful to watch. 

In a way, I feel as though I can identify with birds. Baby birds hatch and stay in the nest for a while getting loved on and fed by mom. Then when she feels they are ready, she pushes them out of the nest so they can learn to fly. Some birds begin flying right away while others take a little while to adjust to the wind, altitude, being without mom, etc. I feel like one of those birds that struggles to fly. I’ve taken a few nose dives at the ground and managed to not break my neck when I crash. I’m starting to feel the wind blow a little bit stronger, which makes me feel like it’s time for me to take a swan dive out of the nest again. I’m scared and I’m anxious but it’s about time I step, or rather, fall into the world. 

I go to just about every home Auburn football game. Auburn has a big bird rehabilitation center at the university and every home game they have one of the eagles, either the golden eagle or the bald eagle, fly around the field to pump up the fans and the players. That’s always my favorite part of the game. The raw beauty and power of raptors is intense. These birds soar like it’s the easiest thing on the planet. Maybe that’s why as humans we absolutely had to figure out how to fly. It gives you a sense of freedom.

The eagles that fly  at Auburn represent numerous things to me- strength, speed, beauty, freedom, and grace to name a few. It amazes me to see these huge birds flying among 86,000+ people with wingspans of six feet, three inch talons and a sharp beak that could seriously injure a person and yet they soar around, spot the dead rat their handler is flinging around and dive to catch it, all to the screaming of the thousands of fans. The fans may not realize it, but the eagles have the freedom to fly up and out of the stadium at any time. 

If the eagles fly off, they probably won’t return. Why can’t I be less like a baby bird and more like an eagle?

It’s suzie by the way haha. Hope this wasn’t too long.

Hey Suzie! Thank you so much for practicing. You’re great.

My favorite paragraphs are the last three, especially the parts where you describe the eagle soaring over the football stadium. I would have loved to see more about what you were seeing as you sat at that picnic table bench (weren’t you cold?).

It was our last night in San Antonio and we were enjoying a delicious dinner on the patio of our hotel, right on the river in the middle of the city. It was hot. Now that’s an understatement. It was over 100 degrees at 5:30 in the evening. But we convinced the waiter to leave the door open so that the AC blew out and around us as we enjoyed the evening light by the water.

There were about a dozen mallard ducks paddling in the water just across the pathway from us, doing their duck thing. Diving and ruffling the water off their feathers, pecking at each other, occasionally waddling up onto the shore.

All of a sudden, a large gray flying creature whooshed down to the edge of the dirt, hovering over the river, dipping his head in for a drink every so often. As he rose back to a sitting position, I whispered to my husband, “I think that’s an owl. Can I possibly be right?” Owls aren’t known for being out and about before nightfall. Owls aren’t known for sitting on the ground. Owls aren’t known for hanging out with ducks.

But, sure enough, it was an owl.

And the ducks were alarmed, quickly moving away from where this bird of prey was getting his evening libation. I had my camera, but not my big lens, so I zeroed in as much as I could with the wide angle, and snapped off four shots, one of which showed him with his big, owl face looking at the camera, while his body faced squarely in the opposite direction. Owls have always fascinated me with their swivel like ability to move their heads. And, of course, their ability to grind up and regurgitate small living creatures, leaving a ‘tell’ of white debris in their wake.

But this owl was not interested in capturing dinner. I think maybe he was hot – and he needed a drink. He hung around for a good 15 minutes, flying up into a tree across the river where we could no longer see him. But lots of other people did! Over the course of those minutes, a small crowd of ‘fans’ gathered, snapping away with their cell phones. Our surprise visitor had created a small sensation along the riverwalk. And we enjoyed getting a glimpse.

(You can catch your own glimpse of this amazing creature here (You’ll need to scroll to the bottom of the post for this picture: http://drgtjustwondering.blogspot.com/2011/09/shifting-gearsmoving-towards-retreat.html )

I love this story. I remember reading about it on your blog a little while ago. Your writing style is good because I can see it, I can see the river and the ducks and the patio and the owl in the tree. I’m sure your writing voice sounds just like you telling a story over dinner.

This is a quick bird one … while riding home on the commuter train last week.

A flash of bright Yellow Cuts the vertical of the rain

An oriole Singing To the percussion of the rain

Technical fault three minute stop Interlude on the six o’clock train

Through three degrees of separation – windowpane, wind, wheels clattering

The even song Whistling Onward the train through monsoon rain

This is good. I don’t really know if you’re talking about a bird that looks like lightning, or if the lightning allowed you to see the bird, or if the lightning reminded you of a bird. And that might be okay.

This poem works as an interesting metaphor, something beautiful in the midst of a day filled with rain and delays on the train, beauty in the middle of darkness. I like it.

Were you intentionally trying to rhyme the last line of the longer stanzas? I’m not sure if you need it. Rhyme is really hard to use in modern poetry. Most of the time it makes the poem look amateur and hokey. I don’t think your poem is hokey, but you have to be careful.

Thanx for the comment. Not trying to rhyme the longer stanza’s … just came out that way… but you’re right. They need some work. Anyway, it was just a quick one. I stick them in a draft box and re-polish them when I’m stuck with the novel.

It’s funny how these things happen. You posted a revised version on your blog right?

Frolicking through nature I spot a passerby A tiny red fox, cunning and sly.

Climbing the rocks a soft eagles cry he’s running away…

Power terror…

beauty…

Goodbye Mr.Fox A valiant fight But today You lose to this supreme, mighty bird of prey.

I meant to put an extra line between ” a valiant fight” and “but today,” because, well, it just sounds a little awkward at the end like that.

I loved this! This was an amazing poem.

I loved this exercise because the book I have coming out in November is called, “In Everything, Birds.” It contains 75 poems that some how, some way have birds in them, maybe only 6 times as the actual theme.

the birds crept in twilight padding on the wet grass.

I lay with my head on the concrete staring at them.

The red robins were my favorite because they always seemed to turn toward me and stare. Something about being stared at with their beedy eyes, while their chests heaved up and down. But in that time they would sometimes look for a minute or more, just staring. Sometimes it hopped closer to me.

Eventually it would turn away, pounding its beak into the clay soil and ripping out grass til its prey wiggled wildly in its beak. Then it’d jump then let out its wings and flap them as it would go up and up till it swooped into a thick tree where it disappeared.

I see other birds too sometimes. But they never look at me. Just stay for their breakfast bugs and then off to the tree to chit chat with their friends across the block.

Now there are no birds in the yard. But there is a whipering chatter, quiet but fervent, like whispers during church. Just the empty grass, and the empty plants, and empty trees. Not even the bees are up to make their entrance. The sky is a chilly blue. I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to watching for these birds who could care less about me. But here I am. Listening to their singing. They have started singing. They are so excited. They can feel the rush of dawn coming. They know the time for their eggs to hatch is coming. And soon they will have have helpless little babies clinging to their nests, which they will feed, and they will love. That is nature. Everyone loves their babies.

Their singing, like small hymnals, like children running. I want to feel excited too, I want to sing out just because I am alive and sun is coming. I am almost annoyed to be witnessing their divine faith.

Being a frail bird is accepting death can snatch you up any night, so morning is a celebration always. I poke my finger into the dirt, slowly pull a blade of grass from out the dirt. Its long root lay flat in my hand. I toss it aside, it lay lost forgotten to god as it will dry and wither away.

My plants will appreciate that though, kill a few blades of grass, make some more room for their roots to flourish.

http://writeitonmywall.wordpress.com/

Beautiful piece of prose. Great descriptions and use of language. There is so much beautiful color within this piece. The flow is rather smooth. As I was reading this, I felt like I was a participant in the experience. I like the way you take your readers on a beautiful, captivating journey through the use of the spoken word. A lovely piece of writing all around.

“Hey Kristi, do you want to go outside now?” I say. Of course, she doesn’t reply. How could she? She has cerebral palsy and has had it ever since she was born nine years ago. Of course, she understands us, my husband Max, our youngest, Daphne, who’s seven, and I, but we can only understand her through vain attempts to ask her ‘yes blink once’ and ‘no blink twice’ questions repeatedly until we get what she wants to say. She blinks twice. (No) “Come on Kristi, the weather’s perfect!” I say. “Yeah, come ON Kristi!” asks Daphne. Kristi blinks twice, her grey eyes (she gets those from Max) dull and uninterested. “Well, I don’t care whether you want to or not, but you are going to go outside and get a breath of fresh air for once, instead of being cooped up inside all the time!” I say determined. Kristi blinks once but stares at me icily, which is her way rolling her eyes and saying “Fine.” I push her wheelchair with Daphne chattering about her day happily and carefully roll it down the steps of our porch. We walk like this until we reach the park. Usually it’s filled with happy toddlers and fussy moms, but today the new amusement park is open, and we didn’t want to make Kristi feel bad because she can’t go on any rides, so we decided to stay home. We sit on the grass for a little while in silence until Daphne pulls my arm excitedly. “Look Mommy!” she says, cheeks flushed red with delight, “It’s a canary!”

I turned my head to Daphne’s chubby finger and there it was, a canary, hopping closer and closer to us, cocking its head curiously. I look at Kristi as she sits, her eyes, shining, focused on the slowly advancing bird. “Oh Mommy, can we feed it?” Daphne asks, in a, I admit, slightly whiny tone. “Oh dang,” I mutter, careful to omit any swear words teachers might later ask in a condescending tone where Daphne could have learned it because she certainly didn’t learn it at home, right? “I forgot to bring food, I’m sorry sweetie.” “Aw man,” Daphne sighs, and I can see the disappointment on Kristi’s face. It seems the canary does too, and as its beady eyes scan Kristi’s face, it hops forward and tilts its head almost sympathetically. Then, suddenly, the canary flutters suddenly upward towards Kristi’s hand, which is resting on the arm of her chair. We all hold our breaths, and Kristi stays so still she doesn’t even blink. Then the canary starts hopping around Kristi’s wheelchair, her arms, and on her head. It then promptly flies away, but not before it delivers a mini white slimy bomb on my head, which sends Daphne rolling on the floor and Kristi cracking the smallest smile. But as I watch the canary fly away, I’m not mad, but thankful that it was kind enough to make my Kristi’s day.

*please comment on my story and how to make it better **P.S. this is not a true story (well, maybe it is for someone else)

Prompt #9: Birds Usually Gather Where Lots Of People Are Around By Kiki Stamatiou a. k. a. Joanna Maharis

Birds are generally found in a group where there are lots of people around, such as a parking lot. On many occasions when I go to one of my local Walmart stores with my aunt, and my grandmother, we see lots of birds near our or hovering nearby. Generally, they are looking for food.

We often saw many of the birds when we used to go to fast food places years ago. I remember sitting in our car in the parking lot of the fast food restaurant, and my aunt would toss out some French fries onto the ground near her car.

Several little birds swarmed around aiming to get even a piece of the French fries.

My aunt got out of our car, walked around in the parking lot, scattering the pieces of French fries to be sure many of the birds could enjoy them, instead of having them fight over the fries.

Upon leaving the parking lot of the fast food place, we stopped off at one of our local Walmarts where there were other birds nearby. We had some French fries left, so my aunt tossed them out to the birds who swarmed around them and nibbled on them.

I enjoy watching the little sparrows prance about when they’d walk. I remember remarking to my aunt how cute I thought they were. I got out of the car, and took pictures of them with my cell phone. My aunt used her Smart phone to take pictures of the birds.

Birds are such gentle little creatures. I couldn’t help but fall in love with them. I’ve always loved birds since I was a small child.

