Opinion on birds

reader comments 81 with Just about anywhere you look, Given their ubiquity—and the enjoyment many people get from seeing and cataloging them—birds offer something that sets them apart from other creatures: an abundance of data. Birds are active year-round, they come in many shapes and colors, and they are relatively simple to identify and appealing to observe. Every year around the world, amateur birdwatchers record millions of sightings in databases that are available for analysis. All that monitoring has revealed some sobering trends. Over the last 50 years, North America has lost a third of its birds, studies suggest, and most bird species are in decline. Because birds are indicators of environmental integrity and of how other, less scrutinized species are doing, data like these should be a call to action, says Peter Marra, a conservation biologist and dean of Georgetown University’s Earth Commons Institute. “If our birds are disappearing, then we’re cutting the legs off beneath us,” he says. “We’re destroying the environment that we depend on.” It’s not all bad news for birds: Some species are increasing in number, data show, and dozens have been saved from extinction. Understanding both the steep declines and the success stories, experts say, could help to inform efforts to protect birds as well as other species. The bad news On his daily walks at dawn along a trail that snakes by several reservoirs near his home in central England, Alexander Lees typically sees a var...

I love birds. When I lived back east in rural central Pennsylvania, I took such joy in identifying all the various kinds throughout the seasons – huge groups of starlings in the summertime; dark-eyed juncos in wintertime; and those cardinals – often sitting as couples. I even recall a male cardinal feeding a female cardinal one time – such gracious care among God’s creatures! Now here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, my delight in birding continues. Spiritually, I believe birds can teach us through their beauty, their perching, and their singing. First, there is the beauty of birds. Such beauty! The iridescent flutter of a hummingbird’s wings never ceases to astound. And those colors! Whether it’s the sunny yellows of goldfinches, the silky red-brown feathers of a Northern Flicker, or the orange eyes of the Spotted Towhee, such colored textures mesmerize. I am reminded of how the psalmist describes humanity as “fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13-14). The exquisitely detailed bird kingdom reflects the richness of humanity, as well, and beckons us to appreciate it more. Second, there are the many perches of birds. A White Crowned Sparrow sits atop a pine tree on our church campus. The American Robin stands stout on the green with its rich red breast still and proud. The family of eagles soars over cliffs between the tall timber of our coastline, choosing carefully which branch to make home. Or that bird, unseen y...

My name is J. Drew Lanham and I’m a Black American ornithologist. A Black birdwatcher. I confess here and declare now multiple identities—race and ethnicity, profession and passion. My love of birds lies at the intersection of these and renders me, and the minuscule percentage of others who would declare themselves the same, a rarity. Like the seldom-seen skulking sparrows so many of us seek, we are few and far between among an overwhelmingly white flock. I celebrate who I am, but like far too many of us “living while Black,” I have also felt the frustration and pain of being discounted or disrespected. Here we go again, some of you may be thinking, the race thing. Some are asking, “Wasn’t Black Birders Week over months ago?” “That overblown Central Park thing was put to rest, right?” But just as I don’t forget assaults with deadly words against friends, I must expand my Blackness and bird love beyond a week. Race is an issue in every aspect of American life, including birding, conservation, nature stewardship, and environmentalism writ large. For birders, it is an issue fledged from the nest of its “founding father,” John James Audubon, and flies fully feathered now in present day. John James Audubon is American birding; the name falls wistfully, almost like a mantra, from admirers’ lips. Mention him, and like Edison and the light bulb or Zuckerberg and Facebook, more people than not will associate the name with a singular thing: birds. Though some would precede Audubon, ...

We enjoyed this thought-provoking question so much that we posed it to our entire staff in an email. The most popular answer was perhaps the most pragmatic: the Red Junglefowl (aka the chicken), chosen because of the huge number of people who benefit from their eggs and meat. Of the many other suggestions, here’s a sample: • Birds that many people consider pest species (gulls, crows, pigeons, etc). They clean up our trash. • Vultures, which clean up the environment and reduce disease by dining on decaying or pest-ridden carrion. • Passenger Pigeons, which taught us a stark lesson about how destructive our species can be. • Rock Pigeons: they can provide meat, their poop can be composted as fertilizer, and they can be used for messaging—leading at least one staff member to suggest they’re even more useful than earth-bound chickens. • Insectivorous birds (including many songbirds), because of their amazing role in controlling insect populations that otherwise consume our food, timber, and other agricultural products. Insect outbreaks can destroy hundreds of millions of hectares and incur millions of dollars in losses. • And last but not least, the stork. Without it, Homo sapiens would have gone extinct millennia ago!

There are some Americans, unfortunately, who will find it hard to care about how animals sentenced to death are slaughtered. We implore them: Why should we accept such cruelty? Would they support the mass killing of cats and dogs in this torturous way? We doubt it. As such, the AVMA should denounce this practice and prioritize the well-being of animals.

