Eye-opening essays about searching for peace in the cacophony of birds and discovering a world of meaning in small moments—from award-winning actor Lili Taylor.
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Lili Taylor is an award-winning movie, television, and theater actor. Some of her credits include: Mystic Pizza, Dogfight, Short Cuts, I shot Andy Warhol, High Fidelity and Say Anything. In the birding world, Lili is a board member of the National Audubon Society, the American Birding Association, and the New York City Bird Alliance. Lili nests in Brooklyn and upstate New York with her husband, the memoirist and poet Nick Flynn, and their daughter.
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“Lili Taylor is an actor I’ve long been in awe of, and now I know why her work has always been soulful and painfully honest. Turning to Birds is a treasure map to Lili’s inner life and a scripture in how to be truly mindful.”—Griffin Dunne, actor, director, and author of The Friday Afternoon Club
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“What can an actor—even a consummate one like Lili Taylor—tell us about birding? Plenty, as she brings her profession’s keen observation skills to Turning to Birds, exploring what our feathered marvels can mean to us people. You couldn’t ask for a more personal, accessible approach to the pastime we all love (or will, by the end of this book).”—Christian Cooper, author of Better Living Through Birding
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Most people don’t really know birds—or rather, they aren’t aware of them. Lili Taylor used to be one of those people. She knew birds existed. She thought about them, maybe even more than the average person. But she didn’t know them. And then something happened.

During a much-needed break from her work as an actor, Lili sought silence and instead found the bustling, symphonic world of birds that had always existed around her. Since then, she has kept a keen eye pressed to her binoculars in search of vivid stories that elevate the everyday, if only one pays attention.

Through a series of beautifully crafted essays, Taylor shares her intimate encounters with the birds that have captured her heart and imagination—from tracking flitting woodpeckers through oak trees to spotting majestic blue jays perched on a Manhattan fire escape; from the exhilaration of witnessing a migratory flock from the top of the Empire State Building to the quiet joy of observing a nest of hatchlings in her own backyard. Through simply paying attention to birds, Lili has been shown a parallel world that is wider and deeper, one of constant change and movement, full of life and the will to survive.

Throughout Turning to Birds, Taylor encourages mindfulness, inviting readers to be present and fully engaged with the world around them. Taylor’s lyrical prose and thoughtful meditations on both the art we make and the art we discover around us create a sense of intimacy and wonder, inviting readers to see the world through new eyes and to find joy in the most unexpected places.
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Rosecrans Baldwin is the bestselling author of Everything Now, winner of the California Book Award. Other books include The Last Kid Left and Paris, I Love You but You’re Bringing Me Down. His debut novel, You Lost Me There, was a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. Rosecrans is a correspondent for GQ and a frequent contributor to Travel + Leisure. Several of his articles have been selected for the Best American Essays and Best American Travel Writing collections, and he was a finalist for a James Beard Foundation Journalism Award. On Substack, he writes “Meditations in an Emergency,” a weekly essay about something beautiful, with a Sunday supplement for supporters. In Hollywood, Rosecrans co-wrote the documentary Stone Locals, directed by Cheyne Lempe and Mikey Schaefer. He’s written award-winning podcasts for LAist Studios (LA Made: Blood, Sweat & Rockets) and Luminary (British Villains). For two years, Rosecrans was an on-air commentator for National Public Radio’s All Things Considered.  He started the online literary zine tmn, where he and co-founder Andrew Womack continue to write the headlines newsletter and oversee the annual Tournament of Books.