95 Comments
User's avatar
Sue Bauman's avatar

I’m going to be mulling over your profound birding experience forever.

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

I can't stop thinking about it.

Expand full comment
Joy Parker's avatar

Birds are magic. Thank you so much for this story. ❤️

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

Agreed!

Expand full comment
Tove Danovich's avatar

Incredible. I want to feed all the animal songs into a transcription app!

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

exactly!

Expand full comment
To Hear the Trees Speak's avatar

Love this so much! Such a reminder to listen to the singing of the birds. It reminds me of a poetry class we did where we were invited to translate bird song, having first read a poem in another language that we didn't know and seeing what we could translate from it just from the sound - and then looking at a translation, and there were often similarities.

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

Oh wow that's interesting.

Expand full comment
Anne Stagg's avatar

That just blows me away! The context at the end is incredible! Never heard anything like this before. Thanks for sharing.

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

It's crazy, isn't it?

Expand full comment
Sasha Davies's avatar

Ok. I basically woke up like a half hour ago and you already made the day AMAZING with this story. Love your sleuthing prowess and imagining the look on your face (and feeling in your heart) when you saw that translation.

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

Awww thanks!

Expand full comment
Amy R.'s avatar

Praises to their Maker! Love the bird story. ❤️

Expand full comment
Nancy Friedland's avatar

I love your bird walks, and this story - so smart of you to look closely at the Japanese text and then to translate. It's all AI I suppose, but poetry is where you find it.

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

Exactly!

Expand full comment
Mary B's avatar

That is INCREDIBLE!!! about what the birds were saying in any language! Amazing!

Expand full comment
Tara Kate's avatar

My husband is a professor at Oregon State and he studies bird song. I told him about your amazing experience and he asked Google Translate to play the Japanese phrases that correspond to what the birds said. He said the Japanese sounds like phrases of House Finch songs. Great story!

Expand full comment
Amy Stewart's avatar

Wow! That's interesting!

Expand full comment
Martha Bright Anandakrishnan's avatar

Wow!

Expand full comment
Only Wolf's avatar

Nice 👌

Expand full comment
Mike Davis's avatar

Duh, I'be been getting your emails without it occurring to me that I read two of your books, The Drunken Botanist and Girl Waits with a Gun. Well, gosh darn it, now I have to get your tree book.

Expand full comment
E Simon's avatar

I loved reading your post about the new tree species - and it's related to beans & peas!! And it's thousands of years old! I have to go sit down....wait, I AM sitting down!

Expand full comment
Ellen Zachos's avatar

Exciting tree news! I'll be in Tanzania next month; I'm going to check my itinerary to see if we'll be in that area.

Expand full comment
Boiseartist's avatar

I loved the "Birds are speaking Japanese" story!

Expand full comment