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Amy Tan is best known as the bestselling author of The Joy Luck Club. But in recent years, another passion has taken over much of her attention: the birds in her own backyard.

In this episode of Naturally Scott, Scott Harris sits down with Amy to talk about The Backyard Bird Chronicles, a deeply personal collection of observations, sketches, questions, and encounters that grew out of her return to nature during a difficult period in her life. What began as a private journal eventually became a book filled with Amy’s own artwork and the intimate stories of the birds she came to know just outside her window. 

In this episode:

🐦 How birding helped Amy rediscover beauty and curiosity

🎨 Returning to drawing and learning the art of nature journaling

🏡 Discovering more than 70 bird species in her own yard

🦉 Living alongside a mother Great Horned Owl and her young son

💧 The daily ritual of feeders, hummingbird nectar, mealworms, and fresh water

💔 The heartbreak of seeing sick birds—and why Amy sometimes takes her feeders down

🧠 What birds reveal about intelligence, behavior, play, and even emotion

✍️ Why nature journaling is less about making perfect art and more about asking better questions

Amy also explains why she has little interest in chasing only rare birds. For her, the real joy comes from watching familiar birds closely enough to notice how their behavior changes from day to day. 

It’s a conversation about birds, art, curiosity, attention—and the extraordinary things that can happen when we slow down and truly look at what’s right outside our door.