Beneath its very innocent plumage, birding is a highly competitive sport.  As a small proof of this point, think of an offhand remark to be found in the classic essay of the great Norwegian biologist Thorlief Heilberg, "Despotism in the Pecking Order of Petrels" (1973):  "And when the food supply is low, they bicker flamboyantly over the least crumb.  Indeed, they are worse than their human counterparts, the birdwatchers whose quarreling over the nomenclature of a bird often drives the birds from the forest."  Even Stephen Potter, in his brief treatment of bird gamesmanshhip in 1951, was moved to remark, "I have said enough I hope to show that Birdsmen [i.e., birders] are natural Lifemen" -- meaning, of course, that they are masters of one-upmanship, at times mercilessly adept at turning bird identification into a cruel, if oblique, kind of warfare.  It takes a reasonably alert visitor accompanying a group of seasoned birders into the field for the first time less than a morning to discover that there is more to birding than the birds that meet the eye.  To put it bluntly, the best side of our species is often eclipsed in the subtle, and not so subtle, give-and-take of skill display.

 

   Bert O. States, "Skill Display in Birding Groups," The North American Review (January, February, 2004), reprinted in Susan Orlean, ed., The Best American Essays 2005

INFORMATION:

Bert O. States wrote about literary theory and drama and taught at Skidmore College, the University of Pittsburgh, Cornell University, and the University of California.  He died in 2003.

The website of North American Review is http://www.webdelsol.com/NorthAmReview/NAR/index.htm

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