Birds And Humans
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Human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
uses of
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s have, for thousands of years, included both economic uses such as food, and symbolic uses such as art, music, and religion. In terms of economic uses, birds have been hunted for food since
Palaeolithic The Paleolithic or Palaeolithic (), also called the Old Stone Age (from Greek: παλαιός ''palaios'', "old" and λίθος ''lithos'', "stone"), is a period in human prehistory that is distinguished by the original development of stone too ...
times. They have been captured and bred as
poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...
to provide meat and eggs since at least the time of ancient Egypt. Some species have been used, too, to help locate or to catch food, as with
cormorant fishing Cormorant fishing is a traditional fishing technique in which fishermen use trained cormorants to catch fish in rivers. Historically, cormorant fishing has taken place in Japan and China, as well as Greece, North Macedonia, and briefly, England an ...
and the use of
honeyguides Honeyguides (family Indicatoridae) are near passerine birds in the order Piciformes. They are also known as indicator birds, or honey birds, although the latter term is also used more narrowly to refer to species of the genus ''Prodotiscus''. The ...
. Feathers have long been used for bedding, as well as for
quill pen A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually ...
s and for fletching arrows. Today, many species face
habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...
and other threats caused by humans;
bird conservation Bird conservation is a field in the science of conservation biology related to threatened birds. Humans have had a profound effect on many bird species. Over one hundred species have gone extinct in historical times, although the most dramatic hu ...
groups work to protect birds and to influence governments to do so. Birds have appeared in the mythologies and religions of many cultures since ancient
Sumer Sumer () is the earliest known civilization in the historical region of southern Mesopotamia (south-central Iraq), emerging during the Chalcolithic and early Bronze Ages between the sixth and fifth millennium BC. It is one of the cradles of c ...
. For example, the dove was the symbol of the ancient
Mesopotamian goddess Deities in ancient Mesopotamia were almost exclusively anthropomorphic. They were thought to possess extraordinary powers and were often envisioned as being of tremendous physical size. The deities typically wore ''melam'', an ambiguous substan ...
Inanna Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
, the
Canaan Canaan (; Phoenician: 𐤊𐤍𐤏𐤍 – ; he, כְּנַעַן – , in pausa – ; grc-bib, Χανααν – ;The current scholarly edition of the Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus T ...
ite mother goddess
Asherah Asherah (; he, אֲשֵׁרָה, translit=Ăšērā; uga, 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, translit=ʾAṯiratu; akk, 𒀀𒅆𒋥, translit=Aširat; Qatabanian language, Qatabanian: ') in ancient Semitic religion, is a fertility goddess who appears in a ...
, and the Greek goddess
Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
.
Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
, the Greek goddess of wisdom, had a
little owl The little owl (''Athene noctua''), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa. It was introduced into Britain at ...
as her symbol, and, in ancient India, the
peacock Peafowl is a common name for three bird species in the genera ''Pavo (genus), Pavo'' and ''Afropavo'' within the tribe Pavonini of the family Phasianidae, the pheasants and their allies. Male peafowl are referred to as peacocks, and female pea ...
represented
Mother Earth Mother Earth may refer to: *The Earth goddess in any of the world's mythologies *Mother goddess *Mother Nature, a common personification of the Earth and its biosphere as the giver and sustainer of life Written media and literature *Mother Earth ...
. Birds have often been seen as symbols, whether bringing bad luck and death, being sacred, or being used in
heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...
. In terms of entertainment, raptors have been used in
falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...
, while
cagebirds Aviculture is the practice of keeping and breeding birds, especially of wild birds in captivity. Types There are various reasons that people get involved in aviculture. Some people breed birds to preserve a species. Some people breed parrots a ...
have been kept for their
song A song is a musical composition intended to be performed by the human voice. This is often done at distinct and fixed pitches (melodies) using patterns of sound and silence. Songs contain various forms, such as those including the repetitio ...
. Other birds have been raised for the traditional sports of
cockfight A cockfight is a blood sport, held in a ring called a cockpit. The history of raising fowl for fighting goes back 6,000 years. The first documented use of the ''word'' gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or ente ...
ing and
pigeon racing Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained homing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance. The time it takes the animal to cover the specified distance is measured and the bird's rate of travel ...
.
Birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, b ...
, too, has grown to become a major leisure activity. Birds feature in a wide variety of art forms, including in
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
,
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
,
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
and
prose Prose is a form of written or spoken language that follows the natural flow of speech, uses a language's ordinary grammatical structures, or follows the conventions of formal academic writing. It differs from most traditional poetry, where the f ...
,
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and
fashion Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
. Birds also appear in music as well as traditional
dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
and
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
. In certain cases, such as the
bird-and-flower painting Bird-and-flower painting, called () in Chinese, is a kind of Chinese painting with a long tradition in China and is considered one of the treasures of Chinese culture. The was named after its subject matter. It originated in the Tang dynasty wh ...
of China, birds are central to an artistic genre.


