Birds were the best thing about this past year. That’s generally true if you’re as bird-obsessed as I am, but it was particularly so in 2023. So much so, in light of the ongoing slaughter, destruction and privation in Gaza and the West Bank, that I’m forced to wonder: is it trivial to think of this bloody year in birds? Offensive, even? Should I set my binoculars aside in mourning, or at least have the decency to stop yammering about rarities and lifers?

Even if I should, I can’t. Birds have been, and still are, a source of joy for me and many others. They are beautiful; they ignore borders and fly over walls; they are fragile, and yet they endure in the most unlikely places.

And If I didn’t have them in my life, I’d be even more nuts than I am.

So, here goes: the year in birds.