We enjoyed this thought-provoking question so much that we posed it to our entire staff in an email. The most popular answer was perhaps the most pragmatic: the Red Junglefowl (aka the chicken), chosen because of the huge number of people who benefit from their eggs and meat. Of the many other suggestions, here’s a sample: • Birds that many people consider pest species (gulls, crows, pigeons, etc). They clean up our trash. • Vultures, which clean up the environment and reduce disease by dining on decaying or pest-ridden carrion. • Passenger Pigeons, which taught us a stark lesson about how destructive our species can be. • Rock Pigeons: they can provide meat, their poop can be composted as fertilizer, and they can be used for messaging—leading at least one staff member to suggest they’re even more useful than earth-bound chickens. • Insectivorous birds (including many songbirds), because of their amazing role in controlling insect populations that otherwise consume our food, timber, and other agricultural products. Insect outbreaks can destroy hundreds of millions of hectares and incur millions of dollars in losses. • And last but not least, the stork. Without it, Homo sapiens would have gone extinct millennia ago!

My name is J. Drew Lanham and I’m a Black American ornithologist. A Black birdwatcher. I confess here and declare now multiple identities—race and ethnicity, profession and passion. My love of birds lies at the intersection of these and renders me, and the minuscule percentage of others who would declare themselves the same, a rarity. Like the seldom-seen skulking sparrows so many of us seek, we are few and far between among an overwhelmingly white flock. I celebrate who I am, but like far too many of us “living while Black,” I have also felt the frustration and pain of being discounted or disrespected. Here we go again, some of you may be thinking, the race thing. Some are asking, “Wasn’t Black Birders Week over months ago?” “That overblown Central Park thing was put to rest, right?” But just as I don’t forget assaults with deadly words against friends, I must expand my Blackness and bird love beyond a week. Race is an issue in every aspect of American life, including birding, conservation, nature stewardship, and environmentalism writ large. For birders, it is an issue fledged from the nest of its “founding father,” John James Audubon, and flies fully feathered now in present day. John James Audubon is American birding; the name falls wistfully, almost like a mantra, from admirers’ lips. Mention him, and like Edison and the light bulb or Zuckerberg and Facebook, more people than not will associate the name with a singular thing: birds. Though some would precede Audubon, ...

I love birds. When I lived back east in rural central Pennsylvania, I took such joy in identifying all the various kinds throughout the seasons – huge groups of starlings in the summertime; dark-eyed juncos in wintertime; and those cardinals – often sitting as couples. I even recall a male cardinal feeding a female cardinal one time – such gracious care among God’s creatures! Now here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, my delight in birding continues. Spiritually, I believe birds can teach us through their beauty, their perching, and their singing. First, there is the beauty of birds. Such beauty! The iridescent flutter of a hummingbird’s wings never ceases to astound. And those colors! Whether it’s the sunny yellows of goldfinches, the silky red-brown feathers of a Northern Flicker, or the orange eyes of the Spotted Towhee, such colored textures mesmerize. I am reminded of how the psalmist describes humanity as “fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well” (Psalm 139:13-14). The exquisitely detailed bird kingdom reflects the richness of humanity, as well, and beckons us to appreciate it more. Second, there are the many perches of birds. A White Crowned Sparrow sits atop a pine tree on our church campus. The American Robin stands stout on the green with its rich red breast still and proud. The family of eagles soars over cliffs between the tall timber of our coastline, choosing carefully which branch to make home. Or that bird, unseen y...

reader comments 81 with Just about anywhere you look, Given their ubiquity—and the enjoyment many people get from seeing and cataloging them—birds offer something that sets them apart from other creatures: an abundance of data. Birds are active year-round, they come in many shapes and colors, and they are relatively simple to identify and appealing to observe. Every year around the world, amateur birdwatchers record millions of sightings in databases that are available for analysis. All that monitoring has revealed some sobering trends. Over the last 50 years, North America has lost a third of its birds, studies suggest, and most bird species are in decline. Because birds are indicators of environmental integrity and of how other, less scrutinized species are doing, data like these should be a call to action, says Peter Marra, a conservation biologist and dean of Georgetown University’s Earth Commons Institute. “If our birds are disappearing, then we’re cutting the legs off beneath us,” he says. “We’re destroying the environment that we depend on.” It’s not all bad news for birds: Some species are increasing in number, data show, and dozens have been saved from extinction. Understanding both the steep declines and the success stories, experts say, could help to inform efforts to protect birds as well as other species. The bad news On his daily walks at dawn along a trail that snakes by several reservoirs near his home in central England, Alexander Lees typically sees a var...

There are some Americans, unfortunately, who will find it hard to care about how animals sentenced to death are slaughtered. We implore them: Why should we accept such cruelty? Would they support the mass killing of cats and dogs in this torturous way? We doubt it. As such, the AVMA should denounce this practice and prioritize the well-being of animals.