For the Birds

The other day I was on the phone with the pharmacy, talking with a real human being instead of tapping in numbers.

"Do you have birds?" the real human being asked me, not surprisingly, since Alfie and Dominique were chirping up a storm.

"Yes, I do," I said.

"Parakeets?" she ventured.

"Right again!" I replied. And from there we were off, discussing the cheerfulness of birds and the pleasures of a home filled with their song.

Apart from 18 months in 2011-2012, we've had a parakeet or two in a cage hanging from a hook in the kitchen ceiling for the last 14 years. The birds are not directly over the table, but they are in the center of the house, where they can hear the humans whose flock they have adopted.

I'm midway through Jim Robbins' book The Wonder of Birds and learning many things I didn't know. For example, scientists' study of murmuration  — birds' ability to fly in unison in great flocks that twist and turn like a cloud dancing — is enhancing what we know of human cognition and metacognition.

It doesn't surprise me that these intelligent and loving animals would have secrets to share. "I hope you love birds too," wrote Emily Dickinson. "It is economical. It saves going to heaven."

(Can't find a good picture of the parakeets this morning, so this photo of a wild baby bird in our garage will have to do.)