Zi-Zi Taah Taah Taah: The Song of the Willow Tit, Steve Ely

Zi-Zi Taah Taah is a gorgeous book of poems by Steve Ely, arising from and addressing the plight of one of the country’s fastest declining species of bird, the willow tit, which has experienced a sorrowful 94% decrease in numbers since 1995.

In its Notes section, we’re told that in birding parlance, a ‘dude’ is a birder who pretends to an expertise they do not possess and in Dude, Ely goes back to the unexpected sighting of two willow tits and a marsh tit at his garden feeders, leading to “inordinate pride” in an ability to differentiate between the two species.

With watercolour illustrations by PR throughout, Zi-Zi Taah Taah is Wild West Press’ debut poetry pamphlet and was created in partnership with Back From The Brink, RSPB and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and won a Michael Marks Award at the British Library.

Thank you very, very much to Wild West Press for donating this stunning pamphlet to The Nature Library.