Twelve backyard birds — a blue jay, a robin, a chickadee, a cardinal, a goldfinch — each with a finished example, a printed palette and a light sketch to paint straight over. It is a colouring book for grown-ups and children alike, except you finish with watercolour instead of crayon, and the result is good enough to tear out and frame.

Every spread pairs a finished painting with numbered step-by-step instructions and a lightly printed sketch you paint straight onto, so you are never staring at a blank page. Printed on custom 120 lb cold-press watercolour paper from one of the last remaining paper mills in the United States, with lay-flat spiral binding and clean tear-out pages, at a travel-ready 6.5 x 9 in. Original artwork by Emily Lex, designed and printed in the USA. Birders love it because the species are right, and beginners love it because a bird is mostly two shapes and a good eye. It is the quiet, unhurried hobby people say they want and rarely start. Paint sold separately.