Birds
are a group of animals that humans have little to no control over. They have
the ability to fly and land anywhere with little effort and resemble a sense of
freedom in our society. My experience with birds this week ranged from
pleasurable, indifferent, and also negative. Birds occupy a high position in
the animal hierarchy; they occupy a position above many small mammals and
reptiles and usually lack predators.
A
positive experience I had with birds is with the birds I feed with my
birdfeeder on my patio. Many small song birds come to feed on the food I put
out for them and sometimes they have internal conflicts and fight with each
other for the food. Songbirds and other small birds are seen by humans as a pleasant
compliment to the natural world. Songbirds may become prey to small mammals
like cats but they do not have many predators and live a peaceful life. Some
songbirds are kept in cages as pets for humans but many people including myself
feed the wild ones and enjoy their presence without restricting their free
lifestyle.
A
neutral experience I had this week with birds was with the pigeons that sit on
traffic lights. These pigeons occupy a traffic light on Mission St. and are
always found sitting on that light. Even when I went on Google street view to
find a picture of this intersection these pigeons were present. Pigeons are viewed by humans as either a pest
or as a bird that has no positive or negative effect on their lives. In the
animal kingdom, pigeons may occupy a higher position than song birds, due to
their larger size, but in the human hierarchy of animals pigeons occupy a lower
position than songbirds. This is because pigeons are not seen as an animal that
contributes positively to human life.
A
species of bird that has always had a negative effect to me is the crow. Crows
have been viewed in human literature and culture as a bird that is both smart
and cunning but also an annoyance. Crows are large and lack almost any
predators. My experience with crows starts every morning during which they incessantly
caw at each other and at hawks, thus prematurely waking me up from my slumber. Crows
have also stolen my lunch from me as a child. Interactions between humans and
crows have always resulted in the crows getting the upper hand. Crows use human
inventions, such as cars to break tough nuts, or scavenge food from human food
products. Since crows are seen as smart animals they are put high in the
hierarchy of animals, however since they are also seen as deceiving and selfish
they are not regarded with high esteem by humanity.
