Marina Richie – författare

More than one hundred species of kingfishers are found distributed around the world – every continent but Antarctica. All share oversized heads, dagger bills, and short flicking tails. Many have dazzling rainbow feathers. They range in size from the diminutive pygmy kingfisher of African rainforests to the kookaburra of Australia. Here, Marina Richie takes as her inspiration the belted kingfisher, found all over North America but not as well-known as other common birds. In this first book on belted kingfishers, Richie plunges headfirst – just like a kingfisher would – into their lives, following them from her backyard to archives around the world.  On a small stretch of Rattlesnake Creek in Missoula, Montana, Richie spent hundreds of hours seeking and observing a skittish pair of nesting belted kingfishers. Weaving natural history, mythology, and memoir, Richie celebrates the belted kingfisher through a journey of discovery across multiple seasons. She discusses the scientific literature on kingfishers, the role of citizen scientists, the appearance of kingfishers in religions and cultures from ancient Greece to the Salish tribes, and her own observations: the staccato calls, the sharp dives, the scenes of females chasing after each other.  Her quest taught her not just about kingfishers but also about stillness and the world around her. Spending long hours still on the creek bank, she reflects on the challenges and narratives of wildlife, of environmental change, and of her own life: the death of her father, himself a bird lover; balancing her passion for kingfishers with marriage, motherhood, and paid work; and finally a decision to leave Montana for a different life in Oregon.

“Luminous.”—Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the SunAcclaimed nature writer Marina Richie guides us into a vertical world of old-growth forests through the eyes of the birds that inhabit them—exploring her journey as an environmentalist in her signature verdant prose. With exquisite prose and meticulous research, Marina Richie interweaves memoir with clear-eyed notes on ecology to create an engaging blend of scientific and soulful observations.In Feathered Forest, birds are our guides to a vertical world of ancient trees that spans both sides of the Cascade Mountains. Within centuries-old groves that are critical refugia in a time of climate crisis, these winged messengers show us a better way to steward our threatened landscapes. Just as a forest transitions upward from understory to midstory to overstory, so too does the trajectory of Richie’s life—from the protective cover of adolescence to the precarious yet light-filled canopy of adulthood. Richie’s love for the wilds unfurls in poetic phrasing, and her call to protect our last old-growth trees is resounding and clear.A narrative of perception change, memoir, and kinship, Feathered Forest is a soaring ode to birds and wild trees."A lyrical new book . . .the author spins a story web out of ecology, bird behavior, discussions with forest and bird researchers, and her own observations . . .All make this perfect for sampling chapter by chapter and learning about connections we never considered before."—Booklist