The Science of Birds

Around a month I ago, I started reading The Conference of the Birds by Attar of Nishapur. A Great poem about a Hoopoe who starts a journey with a group of other birds in search of Simorgh, a mythical Persian bird, that in this poem is a metaphor for god. As the author was a Sufi, during their long journey, the birds tried to be enlightened for the right path. Now it happened that I started reading the poem around the same time that I started listening to your podcast, and in some way, it seems you became my Hoopoe. It seems that you, with your well written podcasts full of boring jokes, are showing me the way as the Hoopoe does for the birds (off course they represent man) that get prevented from attaining enlightenment because of bird (human) error. It is not that I really see you as the messenger of Solomon, spraying feces around, but rather as the Hoopoe of Makor from the book of James A Michiner, The Source. More as, the clever lad who was always busy and stuck his nose in every hole. Someone who could dedicate an episode on analyzing scientifically how loud people around birding spots can be avoided, as the Hoopoe of Makor masterfully designed a hidden cave, from which the women of Makor could get to their well, even in times of attack from the outside. During your well prepared and structured episodes, I realized that I am somehow still a baby inside an eggshell of unknown bird with the most crazy pelvis you can imagine, but It is you, that with use of your uropygial gland is filling up my pores with antibiotic protection. As I work in a refugee center, this is helpful, and the link with avian migration is easy made. Wishing for enzymes in the eyes of human migrants, that signals for wicked people on the road, one way or round trip, learning new songs and calls, struggling all the way, more and more, thanks to the most intelligent creature. Giving me insight how this most intelligent creature, that seems not to be intelligent enough to understand the intelligence of lots of other creatures….as my compatriot Hans de Waal explained perfectly well, created artificial intelligence for the good of bird research. You made me dream of installing my own microphones on the top of my roof for monitoring avian species that migrate at night. It really feels like that every episode confronts me, and as the Hoopoe leads the group of birds to Simorgh they finally find out that he’s not really at where his nest should be, but find a lake and see the reflection of themselves. I am (and become a better) birder and human (because of you), that would like to hear an episode about flocks as information centers, as investigated by Chavos Campos in antbirds.