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Birds of a Feather Flock Together
This Halloween, I had the good fortune of staying in. Fortunately, for my sanity, I came
across some classic horror movies, and decided to have a scary movie marathon. I watched Night
of the Living Dead, Frankenstein, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and… The Birds. Ok, I was a little
skeptical on watching a ‘horror’ movie about birds, but since I had nothing else to do, I popped it
in. 30 minutes into the film I found myself under all of the blankets in my entire house, writing a
mental letter to Alfred Hitchcock questioning his sanity. One hour and nineteen minutes later, the
film ended. I could now finally crawl out from my nest and start researching my recently
diagnosed phobia. However, I didn’t come across any crude pictures of birds taking over the
world. Instead, I found out how quintessential birds are to the Earth. So, we will first take flight
on the ancient birth of birds, and finally land on the sad predicament that they are in today.
Birds are one of the last surviving species from the dinosaur age. In his book, The Bird: A
Natural History of Who Birds are, Where They Come From, and How they Live, Colin Tudge
dates the existence of the avian species 150 million years back (Tudge). All birds are believed to
evolve from the five hundred pound Pterosaur. According to the 2009 edition of Time for Kids
Magazine, a bird lifts off using its two hind legs. Whereas, the Pterosaur would do this as well,
however, being five hundred pounds it needs four limbs to push itself off the ground to do so
(How a Dino Soared). Another similarity that present day birds share with Pterosaurs is they both
hatch from an egg. Believe it or not, the pterosaur’s egg is not the largest avian egg this world
has seen. The winner of that grand prize is the half ton, 10 foot tall, flightless elephant bird: This
colossal creature birthed its last egg, reaching thirteen inches in diameter, and three hundred
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times the size of a hen’s egg, in the late 1600s (Great Egg-spectations) selling at an astounding
$9000. The astounding history of the avian species has really flown full circle.
Although birds have made a impact on Earth, the world is not reciprocating the love. This
past summer British Petroleum’s oil spill was one of the worst this world has ever seen, resulting
in the deaths of millions of birds. Believe it or not, this is not the only oil spill in North America
that has occurred in the past few years. Alberta, Canada—breeding grounds for the 22-178
million birds—houses another oil spill that has been hushed up. The Birders World Magazine
states that “Scientific data indicates an annual mortality between 458 to 5,029 birds in this area
alone” (2,200 miles Northwest of the Gulf, Birds Drown in Oil). These birds are even giving us a
warning: Birder’s World continues “The Audubon’s Christmas bird count reveals that 58% of
the 305 widespread species that migrate for winter on the continent have shifted significantly
north since 1968, some by hundreds of miles” (Bird Movements Reveal Global Warming
Threat). The drastic shift of birds from south to north clearly demonstrates how global warming
is taking its toll. By examining this data, it is evident that action needs to be taken to save our
world. It is time to take heed to the amber alert for a cleaner planet, issued by these birds.
Clearly, global warming is taking its toll on the earth, forcing a whole species to alter their entire
migration.
So, I definitely overreacted to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic horror film, The Birds. Some
movies only portray the worst qualities in a species. If everyone knew how amazing the history
of the avian was, then we might think twice about the safety of our birds. Finally, if we could act
on the warning all birds are whistling we could save ourselves from the catastrophic events that
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lie ahead for mother Earth. On a personal note, I must have misdiagnosed myself with
ornithophobia, phobia of birds. I mean, I like chicks!
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Works Cited
"2,200 miles Northwest of the Gulf, Birds Drown in Oil." Birder's World 24.6 (2010): 6.
"Bird Movements Reveal Global Warming Threat." USA Today (2009): 9.
"Great Egg-spectations." Current Events, A Weekly Reader Publication (2009): 6.
"How a Dino Soared." Time for Kids 14.5 (2009): 3.
Tudge, Colin. The Bird: A Natural History of Who Birds are, Where they Came from, and How
they Live. Crown, 2009.