Context

Culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...
consists of the
social behaviour Social behavior is behavior among two or more organisms within the same species, and encompasses any behavior in which one member affects the other. This is due to an interaction among those members. Social behavior can be seen as similar to an ...
and norms found in
human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
societies A society is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction, or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. Societi ...
and transmitted through social
learning Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, value (personal and cultural), values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machine learning, machines ...
.
Cultural universals A cultural universal (also called an anthropological universal or human universal) is an element, pattern, trait, or institution that is common to all known human cultures worldwide. Taken together, the whole body of cultural universals is known ...
in all human societies include expressive forms like
art Art is a diverse range of human activity, and resulting product, that involves creative or imaginative talent expressive of technical proficiency, beauty, emotional power, or conceptual ideas. There is no generally agreed definition of wha ...
,
music Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
,
dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
,
ritual A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...
,
religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...
, and
technologies Technology is the application of knowledge to reach practical goals in a specifiable and reproducible way. The word ''technology'' may also mean the product of such an endeavor. The use of technology is widely prevalent in medicine, science, ...
like tool usage,
cooking Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to Outline of food preparation, prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric ...
,
shelter Shelter is a small building giving temporary protection from bad weather or danger. Shelter may also refer to: Places * Port Shelter, Hong Kong * Shelter Bay (disambiguation), various locations * Shelter Cove (disambiguation), various locatio ...
, and
clothing Clothing (also known as clothes, apparel, and attire) are items worn on the body. Typically, clothing is made of fabrics or textiles, but over time it has included garments made from animal skin and other thin sheets of materials and natural ...
. The concept of
material culture Material culture is the aspect of social reality grounded in the objects and architecture that surround people. It includes the usage, consumption, creation, and trade of objects as well as the behaviors, norms, and rituals that the objects creat ...
covers physical expressions such as technology, architecture and art, whereas immaterial culture includes principles of
social organization In sociology, a social organization is a pattern of relationships between and among individuals and social groups. Characteristics of social organization can include qualities such as sexual composition, spatiotemporal cohesion, leadership, s ...
,
mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
,
philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
,
literature Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to include ...
, and
science Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...
. This article describes the roles played by birds in human culture, so defined.


Economic uses

Birds are important economically, providing substantial amounts of food, especially protein, largely but not exclusively from the domestic chicken; feathers and down are used for bedding, insulation, and other purposes.


As food

Birds Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
were among the wild animals hunted for food before the
Neolithic revolution The Neolithic Revolution, or the (First) Agricultural Revolution, was the wide-scale transition of many human cultures during the Neolithic period from a lifestyle of hunting and gathering to one of agriculture and settlement, making an incre ...
and the development of agriculture. For example, in the
Epipaleolithic In archaeology, the Epipalaeolithic or Epipaleolithic (sometimes Epi-paleolithic etc.) is a period occurring between the Upper Paleolithic and Neolithic during the Stone Age. Mesolithic also falls between these two periods, and the two are someti ...
of the
Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...
, between c. 14,500 and 11,500 BP, both
waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which in ...
and
migratory birds Bird migration is the regular seasonal movement, often north and south along a flyway, between breeding and wintering grounds. Many species of bird migrate. Migration carries high costs in predation and mortality, including from hunting by ...
were eaten. Archaeologists have studied the return in terms of energy from captured food compared to the energy expended to capture it; birds provide a smaller return than larger game such as deer, but better than many plant materials. For example, waterfowl captured in a drive can yield a return of around 2,000 kcal/hour, whereas an antelope can yield as much as 31,000 kcal/hour, and wild rye around 1,000 kcal/hour. Birds have been
domesticated Domestication is a sustained multi-generational relationship in which humans assume a significant degree of control over the reproduction and care of another group of organisms to secure a more predictable supply of resources from that group. A ...
and bred as
poultry Poultry () are domesticated birds kept by humans for their eggs, their meat or their feathers. These birds are most typically members of the superorder Galloanserae (fowl), especially the order Galliformes (which includes chickens, quails, a ...
for use as food for at least four thousand years. The most important species is the
chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...
. It appears to have been domesticated by 5000 BC in northeastern China, likely for cockfighting, and only later used for food. In ancient Egypt, poultry including ducks, geese, and pigeons were captured in nets and then bred in captivity. Chicken now provides some 20% of the animal protein eaten by the world's human population in the form of meat and
egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...
s. Chickens are often raised intensively in
battery farm Battery cages are a housing system used for various animal production methods, but primarily for chicken, egg-laying hens. The name arises from the arrangement of rows and columns of identical cages connected together, in a unit, as in an artill ...
s; this facilitates production but has been criticised on animal welfare grounds. Other species including
ducks Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...
,
geese A goose (plural, : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family (biology), family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser (bird), Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some o ...
,
pheasants Pheasants ( ) are birds of several genera within the family Phasianidae in the order Galliformes. Although they can be found all over the world in introduced (and captive) populations, the pheasant genera native range is restricted to Eurasi ...
,
guineafowl Guineafowl (; sometimes called "pet speckled hens" or "original fowl") are birds of the family Numididae in the order Galliformes. They are endemic to Africa and rank among the oldest of the gallinaceous birds. Phylogenetically, they branched o ...
and
turkeys The turkey is a large bird in the genus ''Meleagris'', native to North America. There are two extant turkey species: the wild turkey (''Meleagris gallopavo'') of eastern and central North America and the ocellated turkey (''Meleagris ocellat ...
are significant economically around the world. Less commonly raised species such as the
Common ostrich The common ostrich (''Struthio camelus''), or simply ostrich, is a species of flightless bird native to certain large areas of Africa and is the largest living bird species. It is one of two extant species of ostriches, the only living members o ...
are starting to be farmed for their meat, which is low in
cholesterol Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...
; they have also been kept for their feathers, and for leather from their skin. Birds are hunted in many countries around the world. In the developed world, ducks such as
mallard The mallard () or wild duck (''Anas platyrhynchos'') is a dabbling duck that breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Eurasia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Arge ...
,
wigeon The wigeons or widgeons are a group of birds, dabbling ducks currently classified in the genus ''Mareca'' along with two other species. There are three extant species of wigeon, in addition to one recently extinct species. Biology There are t ...
,
shoveler The shovelers or shovellers are four species of dabbling ducks with long, broad spatula-shaped beaks: * Red shoveler, ''Anas platalea'' * Cape shoveler, ''Anas smithii'' * Australasian shoveler, ''Anas rhynchotis'' * Northern shoveler, ''Anas cl ...
and
teal alt=American teal duck (male), Green-winged teal (male) Teal is a greenish-blue colour. Its name comes from that of a bird — the Eurasian teal (''Anas crecca'') — which presents a similarly coloured stripe on its head. The word is ofte ...
have for centuries been captured by wildfowlers, while pheasants,
partridges A partridge is a medium-sized galliform bird in any of several genera, with a wide native distribution throughout parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. Several species have been introduced to the Americas. They are sometimes grouped in the Perdic ...
,
grouse Grouse are a group of birds from the order Galliformes, in the family Phasianidae. Grouse are presently assigned to the tribe Tetraonini (formerly the subfamily Tetraoninae and the family Tetraonidae), a classification supported by mitochondr ...
, and
snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/camouflaging plumage. The ''Gallinago'' snipes have a near ...
are among the terrestrial birds that are hunted for sport, generally with guns. In other parts of the world, traditional subsistence hunting still continues, as in rural Northern Papua, where
cassowaries Cassowaries ( tpi, muruk, id, kasuari) are flightless birds of the genus ''Casuarius'' in the order Casuariiformes. They are classified as ratites (flightless birds without a keel (bird anatomy), keel on their sternum bones) and are native t ...
,
crowned pigeon The crowned pigeons (''Goura'') is a genus of birds in the family Columbidae. It contains four large species of pigeon that are endemic to the island of New Guinea and a few surrounding islands. The species are extremely similar to each other in ...
s,
hornbill Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family (biology), family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a Casque (an ...
s and
megapode The megapodes, also known as incubator birds or mound-builders, are stocky, medium-large, chicken-like birds with small heads and large feet in the family Megapodiidae. Their name literally means "large foot" and is a reference to the heavy legs ...
s are captured for food.
Seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same enviro ...
s such as muttonbirds,
penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...
s and
auks An auk or alcid is a bird of the family Alcidae in the order Charadriiformes. The alcid family includes the murres, guillemots, auklets, puffins, and murrelets. The word "auk" is derived from Icelandic ''álka'', from Old Norse ''alka'' (a ...
have been hunted for food, formerly with sufficient intensity to threaten many populations and to make some, such as the
great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, wh ...
, extinct. Seabird hunting continues at more moderate levels today, for instance with the traditional Māori harvest of
sooty shearwater The sooty shearwater (''Ardenna grisea'') is a medium-large shearwater in the seabird family Procellariidae. In New Zealand, it is also known by its Māori name , and as muttonbird, like its relatives the wedge-tailed shearwater (''A. pacificus' ...
chicks.


