FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] My Little Chickadee (an editorial) NY TIMES

[Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx]

Hello Birders,
I thought you might enjoy this editorial from today's NY TIMES.  It makes 
sense to me, as I am almost positively certain that I know which of my bossy 
mockingbirds is which from the "personalities" they show during my involvement 
in 
feeding them.  The same is becoming true with some of my cardinals in the way 
that they show food preferences and behave within the group. Hmmm.  Wonder if 
I am imagining things brought on by the fact that I majored in psychology 
before changing to education while doing my undergraduate studies at Rollins 
College?  Nah, I really DO see the differences in the behaviors of these birds!

Cheers & prayers,

Dee Thompson
Nashville, TN
    EDITORIAL 

My Little Chickadee


Published: March 3, 2005

    
    
ird feeders across much of America are mobbed with black-capped chickadees at 
this time of year. Can you tell them apart, one by one? Probably not; it's 
hard enough to distinguish male from female in this species, let alone 
recognize 
individuals in a flock. But scientists are starting to suggest that if we 
look closely enough, we can distinguish birds of a single species by 
personality. 
A team of Dutch scientists, testing a European relative of the chickadee, has 
found that some birds are shy and others are bold, broad personality 
differences that have a genetic foundation. This finding doesn't erode the 
basic 
differences between Homo sapiens and Poecile atricapillus (the black-capped 
chickadee). But it substantially enlarges the similarities. 

We take the range of personalities among individuals in our species for 
granted, yet it seems surprising to think of similar diversity in other 
species. 
Many people find the implications of that genuinely shocking. If bird 
personalities have a strong genetic and evolutionary basis, there is good 
reason to 
suspect that human personalities do, too. 

Humans do not like to think of themselves as animals. Nor do they like to 
think that their behavior may have genetic or evolutionary roots. But the 
richer 
perspective - morally and intellectually - lies in examining and coming to 
terms with the kinship of all life. There's a certain tragic isolation in 
believing that humans stand apart in every way from the creatures that surround 
them, 
that the rest of creation was shaped exclusively for our use. The real fruit 
of that perspective is, in fact, tragic isolation on an earth that has been 
eroded by our moral assumptions. Science has something much wiser to tell us 
about who we are. So do the birds around us.

    
    



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