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5 Reasons To Love Cats And Birds

December 25, 2025 by Kai Pflug 5 Comments

I am a fairly enthusiastic birder as well as a dedicated servant to currently 13 indoor cats. Sometimes, people ask me if that is a contradiction. It is not. Here is why loving birds and cats is basically the same thing.

1. Similar Elegance

Birds are (mostly) elegant and graceful, and the need to fly keeps them from getting obese. Mammals generally are not graceful and prone to obesity – except for cats (Xiaofei, one of my oldest cats, is an exception).

2. Similar Experience Of Being Ignored

My cats ignore me most of the time. And when watching birds, the one thing I want is for them to ignore me.

3. Similar Effort Spent

Type of EffortBirdsCats
Living with excrementVisiting sewage plantCleaning cat toilets
Getting up too earlyTo see birdsTo feed whiny cats
Spending moneyOn birding stuff and toursOn vets and cat food
Getting dirtyFrom hikingFrom cat hair and vomit
Neglecting paid workCatching a rare migrantCat sleeping on keyboard

4. Similar Social Stigma

Bird nerd versus crazy cat lady / crazy cat man. Same thing, basically.

5. Similar Potential For Social Media Postings

Of bird photos (popular). Of cat photos and videos (extremely popular).

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 22 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well. He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.