Before plants took over my life, I was obsessed with non-human animals. Of particular interest to me were birds. Whether I was tending to the birds on my shoulder at home or stalking birds in the wild, the moments of my life devoted to avian pursuits far outnumbered the non-avian ones. When I was a child, my father always put out bird feeders to attract the birds. As I learned more about gardening, I learned that you can cut out the middleman so to speak, by growing plants that are useful to birds. Since I was already an unabashed plant collector, it was obvious that I should start gathering plants useful to birds. I had…