During my high school and college years, my family had a parrot my dad named Mr. Alex. We taught it to speak Greek, in addition to speaking English. I taught it some Spanish, because I was studying the language during my junior and senior years of high school. Mr. Alex was a nice form of company. He enjoyed listening to music from our stereo, while I helped my mother with the housework. In particular, he liked the music of New Kids On The Block.

We often placed his cage in our living room. He sat on top of it when we’d let him out from time to time. He watched television with us. Mr. Alex loved to watch music concerts, especially when it came to watching New Kids On The Block perform. He even learned the words to their songs and would sing along with them.

Whenever my dad would talk on the phone, Mr. Alex would imitate him. My dad talked fast in his manner of speech. Our parrot learned to do the same through imitating him.

He was such a sweet little bird, even though he’d wake up early in the mornings whenever I had a day off from work, and he’d kick his cage. In doing so, he woke me up with all the noise he was making. I told him if he didn’t stop kicking the cage and start behaving himself, I’d take away his music privileges. All and all, I’ll always remember the special times we had together.

When my parents sold our house and moved down to Florida, my brother sold Mr. Alex to a pet shop to make sure he’d get a good home. I couldn’t take the bird with me, because I was staying at the college dormitories when attending college. Pets weren’t allowed other than fish. My brother and other relatives weren’t able to take him either, because they were working, and didn’t want to be woken up at night by him.

© Copyright, Kiki Stamatiou, 2015

He looks down on us in the garden. Surely we are not the target. But something has caught his attention and he has swooped in to check out the ground to see if there is something down here he wants. It is usually a zarigueya, or opossum, or sometimes a dead rat. It might even be an iguana, but I think I would have seen a dead iguana, even in the neighbor’s yard. And the aroma of a rotting iguana is not one you can miss. Still, if a turkey vulture is in your tree, you can bet there is something dead on the ground.

This particular bird sits very still, barely moving but for his head, slowly perusing, searching. His great gray talons spread wide and grasp the branch; you clearly would not want those talons grasping for you. In fact, the mere presence of a turkey vulture, while visually awesome, makes you check your position, making certain there is a close retreat should the need arise.

His steely body curves upward to a large, proud chest and continues to the thick neck and head that is, frankly, a bit too small. The coal-black feathers gather neatly against his back; when he is in flight you wonder how he folds those long wings into such a compact space.

Sitting in the tree above my garden, he casts a pallor that makes even the flamboyanes lose some of their fiery red color. There is not a cat to be seen, and I feel I should retreat, as well. But I cannot; I am drawn to the bird’s god-like magnificence. I don’t know if any civilization has used the turkey vulture as a great spiritual symbol, but it would be entirely appropriate to elevate the bird to one of respect and reverence.

I attempt to snap a photo or two, but the photos are inevitably unsatisfying. Turkey Vultures land with their backs to the sun so as not to allow the bright rays to interfere with their sight, so photos are backlit and the subject is dark. Clever. I have many photos of turkey vultures, but all of them unsatisfying.

But then, I’m not certain turkey vultures were put on Earth for my gratification.

I don’t see any birds, but from my chair in front of the open window I hear three of them. The first one is conversing with pauses between words. Wae, wae, wae, waewae, wae. It’s the one farthest away. I have to push my ear through the house to hear it. The fresh, cool air is propelling his sound into my home. I’m sure I’ve heard this bird or its kin before.

The second one is in this tree somewhere. The tree is I think some kind of oak and is healthy and changing. Its blooms hug it near its base more firmly than at the top. It’s the biggest thing in a yard full of bushes and shrubs. The bird, hidden in this sea of green leaves somewhere, is chirping a standard song where each note extends for minutes unless you lean in to really hear the parts where she changes her tune as she inhales and exhales. heehooheehooheehooheehooheehooheehooheehooheehooheehoo.

Somewhere in the middle there is a third crying out, making a noise that sounds like the radiation that comes from the sun in a desert. It wails for ten or twelve seconds at a time before it stops. If it were a visible wave it would be a bell – starting soft, getting loudest in the middle, falling back into silence. aaaeeeeehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhheeeeeaaa. It reminds me only of heat. It’s the sound I’d expect to hear if I pressed my face to the pavement of a highway in the summer. It is a new cup of coffee, set aside for a moment or two. It’s the pool of grease on the center of the pizza slice and the dark backseat of a parked car after a wedding. Every few minutes a few of those steaming sounds overlap, like there’s a second or third one making the same hot sound, but I know it’s a single bird. He doesn’t always stop to do other things before starting again.

The dove cooed softly to the other doves, eating the many different seeds I had put in the bird feeder this morning. I watched as they gathered around the food, almost in a civilized manner, taking turns eating the stale seeds. The fluttered their white feathers, hopping around and looking every now and then for any signs of danger. I held very still, watching them from the window. Suddenly, a noisy cardinal came swooping down towards the bird feeder, spooking the doves a bit. The cardinal, and a few others of its kind, started colonizing the food. The doves quickly moved away, letting the scary red birds eat. These birds, I noticed, were a lot different from the doves. They pecked at each other, eager to eat their food. A lot of times, they would quickly snap their heads around, looking for every other bird that wanted their food. I thought the doves were much better.

Stretching her arms, she yawned. A bird dropped by her right on the benched. She shoo’ed it away.

“What a fine morning,” she said.

Her eyes dropped and her head started falling down. A bird perched on her head and she jerked right up.

“Shoo.” Her hand waved it away. It titled it’s tiny little head at her. “Shoo, you stupid bird, shoo.”

She yawned again. The bird flew away.

The fresh wind blew again and she found her eyes started closing again. She rested her head on the soft cradle of the bench. The birds were chirping. She breathed slowly and deep.

One deep inhale. One deep exhale. One deep inhale. Hold. One deep exhale. Hold.

A bird fluttered by her hands. She continued breathing. The bird danced towards her shoulders. Exhale.

She heard more flutters of wings. Inhale. Louder chirps. The bird on her hand stopped moving. It scratched softly on her skin. A small smile appeared on her mouth.

Then it pecked at her.

Her eyes shot wide opened. She glared at the bird. Then her eyes raised up as she saw the school of birds surrounding her. They were bobbing their tiny little heads and chirping.

She waved her hands around them. They didn’t move.

“Hell?” she said.

The little bird on her arms scratched her again. A sigh escaped her lips.

“That’s nice,” she said.

The birds started flying away. All that’s left was the bird perched on her hands and about 4 or 5 slowly closing in on her.

She shoved her hands inside her pockets. She found dry stale crackers. She grinned at the birds.

“Okay you dumb birds,” she said as she cracked the crackers in tiny little pieces. She threw the food on the ground. “Here you go!”

The birds didn’t move.

They went closer and she started to look like like kind of feathered weido. She scratched her head.

A cup of steaming coffee appeared before her face.

“Didn’t know you were into Disney stuff,” he said.

She took it and took a sip. “You’re late Jon.”

“Good morning to you too,” he said.

She blinked. She looked around. The birds were already gone.

She frowned. “This coffee stinks.”

Seagulls surround my house. That’s logical, given that I live by the seaside. Yet the profusion of these pseudo-pigeons of the port is more that I could have expected when I moved here.

Driving around the corner, I glimpse a whole flock of seagulls resting on a huge garbage container. I can barely see what’s underneath, for it’s swamped in white and grey feathers. For all the shrieking and flapping those birds make, they are remarkably cool when I drive by. A few of them give me the eye. They’re not afraid of humans; nobody comes to slaughter them; they feed on the overflowing rubbish bins and the discarded remains of fast-food meals. The trail of faeces they leave behind is rivalled only by pigeons’. They are the classic residents of the city, as timeless as the craggy cliffs and the waves.

It’s not unusual for a gull to sit on window sills, engaging in staring contests with humans and their pets. The braver ones fly through open windows, daring to question what lies inside; they get chased out by frightened housewives and immensely loyal cats.

A handful of other species make themselves comfortable in the gulls’ wake. Tiny brown and grey ones picking at invisible crumbs; the occasional blackbird; the ever-present pigeon, who feasts on everything; sparrows which love to hop around instead of fly.

it twaddled on its flimsy feet, looking for its next location as it sat upon the twig of an olive tree. its tail looped around its body and began chirping in a burst of excitement. the evening sun was blocked by a single ball of cloud, there was a gentle breeze which carried with it dry autumn leaves. the bird had already disappeared and it felt empty,

Birds of a feather flock together.

Thats the idiom that comes to mind as I watched the pidgeons gathered on the ground looking for seeds in the grass.

Those wild birds. They risk danger and captivity by coming near humans and for what? For the sake of food.

I cant decide whether thats brave or just stupid.

I smile to myself, remembering a song about about poisoning the pidgeons in the park. I found its dark humor hilarious and it was a well written song.

Pidgeons are so weird, I thought as I watched them take flight when I came a little too close to them. How do they sync their movements so well together. Do they take choreograhy lessons?

I laugh at the idea of birds taking dance lessons from humans. Most likely it was the other way around and humans learned a thing or two about dancing from the pidgeons instead. With their little swaggering bodies, they always looked ready to throw it down and have a dance fight.

Birds have a life of their own. They do not act the same way that people act. The birds rest in the green trees and chirp with each other. As they fly they slap their wings and dive down to the ground below then. Once on the ground they search for bugs, worms and just grass to eat. They search for sticks and once located they grab it and fly into the tree where they have staredt building a nest. Their home will have eggs and soon the eggs will crack and little baby birds craw out of the egg shell and grow up to fly away like their parents to repeat the lives of their parents.

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25 Writing Prompts About Birds

Ever watch a bird soar through the sky and think, “Man, I wish I could be that free?”

Well, maybe you can’t sprout wings yourself , but you can definitely capture that feeling of freedom – on paper!

Birds are fascinating creatures, from the tiniest hummingbird to the majestic eagle.

They’ve inspired artists and storytellers for centuries, and guess what?

They can inspire you too.

Whether you’re a seasoned writer or just starting out, these bird-themed prompts are sure to spark your imagination and get those creative juices flowing.

So grab your notebook, settle in for a comfy writing session, and let’s take flight!

