Did you know that insect-eating birds protect Jamaican coffee crops from borers that infest coffee berries? Or that birds safeguard apple orchards in the Netherlands, and white oaks in the Missouri Ozarks? Or that they reduce pest levels in organic wineries?
Scavenger birds eat dead bodies — not a pleasant thing to think about — but an invaluable service. Vultures are especially important in India because Hinduism does not allow the killing and eating of cows, so the birds dispose of the carcasses when a cow dies.
In the high mountains of the American West, the whitebark pine, a tree essential to the ecology of the area, depends for its survival on one bird — the Clark’s nutcracker. Its seeds are dispersed only by this bird, with its long sturdy bill that allows it to open the pine cones and pluck out the seeds, which it stores in its throat and then buries where trees are needed.
Annual birder events like the Audubon Christmas Bird Count provide valuable data on changes in the environment. Scientists have been monitoring the common loon in New York’s Adirondack Park to understand the impact of mercury in the atmosphere from nearby coal-burning power plants and incinerators.
More than 900 bird species across the world aid in pollination. Seabird guano provides fertilizer and income for people living near bird colonies.
These are all ways that birds, just being birds, contribute to the ecosystem and therefore help sustain the environment that supports us as humans. They are good citizens in the natural world. But sometimes birds are more — they are friends, companions, and helpers.
A man with bi-polar disorder suffered terrible mood swings — smashing things and threatening the safety of others. He had always loved animals, so he bought an African Grey Parrot named Sadie.
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Sadie was very bright and could imitate the man’s words. She bonded quickly with him. He had her registered as a service animal and she went everywhere with him. When he sensed an episode coming on, he would say aloud to himself, “Calm down.” Sadie began to pick up these words and repeat them, and this would bring him back under control. One time when a mood swing was beginning, to the man’s amazement, Sadie spoke first, anticipating the episode.
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In a 2016 article on “Parrots as Service Animals,” the writer observed, “Parrots are known to be intuitively aware of human emotion. They can sense when their owners become angry or stressed, and begin to grow tense as a result. By the trained use of certain phrases that can soothe an increasingly agitated individual, an ESA [Emotional Support Animal] parrot can provide an emotional assistance that can be most helpful.”
Other bird species can have a similar effect. A service in Tulsa, Oklahoma, offers more than 65 birds of different types, such as cockatoos, cockatiels, macaws, parakeets, and parrots, to provide calming and restorative benefits. A 1975 study showed the positive effect owning and caring for a budgie had on elderly people. In another study conducted in Italy, seniors given canaries had fewer cases of depression than those without.
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The author and physician Atul Gawande in his bestselling book
Being Mortal
, tells the story of a young doctor who took the job of medical director at a nursing home in upstate New York where there were eighty severely disabled elderly residents. His name was Dr. Bill Thomas, and he believed that people in nursing homes were dying of three “plagues” — boredom, loneliness, and helplessness.
Dr. Thomas went to the state capital and got an exception to state regulations so that he could bring animals into the nursing home — four dogs, two cats, and 100 parakeets. No one on staff had ever done anything like this before, and some resisted.
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The day the birds were delivered, the cages had not yet arrived. The delivery man put all 100 birds in the hair salon and closed the door. Later in the day when the cages arrived, the staff members were frantically assembling them, and the residents gathered to watch the staff trying to catch the birds and put them in the cages. The scene brought on a lot of laughter.
The residents helped prepare the cages by putting paper in the bottom. Every room received a birdcage and a bird. In a delicious irony, a cart once used to deliver tranquilizer meds was commandeered to transport food for the cats, dogs, and birds.
Staff members brought their kids to hang out after school. They dug up the lawn to make gardens. They put plants in every room. Residents joined together in caring for the animals. Those who were ambulatory came to the nursing station to volunteer to walk a dog. The parakeets were all adopted and named. People who had become non-verbal began speaking again. Medication use dropped by 37 percent.
One man was admitted to the facility by his family after he had crashed his car, and the police wondered if the accident was a suicide attempt. He had recently lost interest in life when his wife of 60 years had died, and his children were having to give him more and more help. Despite good care in the facility, including antidepressants and efforts to encourage him, he spiraled downward and stopped eating. It was at this time that the animal experiment began, and the man was given a pair of parakeets.
He began to position himself in bed so he could watch them. He gave the staff advice on what the birds liked and how they were doing. He began eating and dressing himself. He volunteered to help with walking the dogs. Three months later he moved back to his own home. Dr. Thomas believes the animals saved the man’s life.
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