A great big jamun tree and a fat cat dominate Bulbul Sharma’s garden in Delhi. But the true life of this lovely patch of green are the birds—sparrows, parakeets, sunbirds, doves, and many more—who come here to look for food and nectar, build nests, find friends, quarrel with one another, or simply sit and sing to each other.

Bulbul writes of the magpie robin loudly interrupting the other birds; the hoopoe that calls its own name and rushes around busily; the shy golden oriole that prefers to hide in the large peepal tree; the sharp-eyed owls that watch silently and then swoop down to pick up the mouse that ventured out at night. She also describes the hectic activity around a small water body and a forest, the gathering place for sandpipers, dabchicks, snake-birds, red munias, grey partridges and many migratory birds that fly in from far-off places like the Arctic and Siberia.

Filled with glorious colour illustrations, Birds in My Garden and Beyond brings to vivid life the world of Indian birds, and shows us what we need to do to look after them—and make our world more beautiful.