Re: bird haters?

["Joshua S. Rose" <jsr6@duke.edu>]

On Sat, 14 Dec 2002, Leah Campbell wrote:
>
> I am confused and disturbed by some folks' sentiment that birds are "nasty
> creatures." I cannot begin to fathom the resoning behind this notion. Some
> will say that birds carry diseases; others are repulsed by bird droppings.

Some people are just generally averse to any trace of the natural world.
When my wife worked at the NC botanical garden, one of her tasks was to
prune plants back away from the trails. Apparently many garden visitors
were afraid to let the plants touch them!

It probably doesn't help that most such folks are only exposed to captive
birds, which are locked in cages and so forced to live in close proximity
to their own filth. Very few wild birds live like this (vultures and
hornbills are the only ones that come to mind). Of course, having visited
a few large bird nesting colonies, I have to admit they were pretty
unsanitary (especially the cormorants), but these are exceptions. Your
average robin, chickadee, or warbler is very neat. They HAVE to be; bird
feathers don't work if they're not clean, which means no flying! They also
don't work for insulation if they're dirty. That's why they spend so much
time preening. And why birds in oil spills are in such trouble.

And birds do carry diseases, like Salmonella and West Nile Virus. But the
odds of catching a disease from any one bird is much, much less than the
odds of catching one from any one human! Just think back in your own life,
how many times you've gotten sick from contact with humans, compared to
how many illnesses you've contracted from birds or any other nonhuman
animals...

> What should I say to the next person who tells me "birds are nasty"? I would
> love to have a great comeback, but I'm usually too stunned to say anything.
> Anyone else ever been in this situation?

I never have, but a few ideas for snappy comebacks:

1. Birds spend more time preening their feathers per day than you spend
washing your hair in a week!

2. How would you look if you spent your life locked in a cage with no
toilet, just a bunch of newspapers?

3. Eeeew, a human! You guys carry SO many diseases! Colds, flu, malaria,
measles, smallpox, AIDS....

4. Birds poop an ounce or so in our backyards. We spill and dump thousands
of tons of oil, trash, smog, and sewage in theirs. So who's the nasty one
here?

(and if the person who called birds nasty is a smoker, or drives an SUV,
or eats meat from factory farms with waste lagoons, or owns a jet-ski or
snowmobile, or voted for anyone who then tried to weaken clean air and
water laws; well, then the mind just boggles with potential responses!)

Good birding,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose
Duke University
Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)

jsr6@duke.edu
http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/