Lynn Barber's Birding Blog

Most of us who appear to be even remotely interested in birds have at least once been asked what our favorite bird is. It can happen at the end of a group field trip when the leader might ask the group to tell their favorite bird of the trip. Or it might happen when people first meet each other at a bird club or when out birding. It is a good conversation starter.

I never know what to say when I am asked. I usually just blurt out the most memorable bird that I have most recently seen. Probably a colorful or cute or funny bird. If I am allowed more than one bird and better yet, can generalize to groups of birds, it is much more easy for me to answer. I can at least say that my favorite birds are hummingbirds, cranes, and owls. The smallest, the biggest, and one in between in size. Hummingbirds have yet to arrive in Wisconsin for the year, and owls, while always around, are usually not that easy to find. But Sandhill Cranes have arrived. There are usually at least two cranes, and sometimes small flocks, in many of the fields around where I live, and probably all across the state. Their scrawky calls delight me as I drive along with my windows open, or hear them overhead.

Nowadays owls are on my mind the most though. I am mostly through the process of writing the text for a book about owls and have painted over 40 of the 50 owl paintings that my publisher is allowing me to have in the book. I am to submit my manuscript and paintings by the end of June to Texas A&M University Press, which published my three other books. Although this process is very time-consuming, I have been enjoying putting this all together. If all goes as planned and I don’t have more than a zillion rewrites, it may actually become a real book by early 2025.