Assisting hunters and gatherers

The archaeological and historical records suggest interdependence between humans and
vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
s for millions of years. Like other animal species, early
hominin The Hominini form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae ("hominines"). Hominini includes the extant genera ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos) and in standard usage excludes the genus ''Gorilla'' (gorillas). The t ...
s probably used these birds as beacons signalling the location of meat, in the form of carcasses, in the landscape.
Cormorant fishing Cormorant fishing is a traditional fishing technique in which fishermen use trained cormorants to catch fish in rivers. Historically, cormorant fishing has taken place in Japan and China, as well as Greece, North Macedonia, and briefly, England an ...
is a traditional fishing method in which trained
cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...
s are used to catch fish in rivers. Historically, cormorant fishing has taken place in
Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
and
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
since about 960 AD. The
greater honeyguide The greater honeyguide (''Indicator indicator'') is a bird in the family Indicatoridae, paleotropical near passerine birds related to the woodpeckers. Its English and scientific names refer to its habit of guiding people to bee colonies. Claims t ...
guides people in some parts of Africa to the nests of wild bees. A guiding bird attracts a person's attention with a chattering call, and flies in short bounds towards a bees' nest. When the human honey-hunter has taken their honey, the honeyguide eats what is left. The
Boran people The Borana is one of the two major subgroups of the Oromo people. They live in the Borena Zone of the Oromia Region and Liben Zone of the Somali Region of Ethiopia, former Northern Frontier District of Northern Kenya,Tana River in the former co ...
of East Africa use a specific whistle, which doubles the encounter rate with honeyguides; they find that using a honeyguide reduces the time to find honey by two-thirds. The
Bushmen The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...
of the
Kalahari The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...
thank the honeyguide with a gift of honey.


