I love to watch wild birds: the quick movements and hyper-vigilance of the little of the sparrows. A cardinal pair negotiating the fence, foliage and yard are clearly working as a team. Nuthatches poised head-down on the tree-trunk. The downy woodpecker on our suet feeder. Or is that a hairy woodpecker? The red-bellied woodpecker. Yesterday I saw a red-headed woodpecker on the trunk of our massive white pine. (Well, maybe "massive" is a bit of exaggeration.) Several years ago while sitting at my kitchen table I saw a pileated woodpecker on the trunk of our elm tree, not more than ten feet from the ground and twenty feet from my window. That was a thrill.
Looking out beyond my yard we have the flocks of turkey vulture. A flock of turkey vultures circle in the sky is really quite impressive. Last summer my neighbor Sharon deposited some road-kill in her trash can. The next couple days we had a black vulture poised on the peak of our roof.
The owls! Walking the dog along the bike path at dusk I've heard the barred owls' calls. There is no mistaking that call. I have seen many screech owls. We once had a very old maple tree by our drive. It had a hole about 15 feet up that was often inhabited by creatures. For a while it was the home of a screech owl; a most unfortunate location: I found him dead on the highway after a few days.
We keep two pairs of finches: a pair of blue-capped cordon blue finches and a pair of spice finches. The blues are dimorphic, so I know one to be female and the other male, but I cannot be certain of the spice finches. At least one of the spice finches is female because we've found eggs. When I put fresh bath water in with the spice finches one of them sings a little song. It is the only time that I ever hear that song, when they are bathing in fresh water.
The male blue-capped is a sorry-looking bird. I had to have his foot amputated due to an injury, so I often call him Ahab. But calling him Ahab isn't really fair: his persistence is not driven by rage or vengeance. What is it that drives him? Who can know this? Life drives him. As they say, "it is better than the alternative." We've had cordon blues in the past and they have a very distinctive 7-note song which is sung by the male as he dances with some nesting material in his beak. Blue doesn't sing this song, but the female will sing it and dance. It sounds a little different, but it is a very similar pattern song. She has pecked all of the feathers from his head. She is very persistent. Blue does his best, but mating with one good leg and one stump is an awkward affair. Hen-pecked! Soon I will need to separate them so that his feathers can grow back.
Birds are not like dogs. It is easy to understand the motivations of a dog. They've adapted to humans and we understand them pretty well. They are not the same as humans, but you can attribute many human motivations to their behaviors and they consistently predict the results. Is it because they are also mammals? Somewhat, but mostly it is because dogs are created by humans and have a cognitive symbiosis which is a consequence of their development... and ours.
Birds are different. We understand their motivations through study, a cold, scientific attempt to connect with their existence. We don't have the cognitive connection which molds our two species together as with dogs. Birds are in their own way alien to us. Dogs connect us to the present, and sometimes remind us of the recent past and their connection to wolves. Birds are a reminder of a past beyond the experience of humans, beyond the experience of any primate which would be recognizable to us. They are the reminder that once mammals were the creatures that filled in the cracks, eking out a living while avoiding those bird ancestors. It is just pure chance that puts us in this position.
Birds fascinate me.
