‘Tis the season for gratitude and thankfulness, and hopefully your list of what to be grateful for is a long one – I know mine is. The love and kindness of friends and family, remaining in remission, not being in chemotherapy this holiday season as I was last year, the flexibility and understanding of clients, a light hurricane season for the Sunshine State, relative financial stability, travel, engaged readers, new projects coming up, warm puppy cuddles, the new patio door that finally got replaced, steady work, and so much more.

But what about birds? We might all be thankful for them in the abstract, but have you considered the specific reasons we should be thankful for birds? There are both concrete, practical ways and more abstract, subjective ways we can and should be grateful birds are part of our lives.

Pollination

While insects do the vast majority of pollinating for both flowers and crops, birds do a fair bit to ensure botanical productivity. Hummingbirds are most well-known for their pollination efforts, but orioles, woodpeckers, sunbirds, parrots, and honeyeaters also do their part for pollination. This applies to many different flowers, as well as critical agricultural crops such as bananas, papayas, agave, and nutmeg. Without their assistance, these crops may dwindle.

Pest Control

Birds that hunt, whether insects or rodents, play a fantastic role in pest control. Owls, kestrels, hawks, and falcons can hunt not only rodents such as mice, rats, moles, and voles but also large insects that can cause damage to crops, such as grasshoppers, moths, and locusts.

Even smaller birds can eat significant numbers of insects – hundreds per day per bird. Warblers, flycatchers, swifts, swallows, nightjars, thrushes, chickadees, woodpeckers, and many more gobble up insects. This can have a significant impact on the need for other, more harmful pest control methods, including potentially toxic chemical applications. Be thankful birds do the work!

Weed Control

It isn’t just by eating rodents and insects that birds can help protect not only commercial crops, but also home gardens. Many birds – dickcissels, goldfinches, siskins, juncos, even wild turkeys – eat a wide range of weed seeds, preventing undesirable weeds from taking over cultivated fields, lovingly tended gardens, even carefully manicured lawns. This is why birding on the edges of fields can be so productive, as the birds have found just where weeds may be flourishing and food sources are most abundant. A flourishing flock can help minimize the need for herbicides, more dangerous chemicals that can contaminate crops and leech into water sources.

Fishing

Commercial fishermen have long since been grateful for birds that help ease their operations. Where a flock of seabirds is focused, fishermen are fairly certain to find schools of fish and therefore more efficient work and productivity. Furthermore, the directions seabirds may fly and the presence of different birds can often help with navigation, protecting sailors and fishermen from storms they may not otherwise sense.

Clean Up

Many birds are dutiful workers on nature’s clean up crew, removing roadkill, carcasses, and trash that would otherwise rot and potentially harbor disease. The potent aromas from such rot can attract more dangerous predators or other wildlife such as rats and raccoons that can themselves carry dangerous diseases that might spread to pets and humans.

Depending on the source of the rot, many birds have a hand in sanitizing duties. Vultures are the most familiar, but many other birds of prey – eagles, hawks, falcons – also have a nibble at carcasses and roadkill as easy meals. On beaches, many gulls also serve similar purposes. In urban areas, crows and ravens, along with even more gulls, will happily clean up trash and other noxious food sources, and we can be thankful for their service.

Beauty

Of course, beauty is one of the most obvious gifts birds give us that we can be grateful for. While some birds are stunning rainbows of glorious plumage or marked with exquisite patterns, others have simple beauty, grace, and elegance. This can inspire art, song, poetry, and more, or just bring a bit of brightness to our days.

Birds’ visual beauty is more than just color. The elaborate plumage – crests, streamers, forks, sails, and other specialized feathers add even more intricacy to their beauty. Colorful legs and feet, amazingly specialized bills, brilliant eyes, and other beauty is all part of birds’ appeal and what we should be thankful for every time we see them.

Song

It isn’t just the visual beauty of birds that can inspire gratitude. The beautiful songs of so many birds can inspire our own songs, both actual music and the music of the soul that can sustain us in so many ways. Other outstanding vocalizations and sounds birds make, even without vocal cords – the chatter of an eagle, the buzzing of a hummingbird’s wings, the drumming of grouse, the clatter of cranes – it all forms a vibrant melody of life and beauty to be thankful for.

Companionship

While wild birds certainly aren’t pets, the birds that visit our feeders, flit through our yards, rest in nearby sanctuaries, and soar above us provide connections to life and nature as they journey with us through life. That companionship has inspired legends and folklore in different cultures for millennia and continues to inspire us today.

Whether it is the appearance of a favorite migratory species, the first feathered guest at a new feeder, the awesome feeling of spotting a rarity or a new lifer for one’s list, or the company of a favorite backyard resident, the companionship of birds can brighten any day.

Food

Finally, for many people, this week the birds we may be most grateful for are those that grace our tables, whether turkey, duck, goose, chicken, or any other flavorful fowl. It can seem contradictory – how can you love birds but eat them? – and of course everyone is entitled to their own dietary preferences. But certain birds can provide nutrition and sustenance not only for ourselves, but to bring families and friends together to share gratitude. That connection and the meals we share is something to truly be thankful for, every day of the year.

Happy Thanksgiving to all. I am thankful for you.