What if ... there were no birds?

    About a year ago I was challenged by a local friend with a question for this column. I asked him what might that look like and he quickly ticked off issues to the significant impact this question would have on our current quality of life. What if birds did not exist? For these unique air, ground and water fowl keep our planet livable in a multiplicity of ways. Here are a few of them.

    What would camping be like without birds? Imagine the overwhelming odds uneaten insects would have upon the enjoyment of our day and evening campfires. The picture causes me to physically shudder at the thought of all those mosquitoes, black flies, gnats, no-see-ums and horse flies. When deer ticks bite into our skin, they leave a small reddish bull's eye welt, handily confirming the danger of their attack.  Remove the greatest restraint on insect populations and we could well count on having not one – but multiple welts. Camping grounds might not even exist and four season vacation spots would be limited to three seasons - maybe less.

    Quoting from birdlife.org, please note. “The domestication of the Red Jungle fowl and the Rock Dove were seminal events for human food security. In the past 10,000 years (on any one day there are some 25 billion chickens alive on earth): domesticated geese, ducks, guinea-fowl, turkeys and quail make important contributions to human diets.”

    With no birds, the variety of what we consume would be seriously lacking. Where would Thanksgiving be without a well done fowl or the signature Chinese presentation of Peking Duck. Manage their lives carefully, let some live and be guaranteed the enjoyment of all manner of eggs. 

    With no birds migrating from the north to the south across the North American continent twice a year, there would be minimal seed distribution. That is one of the ways the area surrounding Mt. St. Helens has so quickly created new growth of all types of trees, bushes and grasses. “In the high mountains of the American West, there's a tree called the white bark pine with large seeds which grizzlies and black bears love to eat. The tree's seeds are dispersed by just one bird: the Clark's nutcracker, a black-and-white-winged cousin to the crow.” If this nutcracker did not exist, these bears would be out of one of their main food supplies.

    Birds give us two additional favors: their colors and their sounds. The primary means of their flight, their feathers attached in full plumes and arranged with such magnificent hues of every color we can imagine. What would a forest or a garden be without the calls of cat birds, robins, orioles, blue birds? Their sounds sweeten our hearing with the melodies of music. Go to any symphony orchestra and you will hear during the warm-up, the sounds of birds calling to one another, from pianos to all manner of flutes to violins. I can't imagine a world without music!

    Be it penguins swimming effortlessly in the arctic oceans to eagles riding the air currents far above our heads, without birds - our ability to appreciate the majesty and the call of the wild would be severely hampered. So, thank you God, for birds.

Be Well.