A bit of evidence that birds share feelings
Far Afield
By Bert Raynes, Jackson Hole, Wyo.
June 17, 2009
The following wildlife observation was made by Susan Drew in Wilson last month. Perhaps it may jog your memory of some observation you made and can share:
“The other morning ... I heard the familiar ‘thud’ of a bird flying into the reflection of the forest in our window. ... It was alive but sitting lopsided and very still in the feeder. Its feathers were fluffed up and its eyes shut.
“In the past I’ve helped birds with ‘window headaches’ by going out, carefully picking them up, holding them gently in my hands close to my body for warmth until they let me know by squawk or a flutter they were ready to fly away. As I picked this bird up, it didn’t move at all or even tremble. ... After 15 or 20 minutes, I felt it flutter in my hand, open its left eye – the right eye appeared swollen shut – so I took this little red-headed bird with pink chest to a branch of lodgepole pine, and I released it. I watched it sort of hop from one spot to another on the tree, then fly back to the feeder, where it sat again, puffed up and slowly closed its eyes. Other birds returned to the feeder. ... some just eating but some pecking at the injured bird, like saying, ‘Get outta my way.’ Seeing it being picked on. ... I went back. ... I picked it up.
“For over an hour, I sat outside with the bird in my hands. I offered it flight by opening my hands from time to time. ... Once it flew to the pond, where I watched it drink some water, tilting its head up to swallow. Then it puffed its feathers again and closed its eyes.
“As the ground around the pond can be a pretty dangerous place for an injured bird, I went over, picked it up again, but this time it squawked loudly in protest and struggled for freedom. I released it, and it flew back to the feeder, where it remained hunkered down, feathers fluffed, eyes closed for a good while. I went back indoors and, glancing back out the window toward the feeder, witnessed the most incredible thing.
“Another bird came to the feeder, and I watched as it slowly hopped to the injured bird. Then, ever so gently, this visiting bird lowered its head and placed it on the injured bird’s breast. ... In almost slow motion, this bird placed its head next to the hurt bird’s swollen eye, as if in sympathy. Next the visitor picked up a sunflower seed, cracked it open and offered it to the injured bird, which accepted it. How long this kind and gentle act lasted I cannot say; long enough for me to run downstairs, get my camera and take two pictures before the nurse bird flew away. Seconds later, the injured bird gave a couple of weak hops and flew off in the direction the other bird had flown. The injured bird returned to the feeder a few more times during the afternoon and to the pond for more water.
“Some say animals don’t have or express feelings. We tend to think of feelings, emotional feelings, as just a human condition. People with pets, especially dogs, would disagree. Today I learned birds share feelings, too.”
Note: The injured bird was a Cassin’s finch and the “nurse bird” a cowbird.
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Now then, we all know checklists that remind of the things you need to have to do something, whether it’s scuba diving, mountain climbing, baking bread, fishing. (Nature Mapping’s list includes appropriate clothing, bear spray, sunscreen, data sheets and topo maps.)
Well. Kelly kindergarten teacher Ruth Valsing gave her 5-year-olds a blank checklist of things they need to look at birds. The kids were to fill it out. It opened with “Things I need” and had five blanks. Brooke had only No. 1 filled out: “Birds.”
That’s it! Thousands of books and articles have been written about bird watching, classes are taught, an industry surrounds the activity, but Brooke has summarized it down to its essential. If you’re gonna be a bird watcher, you need birds.
That’s not all of Brooke’s bird watching wisdom: “Go outsid. (sic) Look up in the ski, and if they are not in the sky you put down the seds. You wat for the birds to cum.”
She’s got it nailed.
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Field Notes: A wet, cool spring delays some flowers, some nesting for certain birds, and influences populations of small mammals. Small mammals, mice, voles, ground squirrels, pocket gophers, are the base of the food chain for many other animal and bird species. Influences of the weather will be demonstrated in the near and longer terms.
Meanwhile, Western tanagers are making a robust spring migration in the region for the first time in some years. Reported from all over the valley. Noteworthy are the 60 Western tanagers, banded in just one morning session in the protected Karns Meadow in Jackson on Thursday; Jennifer McCabe.
Seems that about all the birds on the checklist are active now. Some have produced young; some species are nest; a few (phalaropes, shorebirds) will depart in a few weeks.
Moose, elk, deer, bison and pronghorn have young, or will shortly. Forage is good, so prospects are good.
And when a couple of warm sunny days in succession arrive, stand out of the way of wildflowers.
© Bert Raynes 2009
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Bert Raynes writes weekly on whatever suits his fancy with a dash of news on nature and its many ways.
;)