25 Writing Prompts about Birds

• An unexpected friendship : Imagine a world where humans have the ability to understand and converse with birds. One day, a young girl befriends a rare bird species which leads her into a path of environmental activism. In your story, explore the development of this unique friendship and how it impacts the young girl’s life and the environment around her.
• The silent city: In a bustling city that never sleeps, suddenly all the birds vanish. The once vibrant mornings are now eerily quiet, and people start to notice the absence of their feathered friends. Your task is to delve into the mystery of the disappearing birds and reveal the underlying reason behind this phenomenon.
• Memoirs of a migratory bird: Write a story from the perspective of a migratory bird on its first journey across continents. Experience the challenges, the beauty of diverse landscapes, interactions with different species, and the instinctual drive to reach a destination. Your focus should be on the internal and external journey of this migratory bird and how it perceives the world.
• The last song of the extinct bird: In a future where a specific bird species has gone extinct, scientists discover a way to recreate their song through pieced-together recordings. This song sparks an emotional reaction worldwide. Your narrative should revolve around the global impact of this last song and how it influences decisions related to conservation.
• The Birdman: Consider a story about a lonely man known as the “Birdman” who has the uncanny ability to heal injured birds. His quiet life is upended when a corporation threatens his home , a sanctuary for his avian friends. Examine the struggle between the Birdman’s fight for his friends and the corporate world’s indifference to nature .
• Bird-watcher’s discovery: A veteran bird-watcher in a small town stumbles upon a bird species never seen before. This discovery could potentially change the town’s quiet life and bring in scientists, media , and tourists. Your task is to tell the story of this sudden change and how the bird-watcher and townspeople react to it.
• The Avian Rebellion: In a dystopian world where humans have become overly dependent on advanced technology , birds suddenly begin to exhibit unusual intelligence and seem to be rebelling against human activities. Craft a narrative around these events, shedding light on the consequences of our reliance on technology and the birds’ fight for survival .
• The message carrier: A story set during the time of war where all modern communication methods are inaccessible. A soldier, stranded behind enemy lines, relies on a trained carrier pigeon to deliver a message that could save thousands of lives. Your narrative should focus on the incredible journey of this bird and the suspense around whether it will successfully deliver the message.
• The Bird Whistleblower : Picture a corporate employee who, on her daily park visits, starts communicating with a bird. This bird reveals to her secrets about illegal corporate activities harming the environment. Craft a narrative surrounding how she becomes an unlikely whistleblower, using the information given by her avian informant.
• The Unheard Chirps : A child has the extraordinary ability to hear frequencies of sound that others can’t. One day, he starts hearing the faint chirps of a bird species thought to be silent. Your task is to elaborate on how this child’s ability affects his life and could potentially rewrite ornithological books .
• The Secret Language of Birds : In a world where every bird species speaks a unique and sophisticated language, one scientist makes it her life’s work to understand and document these languages. Your story should explore her arduous journey of learning and the profound knowledge she gains from these feathered creatures.
• The Bird that Saw the Future : A mystical bird in a small rural community is believed to possess the power to foresee the future. Its peculiar behaviors and routines are interpreted as omens. Your narrative should focus on how the bird’s predictions influence the behaviors and beliefs of the community.
• The Lost Parrot : A parrot who has traveled with a nomadic tribe for generations goes missing. The tribe believes that their fortunes are tied to the parrot and embark on a journey to find it. Write a story about this extraordinary journey, illustrating the deep connection between the tribe and the bird.
• The Cursed Crow : A series of unfortunate events befall a town, seemingly triggered by the arrival of a solitary crow. The townsfolk are quick to label the crow as cursed, but a wise old woman suspects there’s more to the story. Explore the truth behind the “cursed crow” and the town’s superstitious beliefs.
• The Bird Photographer’s Dilemma : An award-winning wildlife photographer is on a mission to capture the perfect shot of a rare bird. However, she must face the moral dilemma of prioritizing the bird’s welfare over achieving her goal. Your task is to delve into this dilemma and the consequences of her decision.
• The Swallow’s Nest : A swallow builds its nest every year in the eaves of an old, abandoned house. When the house is slated for demolition, a young boy takes it upon himself to save the bird’s home. Write about the boy’s campaign to save the swallow’s nest and the impact of his actions on his community.
• The Bird of Paradise : In a remote tropical island, a rare bird of paradise is believed to possess magical healing properties. A pharmaceutical company learns about this and tries to capture the bird for its research. Your story should focus on the local community’s effort to protect this sacred bird and their homeland from exploitation.
• Bird’s Eye View : An adventure - loving bird has the unique ability to transmit what it sees to a young girl’s dreams , giving her an exciting view of the world from the skies. However, one day, the bird witnesses a crime. Your story should focus on how the girl uses these dream-visions to solve the crime.
• The Hummingbird’s Garden : A hummingbird finds a once-lush garden now dying due to negligence. The bird decides to rejuvenate the garden and rally other creatures in this effort. Your story should narrate the challenges the hummingbird faces and how this mission brings the garden’s inhabitants together.
• The Falconer’s Legacy : The last falconer in a rural village is eager to pass on his legacy to the new generation. However, he struggles to convince the young people about the importance of this ancient practice in the age of technology. Craft a narrative highlighting the falconer’s struggle to preserve tradition in a rapidly changing world.
• Echo the Mockingbird : A mockingbird named Echo has the uncanny ability to mimic any sound it hears. One day, Echo starts mimicking the whispered secrets of the townsfolk, leading to chaos. Your task is to narrate this humorous and chaotic scenario, while also unraveling the deeper impacts of uncovered secrets.
• The Owl ’s Wisdom : An old owl is regarded as the wise elder in a forest community. When a natural disaster threatens their home, the owl must use its wisdom to lead them to safety. Your story should focus on the owl’s leadership and the various animal characters ’ roles in this crisis.
• The Last Flamingo : In a world ravaged by climate change, a single flamingo’s appearance in a northern city becomes a global sensation. Write a narrative about the various interpretations and reactions this event evokes, underscoring the urgent issue of climate change.
• The Phoenix Rising : A small, fire-ravaged town adopts the mythical Phoenix as a symbol of their resilience. A mysterious , fiery bird’s appearance just as the town is rebuilding sparks hope among the residents. Your story should encapsulate the power of hope and symbolism in the face of adversity .
• The Peacock’s Pride : A proud peacock, known for its splendid display, loses its vibrant feathers due to an illness. Write a tale about the peacock’s journey of overcoming its vanity, rediscovering its worth beyond physical beauty, and inspiring others in its community.

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I'm a writer, words are my superpower, and storytelling is my kryptonite.

How to Write an Essay on Birds: 9 Interesting Areas to Focus

How to write an essay on birds? There are some interesting facts you can write about. Information about birds can be an excellent source for a creative essay. Birds are found in every part of the globe, creating a large variety of species to write about, especially when well-researched. Interesting bird facts can create wonderful topics for an essay, including unique theses that a student can explore and develop an enjoyable piece of writing.

When writing an essay about birds, it’s important to consider researching these facts, especially their biological composition. For instance, one can write an essay about birds by highlighting some distinguishing characteristics between bird species. This type of writing would be most interesting in English, particularly due to the distinctive nature of scientific descriptions. You can also include a short note about their biological differences in each section to make the essay more appealing.

Interesting Facts for Writing an Essay on Birds

Feather distinction.

One of the most interesting topics for an essay on birds is their feather diversity. Birds have distinctive appearances in structure, order, and color. Feather distinction is one of the distinguishing characteristics between species. However, some species have different colors based on various biological and environmental factors. For instance, some bird species have distinctive differences between the feathers of a male and a female. In other cases, the differences may appear disorderly but are worth investigating.

Migration marvels and global distribution

Some bird species are migratory, traveling between regions, even continents. Since the migrations coincide with seasons, they create some migration marvels worth writing about. For instance, seagulls migrate between winter and summer, running from the cold weather. During their travels, the birds create awesome displays of their traveling routines, mating habits, and hunting traditions. This topic is most suitable for nature lovers, people willing to investigate many species for their beauty and scientific facts.

Nesting prowess

You can also write an essay on birds based on their architectural techniques. Birds build their nests differently depending on their size, primary predators, and location. While the weaverbird prefers loosely hanging tree branches, the penguin can only nest on the ground near mountains and ocean shores. The structure and composition of the nest also differ significantly, creating an array of architectural designs to compare. Any person interested in birds understands the importance of a nest, especially during mating and incubation.

Egg laying facts

Birds are oviparous or egg-laying animals in English. Different species lay different egg sizes, colors, and shapes. They have distinctive characteristics based on their egg-laying habits, including location and responsibility. Some birds, such as the Cuckoo , exhibit parasitic behaviors in brooding. They lay their eggs in other birds’ nests, forcing the foster parents to incubate a foreign egg and feed an adopted chick afterward. Egg-laying habits can be quite an impressive topic for an essay on birds, especially due to the amount of scientific evidence available online.

Sociocultural rituals

Another interesting concept you can write about birds is their social lives. Like humans and any other living thing, birds socialize on different occasions. Some live in large groups, while others are loaners. However, all birds have distinctive mating rituals. Some specials engage in colorful, elaborate courtship traditions. They display marvelous moves to attract mates, using their wings and, in some cases, their avian architectural prowess to assert dominance. Birds engage in long relationships that resemble marriage in humans. The bald eagle is a good example of a bird species that marries or mates for life. The differences in sociocultural behaviors can create an amazing topic for a good essay.

Cognitive capacity

Some bird species are worth writing essays about, especially those that have shown high intelligence. Students can investigate intellectual abilities in birds to find impressive topics for their term papers and final research. You can even hire an experienced academic writer to help with the information gathering and drafting. For instance, CustomWritings professional essay writing service is a prominent helper with over ten years of experience supporting students’ journeys. While intelligent avian is attractive, finding accurate and reliable supporting evidence on such a topic can be daunting. With professional assistance, you can access scholarly articles and integrate findings from research in your essay on birds.

Vocal abilities

Birds are also known for their vocalization capabilities. While students cannot transcribe bird songs into writing, investigations into singing abilities can constitute a good essay. Most importantly, one can research birds’ ability to vocalize or mimic different sounds. Some bird species are known for their vocalization, especially when imitating humans and other birds. Others can produce relatively unique sounds, making them an attractive piece of marvel for analysis.

Scholars and researchers tend to focus on the biological differences between birds. Notably, biologists have invested significantly in understanding the genetic differences for classification and knowledge gathering. With this information, students can develop exciting topics for their essays or end-term research papers. Another interesting point of focus is the survival instincts and abilities of birds. While some species rely on camouflage for safety, others are birds of prey. The details about each bird’s genetics can help explain distribution and preferences.

Life expectancy

Similarly, the biological differences explain the differences in life expectancy. It’s difficult to ascertain the length of life in wild birds due to constant migration. However, scientific evidence suggests that some birds live longer than others. A good essay writer would consider analyzing the reasoning behind these differences and identify genetic and environmental characteristics affecting the length of life.

How Do I Write an Essay on Birds?

The best approach for writing an essay on birds involves conducting sufficient research. A good student would start by identifying an interesting fact to write about birds and research it. The information gathered from the knowledge search can then be used to create a comprehensive essay topic with a compelling thesis. The interesting facts about birds can also be a good hook for the introduction. The essay on birds should be organized professionally, adopting a basic paper structure with an introduction, body, and conclusion.

Writing an essay on birds should also incorporate scientific and scholarly evidence. A good writer understands the need to integrate external sources with supporting and counterarguments. This approach will make your essay more interesting to read and easy to grade. Your professor may be impressed by your capacity to research a wild topic and investigate evidence found in scholarly works. Besides, supporting your arguments with reliable and verifiable arguments makes your writing believable. You can also impress the reader with ideas corroborating your knowledge of birds. For instance, you can integrate information about mating in an essay about birds’ vocal abilities to demonstrate a connection between the two issues. In the end, your essay about birds should be compelling and informative.

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Animal Writing Prompts: Explore Creatures Through Words

My name is Debbie, and I am passionate about developing a love for the written word and planting a seed that will grow into a powerful voice that can inspire many.

Priming Your Imagination: Unleash Your Creativity with Animal Writing Prompts

Exploring the animal kingdom: using writing prompts to discover fascinating creatures, connecting with nature: engage with wildlife through animal writing prompts, crafting compelling characters: using animal writing prompts to develop unique protagonists, why should you consider animal-inspired metaphors, from fact to fiction: transforming animal facts into captivating stories, delving into animal emotions: exploring the depths of creature narratives through writing prompts, frequently asked questions, closing remarks.

Need a boost of inspiration to ignite your creative writing? Look no further! Our animal writing prompts are designed to transport you to the captivating world of furry, feathered, and scaly creatures. Whether you’re an aspiring writer or simply enjoy the art of storytelling, these prompts will unleash your imagination and bring out the hidden wordsmith in you.

Dive into the wildlife kingdoms or explore the depths of your imagination as you channel your thoughts into captivating stories, poems, or even journal entries. Let the animal writing prompts be your guide as you embark on an adventure where the boundaries of reality blend with the magic of your words.

