Steve Betchkal and a bird.

Steve Betchkal is a man on a mission. The local television journalist, ornithologist, and writer wants to create nature books that are actually fun to read. “The first thing I think is, ‘If I were reading this, what would entertain me?’ ” Betchkal admitted in a recent interview. 

Betchkal’s most recent effort, Make Birds Not War, is partly about bird watching. But it is also a fascinating journey into the mind of an intellectually curious man who uses his ornithological journeys as a launching point for long meditations on everything from the relationship between man and animal to the importance of list-making. 

You might expect a keen intellect like Betchkal to load his book with proper Latin species names and florid language. In fact, Betchkal’s easy-going, conversational writing is closer to Hunter S. Thompson than John James Audubon. 

Betchkal is clearly passionate about his bird-watching exploits, but he is not afraid to point out the paradox of stalking birds while appreciating them. In one passage of Make Birds, Betchkal calls bird watching “a one-way relationship in which the human adores the bird and the bird wishes nothing more than to be left alone.” 

Yet, as the title implies, Betchkal wants us to get up and appreciate the world around us, birds included. In fact, during his interview, he pleaded for us all just to get up: “Sleep is for the dead – live while you’re alive!”