Birding on my Mind--08/21/06

Here’s a question for all you birders out there: why do we watch the birds? What is it about the avian world that captivates us so? There must be a reason beyond the fact that they are “cute and fluffy” and make nice noises.

In North America alone, there are over 60 million birdwatchers—which means that bird-watching is the continent’s most popular hobby. To a non-birder, this hobby night be confused with an affliction or disease: birdwatchers are always ready at moments notice to run after a rare or exotic species of bird; they spend hundreds or maybe thousands of dollars per year on bird food, bird-watching equipment and books, and sometimes, birding expeditions to far-away places; they speak feverishly amongst themselves about their sightings. But the truth is, more and more people are discovering the joys of watching and caring for birds.

For thousands of years, birds have been held in high-esteem by humans all over the world. In the earliest forms of literature and music, birds are depicted as symbols of wisdom, truth, strength, power, birth, death, and hope (think “Hope is the Thing with Feathers”). Countless poems have been inspired by the avian world, such as those by Thoreau, Emerson, and Dickinson, to name a few. In ancient lore, the Phoenix was a symbol of power and rebirth. The Greek Halcyon is still used in our vocabulary as a word associated with peace and prosperity. And, here at home, the Thunderbird of Native American legend can make the Earth tremble with the blink of an eye.

Also, just think of how many sayings in the English language have avian connections: someone who eats little “eats like a bird,” we tell people “not to count their eggs before they’re hatched,” or people who are “as graceful as a swan.”

Perhaps one of the main reasons why birds continue to fascinate us is because they possess the power of flight—a feat we can never master. Daedalus and Icarus made wings for themselves with feathers and wax (and look what happened to them…eek) and Renaissance genius Leonardo daVinci dreamed of creating a flying machine. Sure we have planes, but is it really the same thing? Birds still possess the freedom of flight in a form we cannot master.

Well perhaps we can’t really find a concrete reason why we like birds, these creatures of the skies, the heavens and our innermost souls. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, “The Birds of Killingworth,” sums this up marvelously: “Do you ne’er think what wondrous beings these? Do you ne’er think who made them, and who taught the dialect they speak, where melodies alone are the interpreters of though? Whose household words are songs in many keys, sweeter than instrument of man e’er caught?”

Don’t forget to e-mail me at chickadee@att.net with your questions, comments, and sightings! Happy Birding!