• Spark your creativity: Our collection of animal writing prompts is carefully crafted to ignite your creativity by offering unique and thought-provoking scenarios . From describing the daily life of a mischievous squirrel to imagining a conversation between two unlikely animal pals, these prompts will push the boundaries of your imagination.
• Unleash unlimited possibilities: With animal writing prompts, the possibilities are boundless. Choose your protagonist from a diverse range of animals and spin tales that span across different genres. Whether you want to embark on a quest with a heroic lion or craft a suspenseful mystery with a curious cat, the power to explore limitless storylines is entirely in your hands.
• Connect with emotions: Animals have the ability to evoke a wide range of emotions within us. Our animal writing prompts encourage you to tap into these emotional connections and craft narratives that stir both the heart and the mind. Discover the bittersweet complexities of a hummingbird’s journey or delve into the loyalty of a faithful dog, allowing your readers to feel a deep connection with your characters.

When it comes to unraveling the mysteries of Mother Nature, few things capture our curiosity like the diverse and captivating creatures that inhabit our planet. From the humblest insects to the mighty apex predators, the animal kingdom is an endless source of fascination. By utilizing writing prompts , we can embark on a thrilling journey of exploration and discovery, delving deeper into the lives of these incredible beings that share our world.

Writing prompts offer a unique opportunity to delve into the intricacies of the animal kingdom. They encourage us to research, reflect, and express our understanding in a creative and engaging manner. Whether it’s imagining the world from the perspective of a migratory bird or pondering the survival strategies of nocturnal creatures, writing prompts prompt us to think critically and expansively about the animals that surround us.

Looking for a creative way to connect with nature and engage with wildlife? Look no further! Our animal writing prompts are designed to inspire your imagination and help you dive deep into the world of animals. Whether you’re an aspiring writer or simply enjoy the therapeutic benefits of writing, these prompts will ignite your creativity and bring you closer to the wonders of the natural world.

Exploring habitats: Discover the awe-inspiring beauty of different habitats and the unique animals that call them home. From the lush rainforests of the Amazon to the icy tundra of the Arctic, these prompts will transport you to the heart of these habitats and allow you to visualize the sights, sounds, and smells of each location. Immerse yourself in the wonders of the world, from the vibrant mosaic of a coral reef to the vast expanse of a savannah, and let your words paint a vivid picture that captures the essence of these habitats.

Celebrating animal diversity: Animals come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, each with their own fascinating characteristics and behaviors. Explore the incredible diversity of the animal kingdom through our writing prompts. Dive into the intriguing world of exotic creatures like the graceful cheetah or the playful dolphins and imagine their lives and interactions. Step into the shoes of endangered species and raise awareness about their plight, or create mythical creatures inspired by the natural world. The possibilities are endless, and these prompts will guide you in celebrating the beauty and complexity of wildlife.

Creating memorable protagonists is essential in captivating readers and bringing your story to life. One effective way to develop unique and engaging characters is by using animal writing prompts. By exploring the behaviors, traits, and characteristics of various animals, you can infuse your protagonists with depth, complexity, and relatability.

Here are a few ways animal writing prompts can help you craft compelling characters:

• Unveiling distinct personalities: Animals possess a wide range of personalities, from cunning foxes to loyal elephants. By emulating these traits in your protagonist, you can give them an intriguing personality that readers will connect with.
• Depicting physical attributes: Animals have unique physical features that can shape your character’s appearance, such as a lion’s majestic mane or a peacock’s vibrant feathers. Incorporating these distinctive traits can boost your character’s visual appeal and make them stand out.
• Exploring instincts and behaviors: Animals exhibit fascinating instincts and behaviors that can add depth to your characters. Whether it’s a wolf’s pack mentality or a spider’s web-spinning prowess, integrating these elements can reveal intriguing aspects of your protagonist’s personality and motivations.

By utilizing animal writing prompts, you can unlock a world of inspiration to create protagonists that are captivating, multi-dimensional, and leave a lasting impression on your readers. So, embrace the wild and let the animal kingdom guide your character development!

Unlocking the Magic of Metaphor: Enhance Your Writing with Animal-inspired Descriptions

In the world of writing, words have the power to transport readers to new dimensions. One of the most captivating tools at a writer’s disposal is the use of metaphors. Metaphors allow us to paint vivid pictures by comparing one thing to another. And what better way to unlock the magic of metaphor than by drawing inspiration from the fascinating animal kingdom?

Animals possess unique characteristics that can add depth and richness to our words. Whether it’s the fierce determination of a lion, the graceful elegance of a swan, or the resilient nature of an ant, incorporating animal-inspired descriptions can effortlessly enhance your writing. By using metaphors that evoke the essence of different animals, writers can captivate their audience, evoke emotions, and create a more engaging experience.

• Vibrant imagery: Animals offer a palette of vibrant images that can bring your writing to life. By describing a character as having the agility of a cheetah or the cunning of a fox, readers will easily visualize the traits you’re trying to convey.
• Emotional resonance: Animals often evoke strong emotions in us, and when carefully chosen, animal metaphors can have a similar effect on readers. An innocent doe standing in a meadow can symbolize vulnerability, while the gracefulness of a dolphin leaping through the waves can evoke feelings of freedom and joy.
• Symbolism and cultural references: Animals hold significant symbolic meanings across various cultures and literary traditions. By using animal-inspired metaphors, writers can tap into these universal symbols and add layers of depth and meaning to their work.

Unlock the power of metaphor by exploring the vast animal kingdom. Enhance your writing with the enchanting allure of animal-inspired descriptions as you embark on a journey to captivate and enthrall your readers.

When it comes to creating captivating stories about animals, there is a wealth of fascinating facts waiting to be transformed into tales that will captivate readers young and old. By converting these facts into engaging fiction, we have the power to transport our audience into a world filled with extraordinary creatures and imaginative adventures.

One effective way to transform animal facts into captivating stories is by anthropomorphizing the animals. Giving human traits, such as emotions and personalities, to the animal characters adds depth and relatability to the story. This allows readers to connect with the characters on an emotional level, making the narrative more engaging. For example, instead of a simple description of how a cheetah runs, we can create a character who dreams of being the fastest in the animal kingdom and embarks on a thrilling race against other creatures.

• Create a unique world: To truly captivate readers, it’s essential to build a unique world where animals live, interact, and face challenges. This can be a fantasy realm, an altered version of our own world, or even a completely imaginary universe. Use vivid descriptions, rich imagery, and attention to detail to transport readers to this new reality.
• Weave in moral dilemmas: Exploring ethical and moral questions is a powerful way to engage readers. By integrating dilemmas into the animal characters’ journeys, such as choosing between personal gain or helping others, we can not only entertain but also foster empathy and critical thinking.

So, let your imagination run wild, and let the animal facts inspire you to create captivating stories filled with wonder, excitement, and meaningful messages. By transforming facts into fiction, we can open up a world of possibilities that will leave readers eager to embark on animal-centric journeys time and time again.

Animals are often portrayed as mysterious creatures with their own internal worlds and emotions. Writing about animal emotions can provide a unique perspective into the depths of their narrative and offer a deeper understanding of their complex lives. Through the use of writing prompts, we can delve into the rich tapestry of animal emotions and explore the fascinating stories that lie within.

Writing prompts can serve as powerful tools to unlock our creativity and imagination. They can help us step into the shoes of animals, allowing us to empathize with their experiences and emotions. By using prompts specifically designed to explore animal emotions, we can challenge ourselves to think beyond our own human perspectives and embrace the vast array of emotions that exist in the animal kingdom.

• Discover the hidden stories: Writing prompts can help us uncover the untold tales of animals, shedding light on their experiences and emotions. Through imaginative storytelling, we can bring their narratives to life.
• Develop empathy: Stepping into the perspectives of animals can foster empathy and compassion. By understanding their emotions, we can better advocate for their well-being and create a deeper connection with the natural world.
• Expand our understanding: Exploring animal emotions through writing prompts allows us to broaden our knowledge and challenge preconceived notions. It opens our minds to the diverse range of emotions and experiences that animals possess.

So, grab a pen and paper, or your preferred writing tool, and embark on a journey into the intricate tapestry of animal emotions. Through writing prompts, we can engage our imaginations, give voice to the voiceless, and uncover the captivating narratives that exist within the animal kingdom.

Q: What are animal writing prompts? A: Animal writing prompts are creative ideas or topics that revolve around animals, encouraging writers to explore and express their thoughts and ideas through words.

Q: Why should I use animal writing prompts? A: Animal writing prompts provide an exciting platform to ignite your imagination and creativity. They allow you to delve into the fascinating world of animals, discover their unique characteristics, and develop your writing skills.

Q: How can animal writing prompts be beneficial? A: Animal writing prompts can stimulate your creative thinking by prompting you to observe and appreciate the diversity of the animal kingdom. They enhance your descriptive writing abilities and help you develop a deep understanding of animal behavior and traits.

Q: Who can benefit from animal writing prompts? A: Animal writing prompts are suitable for anyone with an interest in animals, whether you are an aspiring writer looking to practice your skills, a student seeking inspiration for an assignment, or simply someone who enjoys exploring the natural world through writing.

Q: What kind of topics can be covered in animal writing prompts? A: Animal writing prompts can focus on a wide range of topics, such as describing the appearance of a specific animal, imagining the life of a rare species, creating a fictional story based on animal characters, or even expressing emotions and perspectives from an animal’s point of view.

Q: Are animal writing prompts only for fiction? A: No, animal writing prompts are not limited to fiction. They can be equally valuable for nonfiction writing, encouraging you to research and share your knowledge on various animal-related subjects, like environmental conservation, animal behavior, or even personal experiences with animals.

Q: Can animal writing prompts be used for educational purposes? A: Absolutely! Animal writing prompts can be a fantastic tool for educators to engage students with the natural world and develop their writing skills. They can be incorporated into lesson plans, creative writing exercises, or as a means to explore scientific concepts in an engaging way.

Q: Where can I find animal writing prompts? A: Animal writing prompts can be found in various sources, such as writing blogs, educational websites, or creative writing books. Additionally, numerous online writing communities offer platforms where writers can share and find animal-related prompts to spark their creativity.

Q: Any tips for using animal writing prompts effectively? A: Certainly! To make the most out of animal writing prompts, it’s essential to embrace your curiosity and take the time to research and observe animals. Use vivid imagery and sensory language to bring your ideas to life. Don’t be afraid to explore various genres and experiment with different perspectives to unleash your creativity.

Q: Can animal writing prompts be used for group activities? A: Yes, animal writing prompts can be fantastic for group activities. They can be used as discussion-starters, collaborative storytelling exercises, or as prompts for group writing projects. Exploring animals through words together can foster teamwork, encourage diverse perspectives, and create an enjoyable and educational experience.

Incorporating animal-themed writing prompts allows us to delve into the fascinating world of creatures, fostering creativity and enhancing our understanding of the animal kingdom. So, let your imagination soar and discover the power of words in illuminating our connection with these majestic beings.

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Writing Resources: Bird by Bird

by Melissa Donovan | Dec 28, 2021 | Writing Resources | 2 comments

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

Bird by Bird is a classic book on writing. You’ll hear about it in writer circles, at workshops, and it will appear on book lists by some of your favorite authors. This book had been sitting on my to-read list for years by the time I got around to reading it, and now I can see why it’s so popular.

“One of the gifts of being a writer is that it gives you an excuse to do things, to go places and explore. Another is that writing motivates you to look closely at life…as it lurches by and tramps around.” — Anne Lamott,  Bird by Bird

When I read books on the craft of writing, I’m looking for one of two things: I want to learn something new that helps me improve my writing, or I want to be inspired and motivated to get some writing done.

