| Why do birds appeal to us? Most people enjoy the | | | | enjoying such sights and sounds. We can listen in on |
| sight of birds, even people who have never been | | | | their free concerts and derive pleasure and serenity |
| active birdwatchers. Although birds are less like us in | | | | from the experience. We can also be amused when a |
| appearance and habits than our fellow mammals, birds | | | | few species of birds even mimic our own speech. |
| undeniably hold a special place in our hearts. | | | | Another characteristic of birds that we humans |
| One reason that birds capture our imaginations is that | | | | respond to is the fact that they build nests. They seem |
| they can fly, while we remain trapped here on earth. | | | | so industrious and we watch with wonder as each |
| What child hasn't watched a bird fly overhead and | | | | type of bird builds its own species-specific nest, ranging |
| dreamt of being up there in the sky flying alongside? | | | | from a simple assemblage of twigs to an intricately |
| What adults have not, at one time or another, wished | | | | woven masterpiece of craftmanship. "Nest" is such a |
| that they could take wing and fly away from all of | | | | cozy word. Birds build their cozy nests, care for their |
| their everyday troubles and cares? Birds are natural | | | | young, and raise their families, all in the course of a |
| symbols of freedom and escape. After all, what could | | | | single spring or summer. We admire their patience and |
| better encapsulate our vision of pure freedom than the | | | | devotion and attentive care to their offspring. We |
| ability to fly off into the sunset ? | | | | observe and marvel at a parent bird's countless trips |
| Birds can soar overhead and they can also cover | | | | to and from the nest to diligently feed the helpless |
| great distances. They are privy to a "bird's eye view" | | | | chicks. Birds provide us with fine role models for |
| of a single building or a park, or an entire city or | | | | parenting. |
| landscape, making them a perfect metaphor for | | | | Yes, birds are homebodies during the nesting season, |
| obtaining a fresh perspective on a situation, or for | | | | but they also migrate. Birds are free to come and go |
| taking a larger view of an issue. | | | | and many cover vast distances each year, as they |
| Birds often symbolize other things, as well, such as | | | | travel between their summer and their winter homes. |
| human character traits and qualities. There's the proud | | | | They are social creatures, moving in flocks and |
| peacock, the noble eagle, the thieving magpie, | | | | creating great spectacles as they fly. A glimpse of a |
| squabbling crows, and billing and cooing love birds. | | | | V-shaped flock of geese passing overhead thrills us |
| Gliding swans are the perfect picture of grace and | | | | and stirs something in us. We admire their strength and |
| elegance in motion. The hawk is a symbol of war, the | | | | endurance in carrying out such grueling journeys year |
| dove a symbol of peace. | | | | after year. We envy them, too, for they are free to go |
| What else attracts us to birds? Birds have feathers, | | | | beyond mere political boundaries and to cross entire |
| soft to the touch and a joy to look at. Plumage seems | | | | continents. We up north are sorry to see them part |
| to come in an infinite variety of lovely colors and | | | | each autumn and we are heartened to see them |
| patterns, from the subtle, earthy tones of the common | | | | return each spring. The return of such birds as the |
| house sparrow to the outrageous, iridescent regalia of | | | | swallows signals the return of spring, with its promise |
| the showy peacock. Birds are beautiful works of art, | | | | of birth and renewal. |
| signed by nature. Their plumage adds color and | | | | Each spring we are able to welcome them back into |
| spectacle to a humdrum world. Their colors may also | | | | our midsts, for nearly everywhere that humans live, |
| suggest many different locales and associations to us. | | | | birds live also. Birds cover the earth. There is such a |
| For example, those small, round, brown sparrows are | | | | diversity of bird species to fill each ecological niche on |
| homey, comforting and familiar to those of us who live | | | | earth and to contribute to its balance by doing such |
| in temperate climates. They are our backyard friends | | | | things as eating insects and dispersing plant seeds. |
| and neighbors. American cardinals and blue jays are | | | | There are the ducks and moorhens of rural ponds. |
| highly colored, cheerful sights to behold on gray days, | | | | There are birds who live in the forests. There are birds |
| from the tips of their tail feathers to the fanciful crests | | | | in the mountains and birds in the deserts. The |
| on their heads. They are a bit more exotic, yet they | | | | forbidding oceans have their hardy puffins and pelicans. |
| are still familiar backyard friends. Then there are those | | | | Even frozen, icy places have their own birds, the |
| birds who live in far off exotic places, such as African | | | | lovable penguins. |
| pink flamingos and tropical parrots, who sport | | | | Birds adapt to so many different habitats and |
| wonderful tropical colors. We love them, not only for | | | | situations, including human environments. The often |
| their magnificent colors, but also for their association | | | | ignored pigeon is a beautiful bird. (I have cared for and |
| with far-flung lands and exotic adventures. | | | | been grateful to have known many individual pigeons |
| Birds also come in a great variety of shapes and | | | | over the years.) As a species, they have managed to |
| sizes, which further adds to their appeal. We can | | | | adapt to modern cityscapes, substituting cliff-like |
| relate to them, in so far as they, and we, have two | | | | building ledges and bridge girders for their ancestral |
| eyes, one mouth and bilateral symmetry. Yet, they are | | | | cliffs of rock. Other bird species may be less tolerant |
| also very unlike us. They have protruding beaks, from | | | | of such disturbances and avoid the prying eyes of |
| the sparrow's tiny jabbing beak to the toucan's | | | | humans. |
| enormous appendage. They have wings, more unlike | | | | Wherever they choose to live, birds remain symbols of |
| human arms than those of other mammals, or even of | | | | untamed nature, surviving despite man's interference |
| reptiles. In fact, when their wings are folded against | | | | with their habitats. They remain proud and free to the |
| their sides, birds appear to have no arms at all. They | | | | present day. They are also a living link to the |
| also have thin, bare legs and they have claws. Their | | | | mysterious and fascinating history of life on our planet, |
| heads and necks flow smoothly into their bodies. Their | | | | as birds are the surviving heirs to the dinosaurs. One |
| forms create graceful outlines, whether round like a | | | | look at unfeathered baby birds, with their oversized |
| chubby European robin, long like an African parrot, or | | | | beaks and feet, and it is easy to see the dinosaur in |
| sleek like a regal swan. | | | | them. |
| Yes, birds are beautiful to look at, but the beauty of | | | | Each of us may have our own reason, or combination |
| birds is not confined to the visual aspects of shape | | | | of reasons, for loving birds, but their appeal is |
| and color alone, because birds also fill the air with | | | | indisputable and universal. Birds represent the perfect |
| music. They seem to offer us their song simply to | | | | blend of beauty, strength, grace and endurance, from |
| entertain us, and they ask for nothing in return. Like a | | | | the cuteness of a tiny sparrow to the majesty of an |
| garden bursting with colorful flowers, the fantastic | | | | imposing raptor. Birds fill both the eye and the ear with |
| colors and songs of birds seem frivolous and out of | | | | beauty. We enjoy them. We admire them. Sometimes |
| place in a world full of harsh realities. It seems as | | | | we envy them. They add appreciably to the quality of |
| though they were put on earth expressly to make life | | | | our lives and to the diversity of life on earth and the |
| more beautiful. They were not, of course. Their color | | | | world would be a smaller, sadder, emptier place |
| and song serve biological ends in the process of | | | | without them. |
| natural selection, but that does not prevent us from | | | | |