What is it about birds that we humans find so fascinating? Why do we fight the bitter cold before the sun rises, walk long distances in the woods, strain our necks searching for some warbler in the tops of pine trees, stand for hours on a windswept ocean bluff, crane our necks to see some speck of a bird through our spotting scope?
Rufuous Hummingbird
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Is it because birds can fly? Do we wish we could fold our wings and stoop at 200 miles per hour like the Peregrine Falcon, or soar effortlessly for thousands of miles without stopping, even sleeping on the wing, like the Wandering Albatross? Do we marvel at the impossible distances birds migrate, like the tiny hummingbird that weighs as much as a penny, but flies nonstop over the Gulf of Mexico, and can even fly backwards? And how can the Bar-tailed Godwit, born in the Aleutian Islands, and without help from its parents, fly six thousand miles nonstop to New Zealand to the very patch of ground where its parents spent their last winter?
How about their eyesight? Did you know that birds have ultraviolet receptors, and the American Kestrel can see the urine trails of its prey? Can you imagine what it must be like to be able to see the magnetic fields of the earth, or to see a rabbit from a mile away like the Golden Eagle?
What about their communication skills? Who hasn't marveled at — or cursed at — a Northern Mockingbird singing all night long, imitating other birds, and frogs, and car alarms, and squeaky gates? How can you not be moved at the sight of several thousand Western Sandpipers in flight, seemingly moving as one organism, in unison, flashing their white undersides like a beacon?
Golden Eagle
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It's their plumage, right? Can anything compare to the beauty of a Townsend's Warbler, or the scarlet of a certain Tanager, or the improbably colored red, blue, and green of a Painted Bunting, or even, when caught just right in the sun, the glossy greens and purples of a Brewer's Blackbird?
Townsend's Warbler
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Is there a birder alive who hasn't wondered how to pronounce Vaux's Swift, or Northern Jacana, or thrilled at the sight of one of the few remaining California Condors, soaring silently overhead? And what juvenile male (essentially every male birder on the planet) hasn't snickered at the mention of Bushtit? And how many environmentally conscious birders have wondered how to justify the blatant use of fossil fuels driving the length of the state to see the first North American record of Little Curlew?
Are there other questions? Oh yes, like how in the world can a bird weave an elaborate nest without opposable thumbs, or how can a woodpecker smash its bill into an oak tree without mashing his brains, or how can a Western Scrub jay remember where she "planted" several hundred acorns, or how can a Cooper's Hawk fly full speed through dense shrubbery for its lunch?
Is there any question that birds are fascinating?