In the first few days of reading this book, I got a lot of writing done! Every time I finished reading a chapter or two, I would hurry over to my desk and type furiously. So this book definitely fulfilled one of my two criterion for what makes a good book on the craft of writing.

Overview of Bird by Bird

“There are a lot of us, some published, some not, who think the literary life is the loveliest one possible, this life of reading and writing and corresponding. We think this life is nearly ideal.” – Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

The full title of this book is Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life . It’s part writing advice, part memoir. However, the memoir material is different than what you find in Stephen King’s On Writing , which focuses on his life as a writer, whereas Lamott delves into her personal life, sometimes sharing stories that relate to her career and experiences as an author and other times sharing stories from her life that are unrelated to writing, although she might have used them in her writing.

This is a useful book for general-purpose creative writing, with chapters that cover first drafts, false starts, writer’s block, and knowing when you’re done. This book also does a good job conveying information about the life of a writer, although it’s only one writer’s experience and certainly not representative of all.

Most of the material is applicable to various forms of writing, but there is a slight emphasis on writing fiction and memoir, with chapters on character and dialogue and various bits of advice about drawing from your lived experiences for writing projects.

As a traditionally published author, Lamott offers some useful anecdotes about her experiences with agents, editors, and publishers. These aren’t presented explicitly as career advice, but they do offer some valuable insight. For the most part,  Bird by Bird focuses on craft rather than the publishing and marketing side of things.

I’ve read dozens of books on the craft of writing. At some point, you stop picking up new bits of advice that you can apply to your writing. For me, it’s getting harder to find new insights about general, creative writing. That doesn’t mean I don’t have anything to learn — there’s always more to learn! But I’ve already picked up (and integrated) most of the general advice floating around out there. So for me, a book like this serves as a refresher. Therefore I think it will provide fresh wisdom for newer writers while providing reminders for more experienced authors.

And refreshers are necessary. I’ve often been perusing a book on the craft and come across some bit of writing wisdom that I’ve known for a while, but I’ll gain a deeper understanding of it, or I’ll realize that it’s just the technique or method that I need for some project I’m currently developing.

“You must risk placing real emotion at the center of your work. Write straight into the emotional center of things. Write toward vulnerability. Don’t worry about appearing sentimental. Worry about being unavailable; worry about being absent or fraudulent. Risk being unliked. Tell the truth as you understand it. If you’re a writer — you have a moral obligation to do this. And it is a revolutionary act — truth is always subversive.” — Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird

Although I found this book inspiring and motivating, some sections felt dated (referring to late-night talk-show hosts of the 1990s); and some of the jokes either fell flat for me, or I would find myself wondering if something was meant to be taken literally or as a joke. Having said that, I got a lot out of this book. I found the personal stories interesting, and as mentioned earlier, the book made me want to do some writing — and that’s always beneficial.

Bird by Bird

I would definitely recommend  Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life   to anyone who’s interested in creative writing. Whether you’re looking for tidbits about the life of a writer, seeking new writing tips and techniques, or just want some inspiration and motivation to fuel your writing, you’re sure to find something useful within the pages of this book.

Get your copy at Amazon

I think you are spot on eith your review. It has been years since I read Lamott and then I did so reluctantly. When I finished, I was sorry about procrastinating. I thought then that what I got was not so much about craft (not like I got from King, who cites Lamott) but morale building and writing differed from publishing.

I think there’s often expectation from craft books to learn a bunch of new things about the craft, but sometimes we just get refreshers or inspiration or insight into other writers’ processes, all of which are valuable. Thanks, Samuel!

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Birds and Nature in Poetry

BirdNote Gallery

BirdNote is thrilled to feature poets who write about our feathered friends. Assistant producer Mark Bramhill spoke with Traci Brimhall and Sidney Wade about their work and their love of birds. Check out these new BirdNote stories — and meet the poets who inspired them.

Blue While birding in Florida, Sidney Wade discovers something new and unexpected about the Double-crested Cormorant. Her poem, Blue , captures the sense of wonder in that moment.

Intimacy and the Everyday In this extended episode — featuring three poems — Traci Brimhall shows how poetry can bring us closer to nature.

Remembering Mary Oliver Traci Brimhall honors the life and work of fellow poet Mary Oliver by reading Oliver's poem, Wild Geese .

Meet our featured poets:

Sidney Wade

Sidney Wade is a poet, translator, and professor residing in Gainesville, Florida. Her most recent collection of poems is called Bird Book .

“I’ve always loved nature,” Sidney says. “Landscape is an incredibly important motif in my work.” And birds have been central to that motif — for much longer than she realized.

“When I was putting together Bird Book , I included a few poems that I’d written earlier because they were about birds,” Sidney recalls. “It was stunning to me to go back through my earlier books and see how many times birds appeared in my poems, even before I became obsessed with them.”

While birds appear so often in poetry as to be almost cliché, Sidney points to an even more common subject: love.

She says writing about love is, “absolutely fresh and new, as long as the voice is distinctive. [It’s the] same thing with birds. I think it’s the individual poet’s distinctive voice that makes all the difference.”

For Sidney, listening to birds helps inform that distinctive voice in her poetry.

“Sounds mean a lot to me,” she says. “When I go out by myself, I pretty much go out bird listening rather than bird watching, because sometimes I have a very hard time seeing them. But I have come to know the songs and the call notes and the chips of a great many birds.”

Learn more about Sidney Wade and her work at http://www.sidneywade.com .

Traci Brimhall

A native of Minnesota, Traci Brimhall is an assistant professor of creative writing at Kansas State University. Her first published collection, Rookery , features many poems about birds.

“Birds just seem to have a kind of spiritual or symbolic weight,” Traci explains. “They feel somehow ancient or ethereal – timeless in a way, and I think poets are often attracted to things that have that sort of feeling.”

But her interest in birds began with a common bird, the Red-winged Blackbird. “Perhaps that's part of the greatness of common things,” she says. “They’re so accessible, so ever-present.”

Mary Oliver’s Wild Geese is one of the first poems Traci ever memorized — and one of the few that she can still recite by heart. Traci says geese are “a touchstone for most people. We know them, we’ve watched them migrate, we’ve heard their calls announcing the change in the seasons. And in this poem, they’re telling us we have a place in the family of things.”

Mary Oliver passed away on January 17, 2019, leaving a legacy of evocative writing about the natural world.

“While I grieve her passing and it is a loss for the new poems that won’t be made, there’s still such a beautiful and generous abundance of what she has already given us,” Traci says. “I think she gave us tons of beauty and love and affirmation in her poems.”

Learn more about Traci Brimhall and her work at https://tracibrimhall.wordpress.com .

This series is made possible by the generous support of Jim and Birte Falconer of Seattle, Idie Ulsh, the Horizons Foundation, and many individual donors who believe in the power of great stories to help tune listeners in to nature. To help BirdNote produce more shows like these, please make your gift today . You can make a difference for birds and for the future of our shared environment. Thank you.

Photo credits: Double-crested Cormorant © Nick Shere CC Canada Geese © Mike Hamilton

More About These Birds

Double-crested cormorant (phalacrocorax auritus), canada goose (branta canadensis).

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19,898 quotes, descriptions and writing prompts, 4,964 themes

birdsong - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

• beauty of nature quotes
• birds in The sky
• conservation
• garden birds
• hummingbird
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• swooping bird

At the dawntide the manor roof was alive with the compendium of the birds, for in their song was their rich emotional intelligence told to anyone capable of real listening.

The kitchen table cools my palms as the warm brown hues rekindle my soul on this and every day. It is the steady companion to the aroma of freshly baked bread and the birdsong that flutters in from the garden beyond.

The birdsong was the river of the air, a flowing music that hydrated our parched souls.

Into the gentle airwaves they gave their song, those tiny friends of feather that adorned the sky.

Birdsong comes sweet and high, the soprano to the other sounds of the daytime. I feel them as auditory smiles and expressions of joy, those communications of the birds.

Through my bedroom window comes the brightness of the dayshine, that boldness that lifts my spirits. The chorus of the birds drifts in as steady ocean waves, only their melody is dancing. In a moment the tune can fly so high and resettle, an auditory version of how they play upon wing. I move toward it, feeling the light reach my skin and my eyes adjust to its brilliance. I let reach out with my hand and lean on the white gloss frame, notice the subtle pattern on the glass of raindrops that came and dried.

Here comes the birdsong, the laughter of our winged friends. I listen to the melody - rising, swooping, resting, just as birds do. Every movement that is so natural to them is reflected in their tune, the way they turn their heads with gentle precision, hop upon branches and dive into the garden air. It is their orchestra and opera, a salutation from above as we naked bipeds walk below.

The birdsong comes as jazz, softly floating and free; notes never written dancing as steps never taught. Each sound-bouquet came as a sculpture, one that can only come from soul born to an infinite horizon, never tainted by the cruelty of a cage. Perhaps that's why Ella loved it so, for she knew joy when they sang it, she knew joy was possible in the world.

Birds trill, sweetly high, the chorus as playful as the birds themselves. With closed eyes, I imagine their music to be colours, painting stairs in the same way grapevines grow - this way and that, in a beautiful chaos that isn't quite random. In the calm of the day, my heartbeat is the steady drum to their melody and I seep into the moment, allowing myself to climb those rainbow stairs.

Through the percussion of the rain comes the birdsong, each a music to the other, together an opera only nature gives. The sweet melody is the heart of the bird, freely given. As our work is our love made visible, so this song is theirs, flowing into the air. There is something about it that brings deeper breath into my lungs, brings my own heart to a steady rhythm. In that moment I am so thankful with everything that I am for a sky full of birds and chance to be alive.

The birdsong drifts as well as any summertime pollen. It comes as magical as any flute, as improvised as deep south jazz, and as soulful as love's kiss. In that moment I am present, feet still and heart open.

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Symbols in writing: Birds

Posted March 20, 2015 by Elizabeth & filed under Books for Kids , General writing , Inspiration , Writing . | Add Comment

Focus on your task.

Animals make excellent symbols in writing and my children love books and stories about animals. One of their favorite stories is a little one I tell them about my guardian hawk. The hawk lives in the small copse, or group of trees, that borders our property. There are lots of tasty rodents for the hawk to enjoy in our area including chipmunks and squirrels, as well as the occasional snake surprise.

I love to include symbols in writing, and birds make excellent symbols. As your child reads books or writes their own stories, talking about symbols in writing is a great way to increase their understanding of the text. It can also fuel creativity in their other work.

I typically use birds as symbols based on the roles they play in Western culture, but with a little research it’s possible to introduce knowledge about other cultures using birds. Here are four birds that my boys and I feel might symbolize us.

Let’s start my personal favorite, the hawk. I recently read that hawks can symbolize a person’s ability to soar over obstacles, to see the big picture, and to take action when the time is right. Hawks can also symbolize messages from the spirit world. If I were to use a hawk as a symbol in writing, I would use it as a guardian figure or possibly a judge.

My youngest son has chosen the blue jay as his bird symbol. This bird has a lot of meaning to Native American cultures and is very curious and represents people with the “gift of gab.” The blue color of the blue jay against a blue sky represents double clarity of vision in the Sioux tribe. If I were to use the jay as a symbol in writing, I think I’d use it to represent a curious child or an inventor figure.

