The Strange Case of the Bird People

Back when I was a kid, in 1969, my family started, in a modest way, to participate in the interesting hobby of birdwatching. It wasn’t that we would go traveling out in the wild with binoculars and cameras; all we did was throw bread crumbs and birdseed on the ground directly in front of the “observation window” from our dining room that looked out on the north end of our back yard, and then see what kinds of birds would show up. And they came, all right! House sparrows, grackles, mockingbirds, shrikes, cardinals, catbirds, cowbirds, blue jays, red-winged blackbirds, and mourning doves were our regular “customers”, with Baltimore orioles, robins, and cedar waxwings coming by on a more seasonal basis. One thing they all had in common: between pecks at the food, they all spent an inordinate amount of time looking around them. That shouldn’t be surprising, since they obviously needed to be on the watch for predators (mainly cats). But I think they were also looking around at each other. Most everyone has seen this phenomenon with birds. But it also exists with some people. Regardless where I go or what I am doing, there seems to be people out there, whom I (tongue-in-cheek) dub “bird people”, who spend more time and effort minding everyone else’s business than their own. Come to think of it, they may actually believe that everyone else’s business IS their own. Not only are these people more prone to spreading and receiving personal gossip, especially that of a malicious nature, but they actually physically resemble birds in that they cannot be engaged in any activity for more than a few seconds at a time without looking around them to see what others are doing. And if there’s no one around? Well, they just may have to find an excuse to go wander around a little.

There may be a little of this “bird people” in all of us in that we want to fit in wherever we go and not make fools of ourselves in the company of others. The way to do this is to observe others so that we can know how to conform to our social environment, at least to a point. Also, humans are social creatures who have a natural interest in what’s going on around them. But taken to an extreme, the “bird person” sees keeping tabs on everybody as a form of manipulative personal power that gives him or her the feeling of security that comes from being in charge of judging others. I’ve gotten to where I can pick out this personality trait within minutes of meeting someone. And I don’t think I need to say how objectionable I think it is. Should I disdain these people, or just pity them? Or throw birdseed at them? Or am I just overreacting, with this whole line of argument strictly “for the birds”?