The Joy of Birding
How to build a relationship with your feathered friends
Can you imagine stepping outside into your garden or taking a walk in a park and not hearing any birdsong? Not even a chirp or a tweet? You don’t have to be a birder to appreciate how strange that would be. How very eerie.
Deep Historical Connection
Humans have roughly lived on Earth for 6 million years. None of those millions of years have been without our feathery friends since birds originated around 60 million years ago.
The very first hominids who lived in east Africa- in what is roughly today Ethiopia- must have collected berries and hugged their children while spotting birds sitting in the nearby trees or soaring in the azure sky. They too, like us, would’ve seen these winged creatures hopping on the ground in the early hours of the day or flapping their wings to get back to their nests as the sun set in the West. I think this is an extraordinary fact. It shows that our historic connection with birds is very deep. So let this sink in: birds are one of the few species that have been knitted into our everyday lives since the dawn of human history.
Common Ancestor
An even more astounding fact is that birds and humans have a common ancestor. If we dig deep enough into our evolutionary history, we discover that approximately 300 million years ago, we had a shared ancestor: the clade Amniotes, who looked, strangely, neither human nor bird. This shared heritage might be the reason why we have common traits till today, including a four-footed body plan, the ability to reproduce without a water source and having a backbone.
Birds and Our Mental Health
Not only do birds keep us company while we sullenly weed our gardens but they have a profound effect on our mental health. A study published in the journal Bioscience (2017) by researchers at the University of Exeter showed that, “People living in neighborhoods with more birds, shrubs and trees are less likely to suffer from depression, anxiety and stress.” The researchers found that even common backyard birds like robins, blackbirds, house sparrows, blue tits and crows, all invoke positive feelings and reduce stress.
This should come as no surprise. Our connection to nature is in some ways mediated by plants, trees and their dwellers. Whether we are sipping tea in our own backyard or summiting a mountain, birds surround us. And when we delve deeply into our natural environment, our senses are heightened and we are grounded to the present. We are simultaneously relaxed and stimulated if we let ourselves sink into the moment.
Connection to Prehistory
Like many self-respecting adults, I love dinosaurs like kids love candy. Although my academic training is in anthropology and history (both rooted in the human experience), my fixation with dinosaurs and prehistoric times over the years has taken a life of its own. So it is no wonder that I find birds — the direct descendants of dinosaurs living today- so utterly awe-inspiring. I will totally write more about this topic soon so follow me if you are interested. But suffice is to say that if we want to understand dinosaurs, we should observe and care for their successors today.
Human Fascination with Flying
It would be amiss to write this article without mentioning another reason why birds have mesmerized us from time bygone: their ability to fly. Much before the Andalusian genius Abbas ibn Farnas took humankind’s first flight in 875 AD, we have been enraptured by how seamlessly birds defy the pull of gravity and soar to great heights and unreachable places. Even with air travel being so ubiquitous, we continue to be enthralled by our raptor friends. This obsession is evident in how we think about dragons, Superman, and Ms. Marvel’s ability to take flight at a whim. If only we could take off and fly.
How to Get Involved
So, what should you do to consciously make birds a part of your life? As a budding birder myself, this is what I would suggest:
- Go for a walk outside. Once in a while, don’t wear your earphones and tune into the sounds surrounding you: what’s rustling in the leaves? Do you hear any tweets or chirps? Try going for walk early in the morning or closer to sunset. That’s when birds are busiest and going about their chores for the day.
- Set up bird feeders close (but not too close) to a window or a sliding door so you can spot birds even when you are inside.
- Get a bird identifying app on your phone. I use Cornell University’s app Merlin. Learning bird names and species makes things interesting and fosters our connection with them.
- Buy a book about birds in your region.
- Follow Audubon Society’s posts on social media. They are working on conserving bird life and post wonderful articles that might just stoke your interests.
- If you live in a busy city, visit a local bird preserve, the zoo’s aviary or any forested area to spot more birds and immerse yourself in their habitat.
Take your cup of coffee outside today and give yourself the time to notice whether the pine tree in your neighborhood is home to a bright red cardinal or a blue jay. Was that dark silhouette in the sky a raven or a robin? Whatever you do, absorb the job of birding into your life.
Looking forwarding to hearing about your adventures with our feathery friends.