My middle son told me to think of him whenever I see a blackbird. This symbol is well-known to me from Irish myths and legends because it is associated with Morrigan, the goddess of war. It is a gruesome image, but blackbirds are seen as harbingers, or warnings, of coming battle. They are also seen in the awful aftermath of battles. But blackbirds, be they ravens or crows, have a different meaning to the New World peoples who see them as creators. They are creatures of high intelligence but are not above using trickery. As a symbol in writing I tend to see the blackbird as ominous, powerful and something to be respected.

I’m not sure if my oldest chose the duck as his symbol or if he was assigned this particular bird. I can’t help but laugh when I think of it. Our list starts with a majestic bird of prey the hawk, then moves to a colorful curious jay, then the dark, mysterious blackbird and ends with the comical, practical duck. At least, that’s how I would use a duck as a symbol in writing. But is that really what ducks represent?

One meaning of the duck is freedom, the ability to move through air, land and water. Ducks also live in communities and could symbolize group work rather than individual action. Ducks in dreams might be a warning that danger is coming. Don’t be a sitting duck!

There are so many different ways to use symbols in writing and these are just a small sample. Take a look at how other cultures view these birds and other birds. Birds can add depth and meaning to a simple tale.

Do you use birds as symbols in writing? What symbols in writing do you like to use?

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Improvised Life

a treasury of inspiring ideas

Bird by Bird: Anne Lamott’s Instructions for Writing and LIFE

Thirty years ago my older brother, who was ten years old at the time, was trying to get a report on birds written that he’d had three months to write, which was due the next day. We were out at our family cabin in Bolinas, and he was at the kitchen table close to tears, surrounded by binder paper and pencils and unopened books on birds, immobilized by the hugeness of the task ahead. Then my father sat down beside him, put his arm around my brother’s shoulder, and said, “Bird by bird, buddy. Just take it bird by bird.”

It has been our greatest lesson: Break big, overwhelming projects down to small pieces and take them one at a time, bird-by-bird, and eventually, you’ll end up with something substantial (and possibly quite magically different than you imagined).

Lamott addresses the creative person’s biggest hurdle and thwarter, Perfectionism:

Perfectionism is a mean, frozen form of idealism, while messes are the artist’s true friend. What people somehow (inadvertently, I’m sure) forgot to mention when we were children was that we need to make messes in order to find out who we are and why we are here — and, by extension, what we’re supposed to be writing. …Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people. It will keep you cramped and insane your whole life, and it is the main obstacle between you and a shitty first draft.

Perfectionism might keep you from starting, from making the great mess that will take you some where. Going bird-by-bird is the antidote and path around —or through.

But our absolute favorite bit of our very post-it-ed copy of  Bird by Bird  is this story, for its utterly wise last line:

My Al-Anon friend told me about the frazzled, defeated wife of an alcoholic man who kept passing out on the front lawn in the middle of the night. The wife kept dragging him in before dawn so that the neighbors wouldn’t see him, until finally an old black woman from the South came up to her one day after a meeting and said, ‘Honey? Leave him lay where Jesus flang him.’ 

We’ve learned the hard way that getting “flanged” is the way we get anywhere new, change, transform. As the great Anne Herbert so perfectly put it:   Fling and be flung and find the life in your life.

Check out The Adjacent Possible: Birds as Musical Notes

If you’ve found illumination, joy, or inspiration in this post, please consider supporting Improvised Life. It only takes a minute to make a secure donation that helps pay our many costs. A little goes a long way towards helping Improvised Life continue to live ad-free in the world.

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November 8, 2021 by Grace Enriquez

Elevating Procedural Writing and the Creative Spirit in How to Make a Bird

November 8, 2021 by Grace Enriquez   Leave a Comment

CLICK IMAGES TO SEE LARGER VERSION (WHEN AVAILABLE)

Filed under:

How to Make a Bird

Written by Meg McKinlay; Illustrated by Matt Ottley

Published by Candlewick Press, 2021

ISBN #978-1-5362-1526-7

Grades K and up

Book Review

“To make a bird, . . . you will need a lot of very tiny bones.” That statement may seem self-evident and factual, but in Meg McKinlay’s reflective picturebook, How to Make a Bird , what becomes apparent is that the act of creating is much more than a practical process. Written in a gentle, lyrical second-person voice, McKinlay imbues each step with a sense of wonder and magic: “And they will be hollow, these hundreds of bones–so light that when they rest in your palm, you will hardly feel them. These are what will float on air.” It turns out that making a bird, or making anything one cares about, takes more than concrete materials and procedural directions. Though McKinlay doesn’t spell out what that something more is, readers will sense that anyone who designs and builds something meaningful pours part of their heart and being into it. And when our creations take on a literal or metaphorical life of their own, we know they take part of us with them, as we feel our “slowly beating heart fill with a kind of sadness, a kind of happiness.” Matt Ottley’s subdued, naturalistic illustrations emphasize the connection between the physical and the profound, showing a child gathering shells, feathers, rocks, and other items along a sweeping seashore. This inspirational, contemplative, and beautiful book is perfect for various content areas and curricular units that spotlight composing and designing, as well as social-emotional learning about our connection to the material world around us. Speaking not just to the creative spirit, but also the heart and soul within all of us, How to Make a Bird is a manual for infusing that part of us that makes something truly spectacular. 

Meg McKinlay’s introduction to How to Make a Bird

Teaching Ideas and Invitations

Note to our Readers: These ideas are not meant to be prescriptive. Choose one. Choose more. It’s up to you. Some ideas are bigger and will take a number of days to complete. Some are shorter. You can also choose to complete one part of a teaching idea, but not the whole thing. It’s up to you!

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Narrating through Second Person Point-of-View. How to Make a Bird directly addresses the reader through the use of second-person point-of-view narration. Second person is the least common perspective used to narrate texts, but it is often the most captivating for children. Have students try writing a story or revising an already written one using the second person point of view. Make sure to discuss with them why an author might want to use the second person point of view and what effects it has on audiences. Share other texts written in the second person to deepen their understanding of this literary element, such as Locomotive , by Brian Floca; Press Here , by Herve Tullet; the If You Give series by Laura Numeroff; Choose Your Own Adventure Books; or excerpts from Rebecca Stead’s Goodbye, Stranger ; Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Desperaux , and Lemony Snickett’s A Series of Unfortunate Events .

Birdmaking as a Metaphor for the Creative Process . The act of creating something and giving it life is a common motif in children’s literature. To this end, making a bird represents not just the process of creating, but the ways in which those who make and create put their heart and soul into that process. Gather a text set of books that explore the creative process through a metaphor, such as Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building , by Christy Hale; Lines , by Suzy Lee; The Most Magnificent Thing , by Ashley Spires; and the The Dot , Sky Color , and Ish , all by Peter H. Reynolds. Compare and contrast the themes about creating that are conveyed across the books. Then, share information from the Resources Notes that Meg McKinlay and Matt Ottley have compiled about their process of making How to Make a Bird. Finally, have students research the creative processes of some of their favorite artists, designers, and inventors. Compare and contrast what each says about the creative process, and then have your students try out some of the strategies they describe when attempting their next piece of creative writing or artwork.

Making Birds. Matt Ottley’s illustrations suggest that the child in the text makes a bird out of the objects around her. You might want to use this book to introduce a STEAM unit or lesson on making birds out of actual everyday materials. Share some examples of how students might do this, such as creating origami birds with paper or building a bird sculpture with found objects. You might even have them try to design a bird online via Project Beak’s Build a Bird interactive website. Turn your classroom into an aviary for the day, and invite families and the school community in to hear students describe their birds and explain their process of making them.

The Magic in Making. As How to Make a Bird explains, sometimes an extra special something is needed to make a creation transform from a physical object to something extraordinary. This idea that “there is more to a bird than these things you have given it” is a theme that has long run through children’s literature and appears in some popular tales, such as The Adventures of Pinocchio and The Wizard of Oz. Share these tales and other children’s literature examples with students if they’re not already familiar with them. Have students compare and contrast what that “extra special something” is in each tale that made each creation more than the sum of its parts.

Grades 3 and up

Tone and Mood in Procedural Writing. At first glance, How to Make a Bird is an example of procedural, or “how-to” writing, in which the author aims to explain the steps involved in a particular process. While most of the procedural writing students may already be familiar with is matter-of-fact, what makes this text speak to readers on multiple levels is how the language and illustration attend to tone to evoke a particular mood in readers (remember that the mood of a story is the atmospheric and emotional impact it has on readers, while tone is the author’s/illustrator’s outlook and attitude on the topic).  How might the mood of this “how-to” text be changed if McKinlay had used different words or Ottley used different elements in his pictures? Have students write a procedural piece using a specific tone to evoke a certain mood—or have them revisit a piece they have already begun and revise it to really emphasize the mood they want their audience to feel.

Complex Emotions. At the end of the book (and the end of the creative process), McKinlay acknowledges that it’s perfectly common to have mixed feelings “[a]nd feel your slowly beating heart fill with a kind of sadness, a kind of happiness.” Often, children in schools are taught about feeling single emotions, but in reality, they may have felt a complex mix of emotions at the same time. Engage students in a discussion about times when they might have felt different emotions all at once. When did those times happen? What were the emotions they felt? How did they express those feelings? How did they deal with them? You may want to partner with your school’s guidance counselor or psychologist to explore this topic and help students realize that it’s okay and that everyone experiences these moments of complex emotions.

Further Explorations

Online resources.

Meg McKinlay’s website

Matt Ottley’s website

https://mattottley.com/

Meg McKinlay’s and Matt Ottley’s Resource Notes about their creative process

https://megmckinlay.files.wordpress.com/2021/04/resourcenotes_howtomakeabird_download.pdf

Origami Birds

Build a Bird Activity – Natural History Museum at South Kensington, UK

https://www.nhm.ac.uk/take-part/dippy-on-tour/dinosaurs-and-birds-learning-resources/build-a-bird.html

Build a Bird Activity – California Academy of Sciences 

https://www.calacademy.org/sites/default/files/assets/images/Education_Images/YP_Images/birds_guidebook_build_a_bird_web3.pdf

Project Beak – Build a Bird

https://projectbeak.org/adaptations/build.htm

Basic and Complex Emotions

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201806/basic-and-complex-emotions

Floca, B. (2013). Locomotive. New York: Atheneum .

Hale, C. (2012). Dreaming up: A celebration of building . Lee & Low.

Lee, S. (2017). Lines . Chronicle Books.

Reynolds, P. (2003).  The dot . Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Reynolds, P. (2004).  Ish . Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

Reynolds, P. H. (2012). Sky color . Somerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

Stead, R. 2015. Goodbye stranger. Random House.

Spires, A. (2014).  The most magnificent thing. Toronto, ONT: Kids Can Press.

Tullet, H. (2011). Press here . Trans. by. C. Franceschelli. Chronicle Books.

Filed under: Book Reviews , Nonfiction Picture Books , Picture Books

About Grace Enriquez

Grace is an associate professor of language and literacy at Lesley University. A former English Language Arts teacher, reading specialist, and literacy consultant, she teaches and writes about children’s literature, critical literacies, and literacies and embodiment. Grace is co-author of The Reading Turn-Around and co-editor of Literacies, Learning, and the Body .

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Creative Writing

Ruth asawa san francisco school of the arts, about birds.

by Avi Hoen (’15) From the Sarah Fontaine Unit

The world is stupid.  No it’s not.  Well it kind of is.  It sucks sometimes.  When you’re on top of it, it feels awesome.  Not awesome as in “new pair of shades,” but awesome as in, “a bird just gave birth to an elephant.”  That kind of awesome.  But it’s only “elephant-birthing awesome” some days.  Most days, it’s “bird birthing cockroach” awesome.  Not very awesome.