Materials

Feathers are used to make warm and soft
bedding Bedding, also known as bedclothes or bed linen, is the materials laid above the mattress of a bed for hygiene, warmth, protection of the mattress, and decorative effect. Bedding is the removable and washable portion of a human sleeping environm ...
, including eiderdowns from the belly down of the
eider duck Eiders () are large seaducks in the genus ''Somateria''. The three extant species all breed in the cooler latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. The down feathers of eider ducks, and some other ducks and geese, are used to fill pillows and quilt ...
, and winter clothing as they have high "loft", trapping a large amount of air for their weight. Feathers were used also for
quill A quill is a writing tool made from a moulted flight feather (preferably a primary wing-feather) of a large bird. Quills were used for writing with ink before the invention of the dip pen, the metal- nibbed pen, the fountain pen, and, eventually ...
pens, for
fletching Fletching is the fin-shaped aerodynamic stabilization device attached on arrows, bolts, darts, or javelins, and are typically made from light semi-flexible materials such as feathers or bark. Each piece of such fin is a fletch, also known as a ...
arrow An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like stabilizers c ...
s, and to decorate
fishing lure A fishing lure is a broad type of artificial angling baits that are replicas designed to mimic real prey animals and attract the attention of predatory fish, using appearances, flashy colors, bright reflections, movements, vibrations and/or lou ...
s. Bird bones were used by
Stone Age The Stone Age was a broad prehistoric period during which stone was widely used to make tools with an edge, a point, or a percussion surface. The period lasted for roughly 3.4 million years, and ended between 4,000 BC and 2,000 BC, with t ...
peoples to make
awls Awl may refer to: Tools * Bradawl, a woodworking hand tool for making small holes * Scratch awl, a woodworking layout and point-making tool used to scribe a line * Stitching awl, a tool for piercing holes in a variety of materials such as leathe ...
and other tools.
Guano Guano (Spanish from qu, wanu) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. As a manure, guano is a highly effective fertilizer due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. G ...
, the droppings of seabirds, rich in
nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
,
phosphorus Phosphorus is a chemical element with the symbol P and atomic number 15. Elemental phosphorus exists in two major forms, white phosphorus and red phosphorus, but because it is highly reactive, phosphorus is never found as a free element on Ear ...
, and
potassium Potassium is the chemical element with the symbol K (from Neo-Latin ''kalium'') and atomic number19. Potassium is a silvery-white metal that is soft enough to be cut with a knife with little force. Potassium metal reacts rapidly with atmosphe ...
, was once important as an agricultural
fertiliser A fertilizer (American English) or fertiliser (British English; see spelling differences) is any material of natural or synthetic origin that is applied to soil or to plant tissues to supply plant nutrients. Fertilizers may be distinct from ...
and is still used in
organic farming Organic farming, also known as ecological farming or biological farming,Labelling, article 30 o''Regulation (EU) 2018/848 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 on organic production and labelling of organic products and re ...
. The
War of the Pacific The War of the Pacific ( es, link=no, Guerra del Pacífico), also known as the Saltpeter War ( es, link=no, Guerra del salitre) and by multiple other names, was a war between Chile and a Bolivian–Peruvian alliance from 1879 to 1884. Fought ...
in 1865 was in part about which country had control of the territory containing valuable guano sources. Today, birds such as the chicken and the
Japanese quail The Japanese quail (''Coturnix japonica''), also known as the coturnix quail, is a species of Old World quail found in East Asia. First considered a subspecies of the common quail, it is now considered as a separate species. The Japanese quail ...
are used as
model organism A model organism (often shortened to model) is a non-human species that is extensively studied to understand particular biological phenomena, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workin ...
s in
ornithological Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the "methodological study and consequent knowledge of birds with all that relates to them." Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and th ...
and more generally in
biological Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary in ...
research, for instance in toxicology.


Clothing and fashion

Feathers have been important and colourful items of clothing and fashion from before the birth of civilisation. Elaborate, brightly coloured headdresses containing feathers are worn by indigenous peoples of the Americas such as the Bororo (Brazil), Bororo of the Mato Grosso. In Polynesia, ''sega ula'' lory bird feathers were major trade items, used to decorate high quality mats in Samoa and Tonga. The use of bird skins for Inuit clothing has been documented across all Inuit groups, although it was most common in the eastern and western Arctic, where larger animals like caribou were less available. In Western culture, feathers are used in Feather boa, boas and decorating elaborate hats and other items of ladies' clothing. Feathers in fashion were a status symbol well into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Belle Époque, Belle Epoque draped its clothing in feathers as ornaments. The Hudson's Bay Company of Canada Swan trade, traded in swans and sometimes Goose, geese, for their skins and quills in the 18th and 19th centuries; the skins were then sent to Europe.Houston, C. S., Ball, T. F., & Houston, M. (2003). ''Appendix E: The nineteenth-century trade in swan skins and quills.'' In Eighteenth-century naturalists of Hudson Bay. Montreal, Que: McGill-Queen's University Press. Ostrich plumes were a luxury commodity in Europe for centuries, leading to serious harm to wild ostrich populations, and subsequent establishment of ostrich farms. Classical 1930s Hollywood films used feathers in abundance, arguably as a metaphor for female sexuality. For example, in the 1935 musical ''Top Hat'', Ginger Rogers danced "Cheek to Cheek" covered in white plumes that emphasised her movements. Late twentieth century designers such as Yves Saint Laurent (designer), Yves Saint Laurent and Alexander McQueen used feathers to make fashion statements.


