The Bird Singers: How Two Boys Discovered the Magic of Birdsong

by Jean Boucault

In the vein of H is for Hawk and The Book of Eels, this moving memoir shines a light on the transformative power of nature as it tells the story of two boys, Jean and Johnny, who learned the language of birds.

This captivating book brings together two birds of a Jean and Johnny, boys from very different worlds growing up in a small village in France. Jean is the genteel pharmacist’s son, dressed in his Sunday best; Johnny’s father is a rough, working-class sheep herder, always with the odor of animals clinging to him. Each year, over three hundred bird species visit their village, which intersects a major migratory flyway.

The two boys’ stories converge when Jean enters a bird-calling contest. He places second, and at only eleven years old becomes a child celebrity on the bird-calling circuit. Then Johnny starts to compete as well. At the annual bird festival, both boys are standouts, and a long, admiring rivalry develops between them, eventually culminating in the European championships.

As they evolve as performers, the two boys’ identities become more Jean is soft-spoken, while Johnny likes to play to the crowd. While most of their competitors are adult men, hunters who learned to call birds for sport, the two boys are fascinated with the pure beauty of birdsong, and in trying to transcend themselves through imitating birds. Their shared passion develops into an enduring partnership as performers, and they go on to tour the world in concert as the Bird Singers.

This is a story as much about friendship as it is about birdsong. The setting is timeless and bucolic, with long walks to small village schools, games of pick-up soccer, and father-son birding trips. The chapters, which bounce back and forth between the two narrators, are woven through with descriptions of colorful characters in the bird-calling competition circuit and the kind of ornithological detail that can only come from a true passion for birds. There is poetry in the description of the different birds, from common seagulls to thrushes and bluethroats and nightingales, and something like communion in the way Jean and Johnny understand the feathered friends they imitate.

Unique, evocative, and cinematic, The Bird Singers is the story of an unlikely friendship, sparked by a desire to speak with the avian world.

Genres: Birds, Memoir, Animals, Nature, Nonfiction

240 pages, Hardcover

Published May 20, 2025

Reviews

[Judith van Wijk · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. Interesting book. I had to get used to the French accent a bit, but that didn’t take long. I would have liked some actual recordings of the bird imitations in the audio book though.

[Suzanne Laird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rural life in Picardy, two boys, birds in abundance. Just wish I could hear the birds’ songs as I read the descriptions of their calls. Think I’ll pass this onto my grandson!

[Cheryl Gatling]

Jean Boucault and Johnny Rasse are two men who imitate bird songs. And they’re really good. The book comes with a QR code with a link to a video. You can watch the two men announcing the names of the birds in their painfully enunciated English (they are French), then whistling, hooting, and cawing. I played the video (not too loudly) at work, and someone said, “Is there a bird in here?” These two men, this is their job now. They travel the world performing bird calls. This book is the story of how they got started.

They both grew up in the same small town in France. Both of them loved birds. They went to the same school, but they weren’t particularly friends. When Jean learned that there was a bird calling competition in a nearby town, he immediately entered. But he needed help learning how to do some of the calls, so he went to Johnny’s father for lessons.

While Jean was studying his bird calls, Johnny started secretly practicing on his own. The next year, he entered the contest, too. This led to some awkwardness. Both boys shared a common interest, and a common background. But they were also pitted against each other in the contests. Over the years they helped each other, and hurt each other, and eventually they paired up.

The whole idea of a bird calling contest stunned me. I had never heard of such a thing. But it made sense. It grew out of hunting. Bird hunters would imitate the calls of ducks and other game birds, to lure them near so they could shoot them. Most of the other contestants focused on the local waterfowl. Jean and Johnny did too, but they also branched out into imitating other songbirds.

The two boys (now men) alternate telling their stories. Jean’s chapters are marked with a herring gull, and Johnny’s with a blackbird, as those were their signature birds when they were young. There are some fascinating things in here, as well as some less fascinating things. In general, the book reads like a long article that was expanded to book length by including more detail than was sometimes necessary.

But I enjoyed it overall because the overwhelming feeling is a love of birds, and a love of nature in general. There is also a sense that it’s OK to embrace a quirky interest. In fact, it’s more than OK. Are you the weird bird kid at school? Don’t be ashamed. Don’t hide it. Run with it. Whatever your thing is.

[Cynthia Weckbacher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining!











very

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a unique account of two young French boys competing in the world of bird calls.

[Emily O'Speak · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unique and charming book....excellent read!

[Judith Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming story of two French boys who become expert imitators of bird calls and immersed in the world of bird-calling competitions. It is a dual biography, with chapters in each of their voices, identified by their symbols, a herring gull for Jean Boucault and a blackbird for Johnny Rasse. Helped at first by Johnny’s father, the boys became competitors, and eventually partners in performance. There is beautiful writing here (in a lovely translation by Katia Grubisic), expressing the boys’ appreciation for the natural world of wild birds. It’s a small book of 220-some pages, but it’s a wider world that it introduces.

[Paulibrarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jean and Johnny grew up inhaling the natural sights and sounds of the Baie de Somme, France. From different backgrounds, imitating bird calls united them, and they subsequently became intrinsically together. Through competing in larger and larger competitions, they gradually end up at the European Champs in Paris, both at a very young age, where they take out the top two spots. Today they are Les Chanteurs d'Oiseaux - The Bird Singers, a successful duo with a unique take. Translated skilfully from French. Chapters alternatively told by each - headed by a herring gull motif for Jean, and a Blackbird for Johnny. The power of creatures on young people is underestimated - here are two souls that, as children, loved the bird as an entity, and, as adults, have enriched lives because of that love. Complete with QR code to hear them sing via YouTube link.

[Dan Wachal · Rating 2 out of 5]

What an odd little story of a world I had no idea existed. This peak into the world of bird and animal imitation was interesting.