Sometimes birding feels less like an escape — not from the birds, obviously, but from the species that invented noise pollution, online comments, and motivational hashtags. An evolutionary wrong turn? I think so. Here are ten reminders of why birds are better than humans.
They Don’t Need Motivation Quotes.
They wake up, sing, and get things done — no “Live, Laugh, Love” required.
They Share Without Oversharing.
A bird might warn its flock about a hawk, but it doesn’t post twelve updates about its lunch.
They Don’t Pretend to Be Smarter Than They Are.
Even the cleverest crow isn’t trying to launch a cryptocurrency exchange.
They Have Style Without Trying.
Even the drabbest sparrow looks coordinated. Humans invented Crocs.
They Don’t Need Wi-Fi.
They navigate continents using magnetic fields, stars, and memory. We lose signal in parking garages.
They Don’t Need Belief Systems to Behave Decently.
No commandments, no holy books — and yet not a single crusade or massacre.
They Don’t Claim to Love Nature While Destroying It.
Birds don’t attend “eco-retreats” reachable only by long-haul flights.
They Don’t Need Hope to Keep Going.
Humans write motivational books about resilience; birds endure the storm and move on.
They Don’t Invent Artificial Intelligence.
They already have the natural kind.
They Don’t Call Themselves Exceptional.
They just are — without the press releases, TED talks, or delusions of grandeur.
I, for one, root for them, not my team.
Photo: Pied Currawong, Brisbane area, Australia, December 2016
Now you ‘re talking. If I may, to this I might add: Birds have hard lives, but they just get on with the job at hand whatever it may be. No whining, calling in sick or fretting. If they are on the continent of Africa in April and need to be above the Arctic Circle in May, they just take off and do it.