“WHY DO PEOPLE WATCH BIRDS?”

Rex Burress

In December, people are flocking to the marshes in Central California to see the Snow Geese. Whether the migrants are drifting in from a long journey in the sky, or rising in a thunderous cloud of wing-beats, bird watchers find them fascinating.

Why do people watch birds? One could cite beauty as a reason, but then what is beauty? Beauty, perhaps, like most things, is relative to your perception, it is said. The vivid red feathers of a cardinal are not apparent to a color-blind person or a dog, and environmental detail is often overlooked, yet fascination at the mere existence of life is often at the heart of wildlife watching.

More than beauty, however, is the wonder of the way birds move and survive under rigorous climate conditions. The wonder of flight, and the mystery, and the freedom of choosing flight paths, tweaks the imagination of man. How do they manage to wing their way to celestial glory and find habitat niches? The origin of feathers; the feather functions; the molting; the bill adaptations; the nest-building; the hunt for food—all of these things mount an urge to see birds...over and over.

There are bird watchers intent on seeing bird species in order to record them in their life-lists. The “lifers” spend time and money in order to observe a certain bird in an effort to list as many of the 9000 species on earth they can. Being enthralled about the aesthetics, or the life-history, is sometimes secondary to verifying a bird's existence. The bird quest game also takes the form of “Big Day” compilations, recording bird numbers on the Audubon Christmas Bird Count, and seeing birds during the Snow Goose Festival in late January.

People do not tire of observing animals and rivers and watching for birds like they do of seeing cars or holiday shoppers or TV shows...at least “to those who in the love of nature hold communion with her visible forms,” as William Cullen Bryant declared.

Why do people take long vacation trips? Other than connecting with friends and relatives, most journeys are about seeing advertised landmarks and connecting with “far away places with strange sounding names.”. There are those who do scientific research, while others might be in quest of discovery and finding photogenic places. Ultimately, explorations involve satisfying a curiosity about what exists 'around the next bend.'

In an age of digital-video use, there are few places on Earth, or few birds, that have not been photographed and presented to the public. Still, there is an urge “to see it for yourself'' in three- dimensional reality and witness the raw ingredients of life. Such was the case for Brent McGhie of Oroville, CA, who had a life-long ambition to hike the Inca Trail in Peru and see the ruins of Machu Picchu. He was able to do it in 2015 after his retirement, and being the biologist that he is, I know he was also intent on birds and plants.

I am reminded of John Muir's desire to see the Monkey-Puzzle Trees in the Chilean mountains of South America. Muir was 73 when he embarked on a 1911 one-year steamboat journey that took him to the Araucaria tree habitat, reached by side-travel across Argentina on horseback and train. From there he went on to Africa to see the Baobab Trees, and dutifully recorded birds and habitats along the way, as a naturalist is prone to do. “This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere.” --John Muir

More recently in December, my cousins from Missouri drove to California for the first time. They arrived when Oroville was having some lovely late fall color, but it wasn't very impressive for folks from the Midwest where the autumnal trees show a profusion of vivid colors. They were quite interested, however, in the “white-trunked orchard trees,” and the wind turbines of New Mexico. Neither was the Feather River overwhelming since they live near the “Big Muddy—Missouri River,” but the highest earth-filled dam in America did score points, as did the abundance of white, salmon-eating gulls on the dark river!

“If the bird has not preached to me, it has added to the resources of my life, it has widened the field of my interests, it has afforded me another beautiful object to love, and has helped me to feel more at home in this world.” --Naturalist John Burroughs