Today the world birthed a bird and that bird birthed another bird so it isn’t very special today.  There are a lot of birds being birthed in the world.  Some birds are awesome and some birds just shit on your car.  A year is like birds.  Each day is an egg.  From each egg you don’t know what kind of bird is going to hatch.  Today could be a “white-throated kingfisher” day, or today’s egg could be scrambled and stuck to the frying pan.  As I said you never know what kind of day it will be.

Birds live on the world, usually they don’t live on top of.  Birds get the short end of the feather.  But know that some bird out there had an amazing day.  Be sure to know it had a great time eating berries and shitting on your car.  The world is full of chain reactions like this.  Bird eats.  Bird shits.  Shit on you.  Bird is happy.  You feel like shit.  You shit on someone.  You feel happy.  Someone feels like shit.  The world is one happy piece of crap.  Get used to it.

I got used to this bird eat bird world when I was little.  I always knew I was an insignificant little red berry, soon to make it into a bigger birds stomach.  Maybe that bird would be Big Bird.  Big Bird taught me the world.  Elmo has one messed up world.  I hope a bird shits on Mr. Noodle.  I take that back, I didn’t watch much TV as a child, probably because most kids shows were like that.  A three-year-old shouldn’t be filling their head with singing cloth puppets.  A three-year-old should be filling their minds with enlightening thoughts, such as Icarus and how trying to be something you’re not is just a stupid waste of time because we are all gonna die and melt away when we get to close to reality.  Sorry, those would be horrible thoughts for a toddler.  Maybe they should keep their minds on T.V. and birds.

When I was little I had a bird feeder.  It hung from the tree.  Then one night a raccoon came and ate all the bird seed.  As I said, birds always get the short end of the branch.  It’s the circle of life though.  Actually it isn’t.  Hardware Store Brand bird seed has no place in something as significant as life.  Except it does.  I eat food from a grocery store too.  I do not partake in the natural circle of things.  Therefor I am a bird.

Life sucks for birds, some days.  Life sucks for me, some days.  It depends what kind of eggs I buy at the grocery store.  Free-Range, Organic, Cage Free.  Life is full of options.  I also have the option of buying the Caged eggs.  Funny how they don’t specify on those packages that the chicken never saw the outside light.  Of course when I shop at the Costco I have all these options and more, but the assumption is made that I am going to feed the entire flock with 18 dozen eggs.  That probably stems to the idea of cannibalism.  It would be a bad idea to feed eggs to birds.  I feel bad for chickens, their young is always sold off, and what isn’t eaten by the humans is given to the pigeons who don’t know what they are eating.  Pigeons truly are “chicken-brained,” I don’t blame them for being content with their stupidity, I wouldn’t want to know if I was eating monkey fetus.  Makes it seem like pigeons have a pretty good life.

Maybe I’m a pigeon and I can peck morsels of Doritos from the sidewalk cracks.  No roses, just chips.  Did you hear about the pigeon that grew from the crack in the concrete.  You probably didn’t because it didn’t actually happen.

A lot of things in life don’t actually happen.  In fact most of the world doesn’t actually happen.  It’s a whole sea of thought, full of fish getting eaten by birds.  What actually happens is just bird shit.  Damn.  Oceans seem pretty bleak now.  I’m sorry for blowing your mind in depressing amazement.

I read some bad rhyming poetry in a book that went “A geek with a beak will have a life that is bleak, don’t be a geek and speak what you think.”  I never actually read that.  I don’t need to cite a source.  Birds probably don’t use quotes, or MLA 7 or APA, or EasyBib.  If I am a bird I can sing my own songs, that I make up in my bird brain and sing them from the branches of the world.  No citation needed.  Unless… do mockingbirds cite what they sing.  No, they probably don’t.  The way they find love is a whole lot of bird shit.  The way people find love is pretty stupid too.  As I said earlier, I am a bird, therefore people are birds, and the world makes the same amount of sense as a fresh splatter of bird shit on the sidewalk.

Birds should probably be recognized because they are related to dinosaur ancestors.  Which is pretty cool.  That’s only if you like dinosaurs.  When I was little I told people Rumpelstiltskin was my great-grandfather.  No one believed me.  I didn’t believe me.  A bird might have trusted my statement for a minute, but even a bird brain is smarter than a  lie.  Besides, birds are related to dinosaurs, that has to count for something.

OK, it probably doesn’t count for much.  I mean, look at how we treat dinosaurs.   When we find a dead one we display it, and when we find a decomposed one, we drive cars.  It might be a double standard.  One day, birds will be the source of petroleum gasoline, and also petroleum jelly.

You know what’s crazy, is that during the oil spill, the birds ancestors, the dinosaurs, killed the birds with their decomposed fossil fuel!  Talk about a great way to avenge your death.  So I guess having dinosaur ancestors is a double-edged sword.

My guess is that birds have a hate-love relationship with swords.  Actually, they probably just hate them.  Swords are only good to kill birds, birds would need opposable thumbs to use them properly.  Video games lie.

As Peter Griffin agrees, “the bird is the word.”  I’m not sure if this has any relevancy to birds and the world, but words are also the world.  Words are the sword that the birds can’t use.  Blue Jays can’t say great words like “hootenanny,” “cautious” or my personal favorite “cooties.”  Despite birds not speaking words, they communicate in their ways.  This enables them to be functional members of society.  Just like you and me.  In fact, I would go so far to say that they are more functional in society then the average human being.  After all, they understand the defiance of gravity.  And if life has taught me anything it’s that gravity brings you down.  Unless you are on the moon.

Scratch that, birds don’t teach us diddly-shit, except what shit is.  WAIT! So, basically if the world is shitty, and birds are the all-mighty creators of shit, then technically speaking birds are god. HOLY SHIT!

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Spartan Alert

Pride and poetry, according to emilia phillips.

Posted on June 25, 2024

On a dreary Thursday night in February, a group gathered at Scuppernong Books in downtown Greensboro for a reading of a new collection of poetry by Emilia Phillips . Phillips had just released their fifth collection of poetry, entitled “Nonbinary Bird of Paradise,” but this was no typical book reading.  

Phillips gathered UNCG students and alumni to read original works and selected text that inspired their latest poems. All in attendance raved about how the reading was a celebration of voices and art and the flow of inspiration. For Phillips, all of this is intertwined.  

An Artist Spreads Their Wings  

A UNCG professor since 2017, Phillips is an associate professor of creative writing where they teach poetry workshops and serve as core poetry faculty for the Masters of Fine Art in Creative Writing . Phillips also has cross-appointments in the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and English departments teaching the Queer Poetry and Poetics class and the Women’s Health and Bodies class to undergraduates.  

Being a poet, a teacher, and a voice for the LGBTQIA+ community is all part of the creative process for Phillips. “I can’t teach poetry unless I’m writing it and vice versa,” she says. “My constant dialogue with students informs my work.”  

“Nonbinary Bird of Paradise” is a prime example of Phillips’ exploratory style of poetry, but this latest collection focuses on gender and the ways cultural, religious and mythological narratives support heterosexuality as “the norm”. 

In “Nonbinary Bird of Paradise,” Phillips’ challenge of compulsory heterosexuality cuts right to the chase. The first section includes twelve poems in the voice of Eve from the Bible. It imagines if Eve wasn’t born straight and was never desiring of Adam but had no other choices of partners. 

“My writing is definitely informed by my own worldview, experience, gender journey and sexuality,” says Phillips, who was raised in Chattanooga, Tennessee. “I couldn’t have written the Eve sequence without getting to a certain point of my own reflections and self-work, but I was nervous when the book came out because it does deal so explicitly with sex and gender and sexuality.”  

The poem that inspired the book’s title is also extremely personal. “It’s a love poem for my partner,” Phillips explains. “I imagined if I was a bird of paradise, how would I woo my partner without the fancy plumage.”  

Phillips admits that most of their poetry is part autobiographical and part creative, but its fiction label opens doors for creative freedom, a principle they encourage in the classroom as well.   

Birds of a Feather Writing Together  

Phillips’ classes provide a safe space for building art and students appreciate the sense of community they find at UNCG’s English department. 

“Emilia prioritizes community not only in the classroom but outside of it too,” second-year MFA student Liz Bruce explains. “We are constantly sharing resources and opportunities and celebrating each other.” 

Recent MFA graduate Kay Zeiss is a private practice therapist working with adults who have experienced trauma. They are particularly dialed into using writing to process trauma. Self-identifying as genderqueer and nonbinary, Zeiss was particularly interested in working under Phillips’ mentorship and thrived in the department. 

“My goal isn’t to become this famous writer,” Zeiss confesses. “I just hope my writing can be of service to someone. Folks are really interested in being able to articulate their experience and find language for something that they didn’t have before. There’s a community and compassion there that I want to help facilitate.” 

Attracting creative minds like this to UNCG is exactly what Phillips had in mind when they joined the English department in 2017. Establishing a close-knit community within a larger campus community, which serves minorities and has historically been a safe place for LGBTQIA+ youth, provided the perfect environment for Phillips’ poetry to take root. 

“Having representation in the classroom and also having representation in my work out in the world is very important to me,” Phillips says. 

Artistic Reflections   

This high regard for representation and community made it natural for Phillips to invite students to share inspirational text at their book reading. “My students are among the most important people in my life,” they said. “Including them made it really festive.”  

“I’ve been to multiple readings at Scuppernong and this one was definitely different in that there was a huge crowd of people there to celebrate,” said Bruce, who read “[Poem about Naomi; unsent]” by Rachel Mennies at Phillips’ book reading. 

Zeiss read an original poem publicly for the first time at Phillips’ reading. “Hymnal to Transqueer Futures” reflects on grief following the death of Nex Benedict and ponders hope for the future of nonbinary and transqueer children. Zeiss dedicated it to Maddie Poole, another writer in attendance.  “I was so honored to be a part of this group,” they said. “It was very tender and sweet to have other people in the MFA program that I care about in this line-up of incredible poets. Reading my poem felt like an offering to the community.”  

Bruce, and others who participated in the event, felt similarly grateful to be a part of Phillips’ unveiling of “Nonbinary Bird of Paradise.” 

“Because of Emilia’s decision to platform multiple voices and multiple authors, they recognize that writing isn’t created in a vacuum,” Bruce says. “It was a celebration of the community as much as the book, because the community influenced the making of the book in so many ways.” 

UNCG has nothing but pride for communities like Emilia Phillips’ that bring art into the world to spur curiosity and impart understanding. We celebrate this during Pride month, as we do throughout the year. 

Story by Becky Deakins, University Communications.   Photography courtesy of Felipe Troncoso  

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Professor kimberly juanita brown writes about the absence of black soldiers in civil war photos.

"The photographic archive of the war is one of astounding substance and meaning but also astounding absence."

John Reekie, "A Burial Party," Cold Harbor, Virginia, 1865. Source: Wikimedia Commons

On Juneteenth, an article by Professor Kimberly Juanita Brown, "The Absence of Black Soldiers in Civil War Photos Speaks Volumes," was published on The MIT Press Reader . You can read the article here .

• Theatre, Film and Creative Writing
• Faculty and Staff

Creative Writing Faculty

Taryn Birdsall

Lecturer: poetry.

Anna Caritj

Assistant professor.

Martin Corless-Smith

Natalie Disney

Adjunct faculty: creative writing.

Christopher Eaton

Lecturer: creative writing.

Clyde Moneyhun

Professor: creative writing program.

Sara Nicholson

Assistant professor: poetry, creative writing.

Mitch Wieland

Director of the mfa program in creative writing, department of theatre, film and creative writing.

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A writing room: the new marketplace of writer classes, retreats, and collectives.

