Birding

No Bird Left Behind… Except on Mars?

May 18, 2026 by Kai Pflug No Comments

Billionaires dream of colonizing Mars. Earth’s real residents—the birds—face shrinking forests, drying wetlands, warming oceans, and a deluge of plastic. And they have no private spaceship.

In the local park, a tree sparrow feeds her chicks, a bulbul chats with his neighbors, and a magpie-robin alternates between sweet song and ugly noises. They have no plan B, just this one planet. And us, which is not especially reassuring.

So while humans invest in space tourism, birds remind at least some of us that Earth is non-negotiable. The real adventure is protecting the world we have. Flying rockets are no substitute for flying birds.

Note: “This post was partly inspired by Jobi Riccio’s song Wildfire Season, particularly these lines:

I’ve been having a hard time this week
The smoke is so thick and the news is so bleak
And the richest in the history of man
Keep talking about space like it’s the promised land
While records break and waters rise
And we’re hunted by the hands of time

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.