Book Excerpt — We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir

We Should All Be Birds: A Memoir

By Brian Buckbee with Carol Ann Fitzgerald
Tin House Books
Hardcover

My rescue pigeon and I found each other at the very beginning of the pandemic, when we were both dealing with crippling health problems. As time went on, he got better. As time went on, I got worse.

I am lying in bed, saying these words in the dark, hoping that tomorrow I can dictate all that I remember into my computer. My migraine has reached epic proportions. It helps to think about my pigeon (Two-Step) and his new girlfriend (V.) in the living room in the little nest I helped them make high up on a shelf. At night, when I try to fall asleep to escape the headache that never goes away (the headache that makes it impossible for me to read and write), I can hear Two-Step making soft chucking sounds. I think it may be his way of telling a story to V. to help her fall back to sleep.

It is hard to admit, but they are not the only pigeons flying at large in my house. I’ve taken in other wounded birds, all pigeons except for a ring-necked dove, and with their offspring, there are enough to fill a table at the Last Supper. In the morning, when my headache wakes me, I open my bedroom door, and all the birds take flight. Feathers fly. Some of the babies poke their heads above the rim of the baskets their parents have built nests in. I quickly find my corner of the couch, plop down, stretch my legs out on the coffee table, pull down over my eyes the soft beanie that the woman I loved knit for me a long time ago, and begin to do the math that helps me figure out how many hours I need to get through before night comes and I can find solace in sleep.

These wild pigeons are in my house because it is against the law for the bird rehabilitator to rescue them. “Pigeons are considered an invasive species,” she told me over the phone. Apparently, if I brought a wounded eagle, hummingbird, or vulture to her, she could have taken it in, but a sick baby starling or a fluffy little house sparrow she would have to turn away. This was just after I found Two-Step, who was malnourished and had a deformed leg that prevented him from walking properly, and I had no idea that he was going to save my life.

Excerpted from We Should All Be Birds, copyright © 2025 Brian Buckbee and Carol Ann Fitzgerald. All rights reserved.