This is Bertin.

When writer Amy Tan started journaling about nature, she wasn't trying to write another bestseller.

It was 2016, and she was searching for an escape from the overt racism she felt was being directed toward her and other Asian Americans.

That was never meant to be anything more than a place for me to put my questions down

and my observations. It wasn't until my editor said we should publish it, that it became a book.

As she spent more time in nature, she started to fall in love with birds.

The type of love I feel for them is so special because I don't experience it with any

human being or other wildlife. And it's the very fact that it is wild and it doesn't fly off

in my presence and they look at me and continue to do what they're

doing. It's a feeling of acceptance.

Since publishing her backyard Bird Chronicles, which is a New York Times bestseller, by the way,

Amy says people come up to her and tell her stories about their backyard birds. I'm heartened also because once people love

birds, they think they're much more interested in saving birds. That makes me feel really,

really good to know how many people love birds.

For Bird Note, I'm Jonies Franklin.