Demotivation seems to have found its flock. In a world obsessed with positivity, our commitment to mild despair has become oddly reassuring. Birds know better than most that not every takeoff ends in glory.
Perhaps that’s the point. Migration is long and repetitive, food is scarce, and the best perches are already taken. Why keep flying when the view rarely changes?
And so, in service to the comfortably unambitious, we present Part V — a modest salute to birds who no longer bother pretending to soar.
Kai has lived in Shanghai for more than 21 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.
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