Birds on Our Brains
Stepping outside my home for a short afternoon work break last week, I was greeted by a pleasant new sound: Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. My parents had spotted a pileated woodpecker during a recent visit, and sure enough, here it was again, punctuating the neighborhood noises — voices, cars — I’ve grown accustomed to.
I quickly spotted the bird’s bright red feathering, not in one of the many nearby trees, but atop a utility pole. When I looked down to my feet, I was tickled — and slightly concerned — to see just how much wood the bird had pried loose from the pole in its determined search for bugs. The ground was covered with wood splinters.
Seeing the woodpecker reminded me of several other recent bird-sightings that left deep impressions on my colleagues and me, sightings that we have often written about in this newsletter. There was the spotted owl I glimpsed this past spring during nesting season. There were the urban parrots who captivated Journal Editor Maureen Nandini Mitra this summer. There was the magpie who recently greeted Contributing Editor Austin Price at his door. Yes, we’ve written about other wildlife — and of course, people — too. But birds, in particular, seem to draw our attention.
And it’s not just us. Across the world, we humans appear to feel a particular connection to our avian cohabitants. We build tiny houses for them. We put feeders out in our yards. We journey near and far to spot rare and majestic specimens. And sadly, we capture and trade them, a misplaced expression of our deep love.
All of which got me wondering — why? Is it simply that birds are more visible to us than other animals as we go about our daily lives? Is it that most of us find them more beautiful than insects, perhaps, or more intriguing than amphibians? Or is there something about their flight, and their song, that is special to us, that triggers our imaginations and our meditations more than other members of the animal kingdom?
A brief Google confirms, unsurprisingly, that I’m not the only person to have asked these questions — entire books have been written on the subject. There probably aren’t any tidy answers. But I think Terry Tempest Williams was on to something when she wrote in Refuge: “I pray to the birds because they remind me of what I love rather than what I fear. And at the end of my prayers, they teach me how to listen.”
Zoe Loftus-Farren
Managing Editor, Earth Island Journal
P.S. What is one of your most memorable encounters with a bird, and what made it so special? Write us at [email protected] to let us know!
Photo by: Robert Shea
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