Urban Birds

Urban Birds (January 2003)

I've been thinking a lot about birds recently, especially birds that live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, like me. Winter has simplified things, as not much stays around here when the ground and water are frozen. Since the cold came weeks ago, I've seen only seven bird species regularly: pigeons, starlings, house sparrows, Canada geese, gulls, crows and red-tailed hawks—and often, but less frequently: cardinals, blue jays, mallard ducks and mockingbirds. In this kind of weather I don't envy them; watching from the comfort of my well-provisioned, artificially-heated apartment I often think "Wow, gosh, I'm glad I'm not a bird today." Although I would still like to fly.

Getting to know my avian neighbors now, when the pickings are slim, seems like a reasonable undertaking. On the other hand, since it's taken me years to even begin to understand my human neighbors (who are all the same species as me!) it's still kind of formidable. So, with the birds I am trying to stay focused on the really key issues - how they find nourishment and shelter, keep themselves safe, and manage relationships. With humans there are all sorts of other complicating factors: art and religion, politics and race, language and love. We seem to have a lot more leisure time than most animals, who are, in my experience, pretty throroughly preoccupied with the basics - food, home, survival, finding mates, and raising their offspring.

Observing how wild creatures manage these challenges is one of the unique privileges of the urban naturalist. Studying nature in the city seems strange to some people, people who think "nature" is something urbanites can experience only outside of town, or maybe on a visit to a really lavish park. But nature is everywhere. The city is a habitat, created by humans, for humans - and attending to the plants and animals that live here with us is a unique, underappreciated opportunity. Most notably, perhaps, wild birds that make their homes in the city are easy to find and don't seem to care (much) about people watching them.

I am making a series of short films about urban wildife for Cambridge Community Television (CCTV), which runs the public access stations on cable in the city. You can download a Quicktime version of my first program for them from their digital archive. It's about frogs, specifically how and why bullfrogs make their most distinctive sound.

The urban birds programs will be documentaries about animals' lives, but they'll also be about people, from all walks of life: urban ecologists, animal control officers, bird-feeders, students, teachers … all sorts of nature-watchers, and all sorts of people who have had encounters with nature in the city. If you have a story or an idea, please let me know!

I am currently developing three segments:

	My birdfeeder (2nd floor), as viewed from sidewalk.		The Birdfeeder. "Look out the window," I said, trying to sound casual, as Gretchen passed me on her way toward the kitchen for the first time on the first day of 2003. Her jaw actually dropped and she stood there and stared, mouth hanging open, for a good ten seconds, while I grinned. She exhaled finally and whispered, wide-eyed, "Jen, there's a bird out there!" For years now, I've hung a birdfeeder outside our kitchen window, but we have never - not once until now - had anything visit it. Then, inexplicably, on New Year's Day 2003, the motley-looking construction dangling from our second floor kitchen window became a hot spot, a hang-out, a crash pad of sorts, for Passer domesticus, better known as the English or European House Sparrow. more …

	Pigeons flying (Union Square, Somerville, MA) Note range of wing motion!		Inman Square Pigeons. "Pigeons? Why pigeons?" The guy looked disappointed, almost chagrined, like he'd thought I was interesting, but now he had doubts. He liked the urban birds idea, and of course thought film-making was cool, but shouldn't I focus on a more impressive bird? Something less pedestrian? Maybe one that soared? "Pigeons are great fliers!" I said. "Have you ever really watched them? They throw their wings so far up behind their backs that they clap against each other - that's how they make that 'pigeons-taking-off' sound!" Even though this explanation came with a live enactment, Jen-as-giant-pigeon flailing in R.'s kitchen and almost whacking other partygoers while demonstrating the heroic contortions involved in pigeon flight, he was not convinced. I decided I'd better learn some more interesting things about pigeons. So, for a week in January, I visited and photographed the pigeons in Inman Square every day. more ...

	Red-tailed hawk on roof of Weld Hall, Harvard Yard, Cambridge, MA. (Yes, it's that white spot in the middle of the picture.)		Red-tailed Hawks. I am that woman you might have seen around, the one who stopped all of a sudden in Harvard Yard and looked up gleefully, who stood there for a long time, squinting …at the sky, or a treetop, or the steeple of Memorial Church, oblivious to the passersby. That was me waiting through three cycles of "walk/don't walk" at the crosswalk. There was a hawk hunting pigeons above the Central Square Post Office. I see (and hear) red-tailed hawks all the time in Cambridge, now that I know how and where to look for them. I still catch my breath every time. I'm not the only hawkwatcher around, either. Often, if I tell someone "I saw a hawk today," they share a hawk story of their own! If they work in a tall building, it's often about seeing a hawk on a window ledge eating a pigeon or a squirrel. I figured out pretty fast, though, that while most people think hawks are cool, not everyone is delighted to witness firsthand how a raptor strips the flesh from a newly-dead animal using only its beak. more...