Before I start, I wanted to talk about something very serious, birds.
They look innocent enough, small, cute, but often they lead to a condition known as ecological awareness. And birds are often the gateway drug to this condition.
It usually starts innocently enough. Let’s take a look at Larry’s case. All names have been changed to protect those involved.
Larry used to be a very well respected member of his HOA, impeccably manicured lawn, not a weed in sight, carefully manicured barberry and privet, landscaped with hostas, rose, periwinkle and English ivy. The envy of the neighborhood.
While at the hardware store, he walked by the bird feeding section. Thinking one may be a good addition, he buys a little tube feeder, after all, what harm could one little bird feeder do?
Soon these little black and white birds started appearing at the feeder. Larry had no clue what they were. Noticing his new feeder, a neighbor from down the street ends up lending him her old bird book she had laying around.
He soon learns that these cute little birds are Black-capped Chickadees and there are so many birds out there that he didn’t even know about. The book had hundreds!
Soon, he adds a suet feeder, and then a few more feeders. He then starts getting little yellow and black birds he learns are American Goldfinches, they soon become his favorites. He also learns that those goldfinches like the seeds from echinacea, or coneflowers, so he plants a few. And then he learns bee balm is great for hummingbirds, so adds these as well.
Soon the little tube feeder has grown into an addiction.
He starts getting weird looks from his neighbors, his yard becomes less tidy and he has developed an unsettling habit of staring out his window with a pair of binoculars he recently bought. Children are warned from walking by his house.
But soon a great obsession takes hold and these birds at the feeder aren’t satisfying that itch anymore, he needs more birds. He wants to see some of these other birds he sees in his new bird book. He particularly wants to see this large gray bird, called a Great Blue Heron.
He learns of an app, an app that might fulfil that next fix he craves, to see the heron. It does the trick, the app tells him exactly where the meeting place is for that next fix. A little wetland area just a mile down the road.
While out looking for birds, he learns that certain birds will usually only be found in certain types of habitat and certain regions, crushing his dreams of hoping that a burrowing owl will show up at his yard in New York.
But the obsession keeps spiraling and he ends up finding himself in some pretty strange places, like the local garbage dump because someone reported an Iceland Gull!
But as he learns more about birds, and all the threats his yard posed to his new feathered addictions, he stops using pesticides, turns his lights off at night and looks into more native plants he can have in his yard.
And that is just the start of his diagnosis of ecological awareness.
But in the end, is this new addiction bad? Quite the contrary, birds may be a gateway drug to create future environmentalists, because getting more people involved, learning, and then caring about the nature around us is crucial, especially in times like this, where we are hearing dire warnings about climate change and steep declines in bird populations.
Birds may be the first thing people notice and care about, but they aren’t usually the last. Once you care and learn about birds, the environmental curiosity is triggered and you start becoming aware of how interconnected the environment is. You start learning about the other plants, insects, and mammals that birds rely on and in turn rely on birds. Birds serve as pollinators, seed dispersers, insect and small mammal population controls and are indicators for the health of an ecosystem.
Birds are so variable, filling so many niches with so many unique characteristics that they have ensnared so many people in their little claws.
There are so many things about birds that seem to catch our attention and fascinate us. They come in so many different shapes and colors, behaviors and habitats.
If you throw a bunch of random habitat and diet requirements, you will get a vast number of species, their ability to fly and being endothermic has allowed them to have colonized and filled in every ecological gap imaginable, leading to an incredible amount of biodiversity.
Say you go for a walk, how many mammals will you see? Maybe 2-3, insects, probably more than birds, but they are small, easily missed, and depending on weather and time of year, may be almost completely absent. Fish? Only present in certain habitats and then still you probably won’t see any, even if you are overlooking a vast lake. Reptiles and amphibians, again you will either have to be in a warmer climate or start lifting logs to see some and even then, you may not get a huge variety.
There is a good reason birding is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the United States, which is understandable because of how accessible birds are as well. It is believed that now 1 in 3 Americans now watch birds.
It doesn’t matter where you live, there will be birds. Every forest, field, lake and pond can hold new birds to discover. They can lead you to understanding eco regions, types of habitats, because as you learn more, you discover birds prefer different habitats, and if you want to see a specific species, you will need to know where to look.
They are present year round. You can go birding at any point, spring, summer, fall and winter. There will always be birds present and that variety will change throughout the seasons.
They are bold, and a part of our everyday lives. From the flock of pigeons on the telephone wire on the way to work, or the robins in our yard. This abundance and diversity makes them the perfect candidate to open people’s eyes to what natural life is around them. When you become a birder, you don’t just end up learning about birds, you end up learning about so much more.
From habitat types and ecoregions, so you know what kind of habitat certain species can be found in, you’ll have much better luck finding a Wood Duck if you find a nice marsh or pond in the middle of a forest than you would a fast flowing river or large lake. Or if you want an Evening Grosbeak, you would need to look for a nice stand of conifers.
You need to know plants, so you can find the favorite food sources of a particular bird you are looking for. If you are hunting for a rare Connecticut Warbler, you may learn it often seems to like to be around jewelweed.
Or if you are looking for a Redpoll, you will need to know their preferred food source, birches and alders, and be able to ID those plants as well. So inadvertently, you are starting to gain interest in plants, and from there you may start noticing insects more.
You may start to learn about weather patterns and season changes, so you know when to predict good days to go looking for birds. Maybe there is a nice strong north-western wind going across one of the great lakes, possibly pushing birds into the eastern part of the lake near where you are located, you will learn that when you should be out looking for possible jaegers or seaducks. Or there was just a really good wind pushing through in november from texas to the great lakes, you will learn that’s when you should be out looking for the possibility of a rare Cave Swallow in NY.
You will be more aware of the changing of seasons, after all, not all birds look the same year round and to properly ID them, you will need to know what plumage each species is in. From there you will learn about different molt patterns and migration, what triggers it and other topics in bird ecology.
You may even start becoming a connoisseur of certain farming techniques, as Snow Buntings and Horned Larks seem to prefer when certain kinds of manure are spread across winter farm fields.
By getting into birding, you become much more tuned into the natural world around you, its changes and how connected everything is.
Because of all of these reasons, birds can be the perfect tool to introduce people to the natural world, to inspire curiosity and get people to care more about the life around them.
They can lead someone down the path of awareness for the natural word, and who knows where an individual’s path may lead. Maybe they just end up like watching birds in their own yard, there is nothing wrong with that, birds are still enriching their lives or this new found awareness can shape them into the next Sibley, Peterson, Aldo Leopold or Attenborough.
In these days where our government doesn’t have much care for how its actions affect our environment, we need as many people as we can fighting on the side of our planet, caring, and educating others so that it can be protected for generation to come so we still have a healthy planet filled with wonder, and skies filled with birds.
In all, when you learn about birds, this can spark an incredible curiosity and awareness of all the life around you and how it’s all connected. You may find yourself learning about weather patterns to predict migration, plants and habitat types to find specific birds that specialize on them. You will most likely start noticing the impacts that are affecting birds, and the environmental elements as well.
And birds can be that gateway to caring and the desire to help protect the life we see around us and advocating for its protection. And in these times, we need as many people speaking up as possible if we don’t want to continue to see this steep decline and the extinction of more species.
When we teach others about birds, or lead a bird walk, we aren’t just pointing out birds, but increasing their awareness of what’s around us to others. Birds may be one of the first parts of nature people notice, but they typically aren’t the last
“In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught”
-Baba Dioum