Sports and hobbies

Bird of prey, Raptors from eagles to small falcons have for centuries been used in
falconry Falconry is the hunting of wild animals in their natural state and habitat by means of a trained bird of prey. Small animals are hunted; squirrels and rabbits often fall prey to these birds. Two traditional terms are used to describe a person ...
, often to catch other birds, whether for pleasure or for food. Cockfighting is an ancient spectator sport. It formed part of the culture of the ancient Indians, Chinese, Greeks, and Romans. It continues to be practised in South America and across South and Southeast Asia, often combined with betting on the result. It is practised in religious ceremonies in Hindu temples in Bali, but is now banned in many countries on grounds of cruelty. Pigeon racing involves releasing specially trained racing pigeons to return to their homes over a measured distance of between . The sport was popularised in Belgium in the 19th century, and is now competitive worldwide. Also in Belgium and Flanders is ''vinkensport'', in which participants have male chaffinches compete to make the most bird calls in an hour.
Birdwatching Birdwatching, or birding, is the observing of birds, either as a recreational activity or as a form of citizen science. A birdwatcher may observe by using their naked eye, by using a visual enhancement device like binoculars or a telescope, b ...
has since the nineteenth century become a major leisure activity. Millions of people around the world, amounting to nearly half of all households in some developed countries, put out birdfeeders to attract birds to their gardens or windowsills, at a cost of billions of dollars each year.


As pets

Aviculture, Cagebirds such as domestic canary, canaries, budgerigars, cockatoos, lovebirds, quails, finches, and parrots are popular pets, whether for their song, their behaviour, their colourful plumage, or their talking bird, ability to mimic speech. Among reasons for their popularity is that they can be kept in homes too small or otherwise unsuitable for dogs or cats. The cagebird trade in some parts of the world threatens certain species with extinction, when birds are illegally captured in the wild. For example, in Indonesia, at least 13 species are close to extinction including the Indonesian national bird, the Javan hawk-eagle, while five subspecies including the scarlet-breasted lorikeet may have become extinct in the wild. Pet birds are kept in their millions, as are domestic fowls, Bantam (poultry), bantams, and pigeons. These last had an important effect on evolutionary biology, as Charles Darwin took an especial interest in pigeon fancying, adopted the hobby himself, and made use of the wide variation between breeds as an argument for the power of selective breeding, selection in his 1859 ''Origin of Species''.


Symbolic uses


Inspiration

The nature writers Mark Cocker and Richard Mabey, reviewing people's love of birds, observe that people are touched by feelings for birds in a variety of ways, such as enjoying the northern lapwing, lapwing's "joyous display", or the "beauty and mystery" of the tawny owl's call on a cold winter's night. They argue that people feel the simple companionship of birds, are inspired by them to create art, let them mark the seasons and provide a sense of place, and use them "as symbols of joy and love". A former statesman, Edward Grey, 1st Viscount Grey of Fallodon, was able to express his feeling for birds in his 1927 book ''The Charm of Birds''. Such feelings, in turn, have stimulated the intention to conserve birds and their habitats. Around the same time as Grey was writing, the first conservation organisations were coming into being, starting in Britain, triggered by the rapid disappearance of familiar species as they were captured for their feathers or for food. A substantial folklore rich in symbolism has accrued around birds; it was documented early in the 20th century as something that was already fading from memory. For example, the house sparrow has been associated with "sex and lechery" since ancient Egypt, where libidinousness was written with the sparrow hieroglyph. In the same vein, in the classical era the sparrow was sacred to the goddess of love,
Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
or Venus (goddess), Venus; the sparrow features in an erotic poem by Catullus for the same reason. Chaucer describes the summoner in his ''Canterbury Tales'' as being as "lecherous as a sparwe". Studies have shown how important birds are to individual societies, touching on all aspects of life. In Andean societies such as the Moche culture, Moche (1–800 AD), Nazca people, Nazca (100–700 AD) and Chimu (1150–1450 AD), bright parrot and macaw feathers were traded from the Amazon rainforest to the mountains and the Pacific coast, while guano was collected as a fertiliser, and artists and craftsmen were inspired to create textiles, metal jewellery, and ceramics depicting condors, cormorants, ducks, hummingbirds, owls, vultures, and waders. Their religions, too, endowed birds with symbolic meaning. The Audubon society, reviewing the importance of birds in 2013, obtained statements from many people with differing perspectives. Among them, the society's science director, Gary Langham, noted that what is good for birds is also good for humans. The writer David Allen Sibley observed that birds bring a little wildness into parks and gardens. The writer Barbara Kingsolver noted that birds are part of life on earth. The actress Jane Alexander wrote "Birds remind us that there are angels." The forensic ornithologist Carla Dove noted that birds are biological indicators of habitat health, climate change, and the coming of spring.