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A Writing Room is one of the fast-growing writer collectives. The four co-founders (left to right): ... [+] Reese Zecchin, Director of Production; Jacob Nordby, Director of Writer Development; A. Ashe, Creative Director; Claire Giovino, Community Director.

The past decade has brought an explosion in the number of books published each year in the United States (an estimated three to four million annually). In turn, this explosion is bringing a growing and evolving marketplace of writer classes, retreats and collectives. It is a marketplace creating new jobs and entrepreneurship opportunities—both for mainstream tech, marketing and managerial workers, as well as for writer/artist denizens of America’s bohemia.

The Drivers of Growth in Book Publishing

The number of book sales in the United States remains healthy, though it has leveled off in the past four years. In 2020, 756.82 million book unit sales were made in the US alone. This number climbed to 837.66 million in 2021, before falling slightly to 787.65 million units in 2022 and 767.36 million units in 2023.

What has changed dramatically has been the number of books published. Steve Piersanti of Berrett-Koehler Publishers estimates that three million books were published in the US, up ten times from the number only 16 years ago . Other estimates put the number of published books annually at closer to four million .

The main driver of this growth in books published has been self-publishing. According to Bowker , which provides tools for self-publishing, an estimated 2.3 million books were self-published in 2021. Up through the 1990s (now the distant past in publishing), writers of all types of books, fiction and nonfiction, were dependent on convincing publishing houses to publish their work. As the technology for self-publishing and print on demand grew in the early 2000s, writers could publish on their own, and a very large number of Americans began to do so.

Fueling growth also is the level of affluence and discretionary income that an increasing segment of American society is reaching. For centuries, theorists across the political spectrum have envisioned a society, freed from basic economic needs, pursuing creative activities, with writing as a primary activity. In The German Ideology , Karl Marx could write about the economy of abundance in which individuals pursue writing as one of a series of daily activities—hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, write criticism in the evening. John Maynard Keynes in a 1930 essay, “ Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren” , envisions a time a hundred years forward (2030) in which writing is no longer the province of the upper classes. Contemporary theorists on the future of work, such as John Tamny, similarly see a blooming of creative and artistic activities by the average citizen.

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Wwe raw results, winners and grades after great wyatt sicks follow-up, china delivers another economic blow to russia, a writing room, and the emerging marketplace of writer training.

A marketplace of writing coaches, classes and retreats expanded throughout the late twentieth century and first years of the twentieth century. Published authors and even recently-minted graduates of MFA programs hung out shingles for individual coaching and small classes. Colleges expanded their writing programs and certifications, and writer retreats multiplied. Co-working and literary event spaces were established in major cities ( The Writers Room in New York, The Writers Grotto in San Francisco). But the marketplace continued to bump up against geographic and logistical limitations.

Then, along the came the internet, and its evolution.

Today, hundreds of businesses throughout the country offer assistance to aspiring writers. Many continue to offer some in-person assistance through coaching, classes or retreats. But as in other fields, the internet has allowed for a nationwide (worldwide) reach that these businesses are taking advantage of to scale. The major pre-internet writer assistance companies, such as The Writers Studio , added online courses and instruction, and the early internet-based companies from the 1990s, such as Writers.com (a pioneer in the internet field), steadily expanded their offerings. New enterprises are springing up on a regular basis, including the writer collectives.

A Writing Room is one of the fastest growing of the writer collectives, and its suite of services illustrate the how the field is evolving.

A Writing Room has its roots in the writing classes that novelist Anne Lamott had been teaching for some years, and her interest by the early 2020s in creating a larger on-going community of writers. Lamott connected with a team of four entrepreneurs who had experience with previous start-ups and expertise in online tools. In early 2023 they set out to develop A Writing Room.

Novelist Anne Lamott, one of the partners in A Writing Room.

A Writing Room launched in June 2023, and followed a few months later with an inaugural writers retreat in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Though hastily arranged, the retreat attracted more than 400 in person attendees and over 1600 attendees online. In the first half of 2024, the company set up a membership structure of monthly and annual memberships. Within months, over 550 writers had joined.

The products that members can access are aimed in part at teaching the craft of writing. In a recent author discussion (with close to 400 participants joining online) Lamott discussed the craft of writing with novelist Donna Levin . Both started publishing in the 1980s. They noted how much publishing and the role of the writer have changed, but emphasized the fundamentals that have remained over their forty years, related to craft and the responsibility of the writer: the daily commitment, the careful development of plot and characters, the numerous rewrites (as many as you think you need, and one more).

A Writing Room offers a series of on-demand courses, online discussions with authors and publishing professionals, and daily writing prompts, built around writing as craft. It further offers instruction on the paths to and options for publication, building a following of readers.

At its center, A Writing Room is about being part of a community of writers, giving and receiving regular feedback from other members, as well as feedback from writing mentors and coaches. In an interview earlier this year, Lamott explained:

The great myth about writing is that it's an entirely solitary activity. This really isn't true. Every book I've ever written has been with a lot of help from my community. I wouldn't be the writer I am today — and wouldn't even want to write — without people to share the process and finished work. Writing is a process, but it doesn't have to (and really shouldn't be) done in total isolation.

The writing process can feel overwhelming. It often does for me. Believe me, a trusted writing friend is a secret to life.

Other emerging writing collectives also emphasize community and cooperation. Levin underscored this point in the recent online discussion: “Writing can be such an isolated activity, and to some extent needs to be. You want to seek out a community that can give you the support you need and also the honest feedback.”

How the New Marketplace is Evolving and Jobs Created

The founders of A Writing Room know that the marketplace for writer assistance is fast changing, and they need to be quick to adapt to increased competition. Already, several developments are driving change in the field:

· The entrance of major online education companies (i.e. Masters Class , Coursera, Udemy ).

· Faculty recruitment of writers with built-in audiences of sizeable twitter and other social media followings.

· Partnerships with the major publishers and agencies, who hold out the promise of publication to participants of the classes, retreats and collectives.

· Specializations by race and ethnicity, gender, geography and genre.

· Market segmentation, and attention to higher income consumers.

A number of these developments reflect the changes in the broader publishing world and are likely to continue. Overall, the marketplace itself will be expanding, as publishing technology advances, along with discretionary income.

The jobs being generated by this new marketplace are a mix of tech, administrative, and writing coach positions. At A Writing Room, recent hires include a community liaison, video editor, customer support, and a “beta reader” providing feedback to writers on their drafts. The hiring process is sweeping up into jobs not only workers who have been in the regular economy, but also residents of America’s bohemia: writers and artists who previously were outside of (and often scornful of) the market system. What can be better than that.

In his 2023 book, The Novel, Who Needs It , Joseph Epstein, former editor of American Scholar , offers a paean to fiction as above all other intellectual endeavors that seek to understand human behavior. But what he says of fiction is true of other writing (memoir, history, even forms of self-help) that arouses the mind.

Yes, there are way too many books published each year, and yes only a very small percentage of writers will earn any significant income from their writing. But who knows what individual book will succeed commercially or critically, or add to our shared knowledge or wisdom. And really, why not encourage the craft of writing. How much does America benefit from most of the paper-pushing, meetings and e-mails that now pass for work in our economy of affluence.

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International Programs

Find me: from dinosaurs to discovery to diversity – the journey of oliver krishnan.

This story is part of a series that explores the lives and identities of international students at the University of Iowa. All stories are written by Katherine Lyu, who served as the International Student and Scholar (ISSS) peer assistant for the last two years and will graduate with a BA in English and creative writing in summer 2024.   

Oliver Krishnan recalls one of his childhood fantasies was dinosaurs, then he penned a story about a boy who befriends a velociraptor, inspired by his dinosaur fantasy. "People might compare this story to 'The Water Horse,' which is also a book turned into a film, supposedly originating from the Loch Ness monster lore. However, my tale has no historical ties; it's purely a figment of my imagination, but I cherish it that way."  

Krishnan , an undergraduate at the University of Iowa studying English and creative writing, hails from Malaysia. Like high school students worldwide, Krishnan wasn't certain about his desired field of study in college. Initially, he aspired to become a paleontologist, scouring for dinosaur fossils solo. Later, his ambitions shifted towards becoming a singer-songwriter akin to Miley Cyrus. To craft songs, he began writing lyrics, which gradually led him to poetry, and subsequently, to prose and storytelling. Proficient in English, he often conversed in the language at home with his family. Identifying also as South Indian, Tamil was frequently spoken at his household, though he remains uncertain about the exact distance of his ancestry from India, noting both his grandparents and parents were born in Malaysia.  

Perhaps the maternal cultural and environmental background plays an indispensable role in shaping one's self-perception. Krishnan credits his mother for raising him and his sister in an exceptionally nonjudgmental and open environment. For instance, discussions on identity, sexual education, or sexual identity are rare among parents and their children. Fortunately, his mother was open to such discussions. Growing up, his exposure to thought-provoking television shows like Grey's Anatomy and Ally McBeal played a significant role. These adult-themed, PG-13-rated shows often delved into sexuality, trauma, and death, providing his mother with opportunities to teach them about topics not covered in school, despite the presence of sex education classes.  

Krishnan identifies as gay. Before settling on his orientation, he was curious about bisexuality. Even in a relatively relaxed and open family setting, his mother believed in not making decisions without trying things first. She encouraged exploration before settling on any conclusions. It wasn't until last year that he fully came out, finding the experience unexpectedly liberating.  

There's often an assumption that the U.S. offers greater freedoms, which holds true to some extent. Before moving to the U.S., Krishnan anticipated entering a country with greater freedom of speech and openness. However, when discussing freedom and its impact on identity, Krishnan questions, "What do you consider freedom?" He indeed acknowledges the increased opportunities to discover oneself here, especially within the creative writing program, where one can openly acknowledge their sexual orientation and enjoy greater creative freedom.

"At home, I might not have had the opportunity to write a story with a gay character. I mean, you could publish it, but not necessarily promote it. You might tuck the book away on a shelf, hidden among others, making it seem less alien. That's usually how I found books with Malaysian gay protagonists. I had to search meticulously, you know, to ascertain their identity.

But here in the U.S., working within a creative writing program, collaborating with a local publisher, and having my books published here, I see it as an opportunity for people to understand my stories, not entirely mine, but my perspectives or viewpoints, because that's another reason I write.  

I feel there are certainly life-affirming books and universal stories enough to make me feel represented. Yet, sometimes, I feel underrepresented. I wish for my stories that not only represent me but also those like me. I enjoy such stories, whether they're based on culture, sexuality, or general personality."  

Krishnan ’s film review website, "The Oliver Opinion," features his takes on American movies, predominantly Marvel films. He doesn't want to be just another listener; he seeks to share his perspectives with the world.  

His goal is to publish a novel. In fact, he already authored a thin booklet when he was 17, the story mentioned at the beginning about a boy and a velociraptor becoming friends. Echoing the encouragement from the writing instructors to revisit past works, Krishnan believes in revisiting that story with a fresh, more mature perspective. 

International Programs  (IP) at the University of Iowa (UI) is committed to enriching the global experience of UI students, faculty, staff, and the general public by leading efforts to promote internationally oriented teaching, research, creative work, and community engagement.  IP provides support for international students and scholars, administers scholarships and assistance for students who study, intern, or do research abroad, and provides funding opportunities and grant-writing assistance for faculty engaged in international research. IP shares their stories through various media, and by hosting multiple public engagement activities each year.  

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International Programs at the University of Iowa supports the right of all individuals to live freely and to live in peace. We condemn all acts of violence based on race, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, and perceived national or cultural origin. In affirming its commitment to human dignity, International Programs strongly upholds the values expressed in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights .