"THE MEANING OF BIRDS"

Posted: 03.05.21 in Articles category

An ambitious title for a book which I don't think the content fully lives up to, but how could it, to be fair? I am a fan of the author, Simon Barnes, who has written several very good books that communicate the joy of watching birds. These include 'How to be a bad birdwatcher' which is a true classic and a book I never hesitate to recommend to anyone with a passing interest in birds.

Let's return to 'The Meaning of Birds'. It's a witty and affectionate celebration of birds, as well as an exploration of the ways we as people have treated them both in the past and still today. The final chapter is intriguingly entitled 'Hope is the thing with feathers' and closes with these telling words:

Birds need people these days. We can't duck that. They need us to make room for them, to look after their food supplies, to look after the places where they breed and where they rest and where they winter.

But throughout history, birds have completed us. Birds have told us about flight and colour and music and place and time. We have killed birds for food and for sport. We have domesticated birds and made them part of our lives and ourselves. Birds have helped us to understand the world by means of myth and symbol and story, and birds have taught us to understand the world through scientific thought and observation. Birds have taught us to understand about loss. Birds have shown us how we can restore the world to itself. And, above all, birds have given us joy.

We ought to look after birds because it's our clear moral duty to do so. But when we do this job, we do it also for ourselves. Birds need people, yes we know that.

But here's another fact. People need birds.