Encounters with Birds

            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.

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   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.