Birds must be big right now. We worried this theme would be too narrow and that we wouldn’t be able to fill a table of contents with avian tales. But our worries were clearly unfounded—we saw more submissions in a 60-day period that we’d ever seen before, and paring this collection down to 11 stories was wrenching. Happily, our gluttony for all things birdish worked out, timing-wise: this is our twentieth issue, so we decided to go all in. When this project began in October 2013, it seemed foolhardy to look beyond a handful of collections, but here we are. And here’s our anniversary issue.

To thank our readers, patrons, and contributors, first reader Matt Bennardo had a bird-related idea: a few months back, Lackington’s “adopted”, on everyone’s behalf, a northern saw-whet owl—one of the tiniest owls on our planet (aw). This makes us all symbolic co-parents of a sweet little birdling thanks to a conservation program at Pittsburgh’s National Aviary. The Aviary does the good work of advocating for wild birds, and if you’d like to donate to their program to help protect other wingèd friends, they’re just a quick Google away. Meanwhile, if we hear any updates about our little owl in the wild, we’ll be sure to tweet it (how fitting).

This issue is already fat enough, so turn the page and start reading what you came here to read. There are so many varieties of birds in this collection, we challenge you to keep track and report your findings back to us. Happy birdwatching, all.

Ranylt Richildis
Editor