Symbolism and heraldry

Birds have been seen as symbols, and used as such, though perceptions of bird species vary widely across cultures: some birds have a positive image in some regions, a negative image in others. Owls are associated with bad luck, witchcraft, and death in parts of Africa, but are regarded as wise across much of Europe. Hoopoes were considered sacred in Ancient Egypt and symbols of virtue in Persia, but were thought of as thieves across much of Europe, and harbingers of war in Scandinavia. In
heraldry Heraldry is a discipline relating to the design, display and study of armorial bearings (known as armory), as well as related disciplines, such as vexillology, together with the study of ceremony, rank and pedigree. Armory, the best-known branch ...
, birds, especially Eagle (heraldry), eagles, often appear in coats of arms. In Britain, over 3000 pubs have birds in pub names, their names, sometimes commemorating a local family with a bird from their coat of arms, sometimes for other reasons. There are dozens of pubs named "Crow's nest, Crow's Nest" (nautical), "Dog and Duck, Soho, Dog & Duck" (wildfowling), "Eagle & Child" (heraldic), and "Falcon" (heraldic, or falconry), while over 600 pubs are named for swans. Birds, too, may symbolise human attributes such as stupidity or talkativeness. People have been called "birdbrain[ed]" or "cuckoo", among many other animal epithets. Birds feature prominently in often derogatory similes like "noisy as a goose" and metaphors including "to parrot".


Mythology and religion

Birds have appeared in mythology and religion in a variety of guises. Birds have featured as gods from the time of ancient Egypt, where the sacred ibis was venerated as a symbol of the god Thoth. In India, the common peacock, peacock is perceived as Mother Earth among Dravidian peoples, while the Mughal era, Mughal and History of Iran, Persian emperors displayed their godlike authority by sitting in a Peacock Throne. In the Yazidis, Yazidi religion, Melek Taus the "Peacock Angel" is the central figure of their faith. In the cult of Makemake (mythology), Makemake, the Tangata manu birds of Easter Island served as chiefs. Birds have been seen as spirit messengers of the gods. In Norse mythology, Hugin and Munin were common raven, ravens who whispered news into the ears of the god Odin. In the Etruscan mythology, Etruscan and Ancient Rome, Roman Religion in Ancient Rome, religions of History of Italy, ancient Italy, priests were involved in augury, interpreting the words of birds while the "auspex" watched their activities to foretell events. In the Inca and Tiwanaku empires of South America, birds are depicted transgressing the boundaries between the earthly and underground spiritual realms. Indigenous peoples of the central Andes maintain legends of birds passing to and from metaphysical worlds. The mythical chullumpi bird is said to mark the existence of a portal between such worlds, and to transform itself into a llama. Among the Parsees of India and Iran, and among practitioners of Vajrayana Buddhism who believe in the Rebirth (Buddhism), transmigration of souls in Sikkim, Mongolia, Bhutan and Nepal, sky burial has been practised for centuries. In this ritual, corpses are left exposed for griffon vultures to pick clean. The practice is declining, not least because of the Indian vulture crisis, loss of most of the vulture population across South Asia to accidental poisoning by the anti-inflammatory veterinary drug diclofenac. Birds have sometimes served as religious symbols. In ancient Mesopotamia, doves were prominent animal symbols of
Inanna Inanna, also sux, 𒀭𒊩𒌆𒀭𒈾, nin-an-na, label=none is an List of Mesopotamian deities, ancient Mesopotamian goddess of love, war, and fertility. She is also associated with beauty, sex, Divine law, divine justice, and political p ...
(later known as Ishtar), the goddess of love, sexuality, and war, and, in the History of the ancient Levant, ancient Levant, doves were used as symbols for the Ancient Canaanite religion, Canaanite mother goddess
Asherah Asherah (; he, אֲשֵׁרָה, translit=Ăšērā; uga, 𐎀𐎘𐎗𐎚, translit=ʾAṯiratu; akk, 𒀀𒅆𒋥, translit=Aširat; Qatabanian language, Qatabanian: ') in ancient Semitic religion, is a fertility goddess who appears in a ...
.The Enduring Symbolism of Doves, From Ancient Icon to Biblical Mainstay by Dorothy D. Resig BAR Magazine
. Bib-arch.org (9 February 2013). Retrieved on 5 March 2013.
In ancient Greece,
Athena Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is an ancient Greek goddess associated with wisdom, warfare, and handicraft who was later syncretized with the Roman goddess Minerva. Athena was regarded as the patron and protectress of ...
, the goddess of wisdom and patron deity of the city of Athens, had a
little owl The little owl (''Athene noctua''), also known as the owl of Athena or owl of Minerva, is a bird that inhabits much of the temperate and warmer parts of Europe, the Palearctic east to Korea, and North Africa. It was introduced into Britain at ...
as Owl of Athena, her symbol. In Greek iconography, Athena is often shown accompanied by an owl and the owl was used as a symbol of Athens on Athenian coinage. In classical antiquity, doves were sacred to the Greek goddess
Aphrodite Aphrodite ( ; grc-gre, Ἀφροδίτη, Aphrodítē; , , ) is an ancient Greek goddess associated with love, lust, beauty, pleasure, passion, and procreation. She was syncretized with the Roman goddess . Aphrodite's major symbols include ...
, who absorbed this association with doves from Inanna-Ishtar. Aphrodite frequently appears with doves in Pottery of ancient Greece, ancient Greek pottery and, during Aphrodite's main festival, the Aphrodisia, her altars would be purified with the blood of a Animal sacrifice, sacrificed dove. In Medieval Christian iconography, the
cormorant Phalacrocoracidae is a family of approximately 40 species of aquatic birds commonly known as cormorants and shags. Several different classifications of the family have been proposed, but in 2021 the IOC adopted a consensus taxonomy of seven ge ...
's "wing-drying" pose represents the Christian cross, and hence is a figure of Christ. In John Milton's ''Paradise Lost'', on the other hand, the bird's cross-like pose is a travesty of Christ: "Then up he flew, and... Sat like a cormorant; yet not true life Thereby regained, but sat devising death To them who lived". In mythology, birds were sometimes monsters, like the Roc (mythology), Roc and the Māori people, Māori's , a giant bird capable of snatching humans. In Persian mythology, the simurgh was a gigantic bird, the first to come into existence, and it nested on the tree of plant life that grew in the great ocean beside the tree of immortality. Its task was to shake the seeds of all the plants out of the tree.


