To know what life is,
In all its burgeoning splendor,
Look at the evolution of birds.
To thrive in all climates,
They have developed a bewildering variety of forms:
The penguin, the vulture,
The hummingbird, the dodo,
The chatty green parrot, the mute white swan.
They are newcomers to Earth,
Long predated by mammals and reptiles,
But the diversity of birds is staggering.
Study their anatomies, social networks, reproductive strategies, building techniques, travel habits, songs. . .
Profound mysteries await.
Consider our quick-witted neighbor, the crow:
Her rapid adaptation to complex modern environments;
Her precocious tool use;
Her puzzle-solving skills;
Her mimicry of human speech—
All with a brain weighing only half an ounce.
What efficiency!
In the race of life,
The mammals have a head start,
But the birds are faster.
We have the overconfidence of the hare
And the speed of the tortoise.
We’ll probably have to cheat.
Winged miracles, sent to remind us to trust the change of seasons.
ReplyDeleteThat last line made me giggle. I think humans are awfully good at the cheating thing. I love the descriptions of the variety of birds.
ReplyDeleteThe birds are fast indeed. Cheating is key.
ReplyDeleteA derogatory remark to one is to call him/her a "bird brain", contradictory to what I read here. I wish I still had my worn set of bird cards from the Audabon Society. I was pretty good at bird identification for the birds which were on my cards. BTW, we don't have crows here along the Texas Gulf Coast. When young I had called the blackbirds crows. The first crow I saw in aduldhood amazed me as to its large size. That was on the London Tower grounds.
ReplyDelete..
I think the ravens at the Tower tend to be large, even for crows.
DeleteMost animals have a purpose on Earth. All the birds are a case in point. As for mankind I don't know why we are here, we rarely do anything really useful for the world except make a mess.
ReplyDeleteI too giggled at the line about cheating, and I loved these lines especially, as I love corvids:
ReplyDelete‘Consider our quick-witted neighbor, the crow:
Her rapid adaptation to complex modern environments;
Her precocious tool use;
Her puzzle-solving skills;
Her mimicry of human speech’ -
a talented bird indeed!
I very much enjoyed this; particularly loved the perfectly-placed line, 'The chatty green parrot, the mute white swan.' Ans of course I too love crows. Sadly, I think we've already been cheating for a very long time.
ReplyDeleteLove your description of the crows!
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