India has more than 1,200 species of birds. The richness and diversity of the country’s birdlife has been celebrated by thousands of ornithologists, birders and amateur naturalists for hundreds of years. Winged Fire brings together the best accounts, pictures and art on our birds. Contributors include luminaries like Babur, Abu’l-Fazl, Jahangir, François Pyrard, Edward Hamilton Aitken, Douglas Dewar, Jim Corbett, Colonel Kesri Singh, F. W. Champion, Salim Ali, E. P. Gee, A. Mervyn Smith, Hugh Allen, Kenneth Anderson, M. Krishnan, Khushwant Singh, R. S. Dharmakumarsinhji, E. R. C. Davidar, Zafar Futehally, Ruskin Bond, A. J. T. Singh, Peter Smetacek, Irwin Allan Sealy, Rishad Naoroji, and Bulbul Sharma.

An essay by Ramki Sreenivasan provides a detailed account of the major species and their distribution, behaviour and habitats. Winged Fire is the last book in the trilogy—that also includes Wild Fire and Tiger Fire—put together by Valmik Thapar; taken together, these books give the reader an extraordinary view of India’s wildlife.