Bird Life : The Extraordinary World of Ordinary Birds

Enchanting and deeply fascinating, Bird Cottage invites readers into the extraordinary world of Britain’s ordinary garden birds—told by the brilliant, unconventional woman who opened her home and heart to them.

In the late 1930s, Len Howard left behind her life in London, bought a small plot of land in Sussex, and built herself a simple home. This became Bird Cottage—a place where doors and windows were always open to the birds of the garden: great tits, blue tits, robins, blackbirds, willow warblers, and many more. Len spent the rest of her life among her feathered neighbors—some sleeping in her bedroom, others freely coming and going throughout the day.

This edition brings together her two classic works, Birds as Individuals and Living with Birds. More than studies of avian behavior, these are tender and insightful portraits of character, intelligence, song, and personality. Enchanting, revelatory, and entirely original, this collection captures a life lived in rare harmony with nature—and a vision of birds unlike any other.

With an introduction by Stephen Moss
Includes Birds as Individuals and Living with Birds

Praise for Birds as Individuals
“A unique, engaging and elegant insight into the lives of our precious and magical songbirds.” — Arthur Parkinson
“A quiet revelation of attentiveness and sympathy. It impressed and moved me very much.” — Steven Lovatt, author ofBirdsong in a Time of Silence

Len Howard (1894-1973) was a British naturalist and musician best known for her studies of birds, published as Birds as Individuals (1952) and Living with Birds (1956).

In her early life, Howard pursued a career in music in London, giving music lessons, organising concerts for the children of the poor and playing the viola professionally in an orchestra under Malcolm Sargent. In 1938, she purchased a plot of land outside the village of Ditchling, Sussex, and built the house she called Bird Cottage. There she developed an intimate and unusual relationship with the wild birds in the area, providing food (including her own war rations), chasing away predators, tending to damaged nests, and allowing the birds to fly and roost throughout her home. Her musical training gave her a unique insight into the diverse character of birdsong. Howard died at Bird Cottage in 1973.