When you raise a wild bird when it’s orphaned or help it when it’s hurt, you are taken into its
confidence. Julie Zickefoose will talk about those experiences and about the unexpected mental
and emotional capacities of birds, especially songbirds, which we tend to underestimate and
overlook. Everyone knows that crows, ravens, and parrots are intelligent, but have you thought about
hummingbirds? Julie has a unique perspective, having been a mother to six hummingbirds. And
chimney swifts, cedar waxwings, mourning doves, cardinals, and rose-breasted grosbeaks, to name a
few.
Julie lives and works quietly on an 80-acre wildlife sanctuary in the back country of Whipple, Ohio.
She is a prolific writer and painter who was an All Things Considered commentator for five years.
Her illustrated work, The Bluebird Effect, was an Oprah’s Book Club pick in 2012. Her heavily illustrated
books include Natural Gardening for Birds, Letters from Eden, The Bluebird Effect, and Baby Birds:
An Artist Looks Into the Nest. Her newest book is Saving Jemima: Life and Love With a Hard-Luck Jay,
the intimate story of how an orphaned bird can save a soul.