In the arts

Birds have been depicted throughout the arts from the earliest times to the present, including in painting and sculpture, in literature, in music, in theatre, in traditional dance and ballet, and in film.


Painting and sculpture

Birds have been depicted in paintings, sculptures and other art objects from the earliest times, including in cave paintings. In Chinese painting, Chinese art,
bird-and-flower painting Bird-and-flower painting, called () in Chinese, is a kind of Chinese painting with a long tradition in China and is considered one of the treasures of Chinese culture. The was named after its subject matter. It originated in the Tang dynasty wh ...
forms one of the three major subjects (the others being landscapes and figures), from the time of the Five Dynasties in the 10th century. Huang Quan (painter), Huang Quan created the naturalistic ''xiesheng'' style for bird paintings. Birds have long been celebrated in the Japanese art, arts of Japan, including in painting, woodblock printing, cloisonné, ceramics and indeed poetry from the 18th and 19th centuries. Print artists like Utamaro and Hokusai made use of Western and Chinese influences to give a sophisticated effect, while Hiroshige reworked the traditional bird-and-flower genre. In modern art, some of the paintings of Joan Miró include "A tangle of lines and small, colored ideograms suggesting birds, allegorical characters, stars, and animals". In modern sculpture, Pablo Picasso's 1932 bronze ''Coq'' (Cockerel) is an assemblage of "spiky, elongated forms." In public statue, statuary, the Magyars's mythical Turul symbolises national power and nobility, and is represented by many statues in Hungary, including the largest bird statue in the world, on a mountain near Tatabánya.


Poetry

Birds have been celebrated in
poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek ''poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings i ...
since ancient times, when for example the Roman poet Catullus wrote in one of his most famous works about a girl and her pet Old World sparrow, sparrow in ''Catullus 2, Passer, deliciae meae puellae'', "Sparrow, delight of my girl". Birds featured in medieval poetry, for example forming the characters of the 1177 Persian poem ''The Conference of the Birds'', where the birds of the world assemble under the wisest bird, the hoopoe, to decide who is to be their king. In English romantic poetry, John Keats's 1819 "Ode to a Nightingale" and Percy Bysshe Shelley's 1820 "To a Skylark" are popular classics. Bird poems by Gerard Manley Hopkins include "Sea and Skylark" and "The Windhover" (on the kestrel). More recently, Ted Hughes's 1970 collection of poems about a bird character, "Crow (poetry), Crow", is considered one of his most important works.


Prose

Birds have similarly appeared in literature from ancient times. Among Aesop's Fables are The Wolf and the Crane and The Fox and the Stork; these fables, which have analogues in eastern traditions such as the Buddhist ''Javasakuna Jataka'', use birds to imply moral conclusions about human behaviour. More recently, birds have appeared in books illustrated by some exceptional artists, producing images that were accurate and beautiful, and that made use of the latest available printing techniques. The wood engraver Thomas Bewick's 1797–1804 ''A History of British Birds'' brought affordable illustrations to the public for the first time, and the book formed in effect the first field guide to birds, while John James Audubon's enormous and impressive images of birds in his 1827–1838 ''Birds of America (book), Birds of America'' are among the most admired by art critics and by collectors: early editions fetch among the highest prices paid for any printed books. The ornithologist John Gould's bird illustrations, in books such as ''A Century of Birds hitherto unfigured from the Himalaya Mountains'' (1830–1833) with 80 plates, and his 7-volume ''The Birds of Australia'' (1840–1848) with 600 plates, related directly to his research, were both beautiful and scientifically useful. Birds are popular characters in children's books, which are often handsomely illustrated. Beatrix Potter's 1908 ''The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck'' created an enduringly popular bird heroine. Other authors followed with many bird characters in books for children of different ages. In books for adults, birds may have symbolic or psychological significance. For instance, Paul Gallico's 1940 ''The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk'' was a parable about the regenerative power of friendship in wartime; the goose symbolises both the hero, Rhayader, a wounded artist, and the world wounded by war. T. H. White's 1951 ''The Goshawk'' describes the author's "monstrous and often cruel battles" to train his bird of prey, while Helen Macdonald (writer), Helen Macdonald's 2014 ''H is for Hawk'', which references White's book, tells how her obsession with the same species as a falconer helped her through the loss of her father.


Music

Birds in music, In music, birdsong has influenced composers and musicians in several ways: they can be inspired by birdsong; they can intentionally imitate bird song in a composition, as Antonio Vivaldi, Vivaldi and Beethoven did, along with many later composers; they can incorporate recordings of birds into their works, first seen in the work of Ottorino Respighi; or as Beatrice Harrison did in 1924 with a nightingale, and David Rothenberg did in 2000 with a laughingthrush, they can duet with birds. At least two groups of scientists, namely Luis Felipe Baptista and Robin A. Keister in 2005, and Adam Tierney and colleagues in 2011, have argued that birdsong has a similar structure to music. Baptista and Keister argue that the way birds use variations of rhythm, relationships of musical pitch, and combinations of musical note, notes is somewhat musical, perhaps because some birds exploit variation in song to avoid monotony, or mimicry, mimic other species. Tierney argues that the similar motor constraints on human and avian song drive these to have similar song structures, including "arch-shaped and descending melodic contours in musical phrases", long notes at the ends of phrases, and typically small differences in pitch between adjacent notes.


