In Birds, Art, Life: A Year of Observation, Kio Maclear goes on an ornithological journey through the big city and along the way reflects on the nature of creativity and the search for a meaningful life. Finding herself in a difficult life situation, the narrator discovers the world of “birding” and bird watching. On the one hand, an essay exploring our relationship with the natural environment, on the other, an exercise in the art of mindfulness and a journal of self-observation. Birds become to Maclear what mushrooms were to John Cage, butterflies to Vladimir Nabokov, or bees to Sylvia Plath—an outer push to an inner journey. On a deeper level, Maclear raises questions about how we are shaped and nurtured by parallel passions, and how we can come to care not only for the world's pristine natural places, but also for the patchy urban spaces in which we live.