Julie Zickefoose, a nature book author, presented at the Newton Conservators webinar on Thursday, discussing the unexpected mental and emotional capacities of songbirds through the lens of her own experiences.
Zickefoose is an American nature book writer, naturalist, bird artist, and blogger. She lives in Ohio on an 80-acre wildlife sanctuary, which she said inspires much of her work, including her 2012 novel, The Bluebird Effect: Uncommon Bonds with Common Birds.
The novel is illustrated with 320 of Zickefoose’s colored paintings, life sketches, and drawings, and it was one of Oprah’s 2012 book club reads.
Zickefoose wanted to talk about the birds she’s had relationships with throughout her life and show others the depth of thought held within the small beings.
“When I was planning this book, I sat down and wrote down all the species that I could think of that I’d really been impacted by, or I had had an impact on, you know, in many cases, having been their mother,” said Zickefoose. “So that turned out to be a list of 25 different species, and that’s what this book is based on.”
It all started with a domestic turkey when she was a young girl, explained Zickefoose.
“And I reached out my little hand and I felt the heat of that skin on that turkey’s head, and I had this instant jolt and epiphany that inside that strange looking face was someone that birds ceased to be, something unreachable and unattainable,” said Zickefoose.
From there, Zickefoose was enthralled by the many birds she encountered.
“And by the time I was eight, I was, I was down on my hands and knees, you know, looking at a blue-winged warbler … bathing in a little pool,” said Zickefoose. “And I thought, ‘I’ve never seen anything so beautiful in my life. Where has this creature been all my life?’”
Zickefoose wanted to share her love and appreciation for birds and the other wildlife she encountered in a unique way.
“But I really wanted a very old-fashioned illustrated art book with my own paintings and my own writing, and that’s what I made,” said Zickefoose.
She explained that she almost called the book “Hummingbirds and Other Birds I’ve Known,” as much of the novel centers around a summer when she raised hummingbirds.
“A very large chunk of the book describes a summer where I raised four orphaned hummingbirds that came to me all on the same day after a derecho windstorm knocked down their nests,” said Zickefoose. “And it was just an incredible thing to be suddenly faced with these tiny, tiny creatures still in their nests that were suddenly my problem.”
When she released the hummingbirds into the wild, they still depended on Zickefoose. On the evening of release day, they all returned for food, and she was out there feeding them with a dropper, she explained.
“So for the next couple of weeks, the yard was enchanted by these little fairies that would follow us around, peeping,” said Zickefoose. “And I could find them wherever they were in the yard by following their peeps.”
Zickefoose talked about many of the other birds she’s raised, including Carolina wrens, mourning doves, and bluebirds, to name a few.
“I love those times when I get confirmation that I’ve done the right thing by a bird and they come back,” said Zickefoose. “That’s what I live for. That is the whole reward of rehab, of all the work and sweat.”
Zickefoose expressed how raising birds, as well as painting and writing about them, has helped her deal with many matters in her personal life.
“I will say that the birds have really helped me deal with a lot of loss in my life, and it’s just a very grounding thing to give yourself over to their care and learn from them and write about them,” said Zickefoose.
Her husband, Bill, was a fellow bird enthusiast. Zickefoose explained that their shared passion for birds was the reason for their meeting.
“Bill was the editor and publisher of Bird Watcher’s Digest for many years, and that’s how we met,” said Zickefoose. “I have painted over 31 covers for the magazine since 1986.”
The Bird Watcher’s Digest ceased publication in 2021, but since being recovered by Zickefoose and several others, the magazine resumed publication in the summer of 2022.
“Now, after Bill died, a small skeleton crew of us came together and saved the magazine from shutting down,” Zickefoose said.
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