Dance

Birds feature as central characters in
dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...
traditions around the world. For example, Goldie's bird of paradise is celebrated in Papua New Guinea in a "beautiful" dance by two men who dress in grass skirts with the bird's plumes on the rump; they carry cassowary feathers in their hands and on their armbands, and imitate the bird's calls while they dance. It is performed on important occasions, carrying "special magic", and the performers are obliged to prepare for a week, avoiding certain foods, and undergoing a prolonged submergence in a cold stream to prepare their minds. The dance is preceded by a "magic chant" to the bird of paradise. In Balinese dance, the Cendrawasih (dance), cendrawasih dance illustrates the bird-of-paradise's mating rituals. In Africa, the Ewe people of Ghana, who were said to have been guided from Dahomey to Ghana by a bird, incorporate the flapping of the bird's wings in dances such as ''Agbadza'', ''Atsiagbekor'', and ''Gakpa''. In
ballet Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
, Tchaikovsky's classical 1895 ''Swan Lake'' and Igor Stravinsky's 1910 ''The Firebird'' have central bird characters.


The dramatic arts

In theatre, Aristophanes's 414 BC Greek comedy, comedy ''The Birds (play), The Birds'' (Ancient Greek, Greek: ''Ornithes'') is an acclaimed fantasy with effective mimicry of birds. The play's chorus consists of characters playing many identifiable species, including the kingfisher, Streptopelia, turtledove, and Eurasian sparrowhawk, sparrowhawk; birds feature as messengers and dancers, and several Athenians are compared to specific birds. In
film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
, birds can feature as the major driving force in a story, as in Alfred Hitchcock's acclaimed 1963 ''The Birds (film), The Birds''. Loosely based on Daphne du Maurier's The Birds (story), story of the same name, it tells the tale of sudden attacks on people by violent flocks of birds. A bird plays the role of an outlet for a person's feelings in Ken Loach's much admired 1969 ''Kes (film), Kes''. The film is based on Barry Hines's 1968 novel ''A Kestrel for a Knave'', and tells the story of a young boy who Bildungsroman, comes of age by training a kestrel that he has taken from the nest. Birds feature also in the mass media with iconic animated cartoon characters such as Walt Disney's Donald Duck, Warner Bros.'s Tweety Pie, and Walter Lantz's Woody Woodpecker. The species involved are not always discernible, though Woody has been claimed to be based on the acorn woodpecker, acorn or pileated woodpeckers.


Conservation

Though human activities have allowed the expansion of a few species, such as the barn swallow and European starling, they have caused population decreases or extinction in many other species. Over a hundred bird species have gone extinct in historical times, including the dodo and the
great auk The great auk (''Pinguinus impennis'') is a species of flightless alcid that became extinct in the mid-19th century. It was the only modern species in the genus ''Pinguinus''. It is not closely related to the birds now known as penguins, wh ...
, although the most dramatic human-caused avian extinctions, eradicating an estimated 750–1800 species, occurred during the human colonisation of Melanesian, Polynesian, and Micronesian islands. Many bird populations are declining worldwide, with 1,227 species listed as threatened species, threatened by BirdLife International and the IUCN in 2009. The most commonly cited human threat to birds is Habitat destruction, habitat loss. Other threats include overhunting; accidental mortality due to collisions with bird-skyscraper collisions, buildings and bird strike, vehicles; long-line fishing bycatch; pollution (including oil spills and pesticide use), competition; predation; bird hybrid, hybridisation from nonnative introduced or invasive species; and climate change. The collection of specimens for taxidermy and egg collection, eggs from the wild has at times had a serious effect on some species. It is now forbidden in many countries, such as by the British Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Effects are not all negative; for example, wind farms produce renewable energy, helping to mitigate the single greatest threat to birds, climate change. But, especially if wind farms are poorly sited, they may affect bird populations through disturbance, direct or indirect habitat loss, and collisions. Well sited wind farms benefit birds; poorly sited ones can Bird migration perils, kill many birds in collisions. For example, at the Altamont Pass Wind Farm, Altamont Pass in California, the golden eagle has been reduced by 80%, and nesting has ceased in the area. Thus, there is a trade-off in the siting of any wind farm. Governments and conservation biology, conservation groups work to protect birds, either by passing laws that In-situ conservation, preserve and ecological restoration, restore bird habitat, or by establishing Ex-situ conservation, captive populations for reintroductions. Such projects have produced some successes; one study estimated that conservation efforts saved 16 species of bird that would otherwise have gone extinct between 1994 and 2004, including the California condor and Norfolk parakeet. The British Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, founded as the Plumage League in 1889 to protect birds such as the egret from hunting for their plumes, used in fashion, has grown to have over a million members; it has been followed by similar societies in other countries. A more specialised organisation, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust founded in 1946, works to conserve waterfowl and their wetland habitats, with projects around the world.


References

{{Birds Birds and humans, Birds in art Birds in mythology Biology and culture Animals in culture