We keep our two cats indoors or within the shade room and reluctantly shoo away visiting feline hunters, even though we'd rather pet them. We put out bird food and fresh water. So please know that we have nothing against birds. But after much observation, we must honestly report they are not doing algebra out there.

I probably started with somewhat inflated expectations. City pigeons and seagulls are quite savvy. There's no doubt when they look you in the eye that they are thinking about something. Probably about how to snatch a french fry but still, there's definite reasoning going on. Their counterparts in our backyard are the blackbirds, the occasional jay, one mockingbird and in some ways, the robins.

But these medium-sized birds are the exception in our yard. The garden's main population is a flock of little brown birds. There were only a half dozen the first year but now at least three dozen make this their regular feeding area. I don't know if they multiplied that quickly or if they invited friends. I tried to snap a picture, so some friendly passerby could identify them for me but they turn shy when I point a shiny noise-making object at them. I'll keep trying.

During nesting season, if they find two bits of dried grass, they can lose minutes in an endless loop of picking one and then the other. If they were looking over the finer points, you might mistake their thoughts as similar to ours. But they're not.

They see a straw on the ground while they're holding one. They drop the current straw to pick up the new one. They rediscover the straw they dropped, having forgotten all about it in the last split second. Repeat till something new distracts them.

I'm glad for their lack of forethought. It makes them God's own clowns. They fuss and flap and chitter at each other. They roam the yard, helpfully eating small insects and baby snails, splashing in the bird dish and living only in the present moment. If they're not doing math, it's because they don't need to.

Man may have evolved deductive reasoning to survive but birds have had millions more years to be perfectly molded to specific environmental niches. They have less flexibility in their behavior than we do but the behaviors they do have are exactly right for how they live.

The seed-eating birds are gardeners, so much so that it is an integral part of their habit and biology. They graze the seeds they find in a very specific location. They are sloppy as can be, scattering extra seed all about them, leaving their droppings on the ground under them so the seeds have a good nitrogen source when they sprout in the spring. When the current food source is exhausted, they leave for other fields, returning when they should to reap the crops sown the previous year.

The worst problem they have faced in the last million years is that in this century humans have been removing their crops. Birds leave for the winter and return only to find green rolling lawns and concrete patios where the millet and thistle should be. The ponds are covered, the pools chlorinated and not being great thinkers, they have no idea what to do about it. But it takes nothing at all for us to give them a break.

Let a little corner of your yard go wild and don't apologize for it. Plant a nectar-bearing flower. Bell your cat. Put out a dish of water, no deeper than half an inch and change it every other day. Believe it or not, that may be all it takes to stop what scientists call "a major extinction event". If birds aren't problem-solvers, then let us think for them. That's what we're good at, right?

The National Audubon Society

Text and images Copyright 1998 Cyndi Kirkpatrick. All rights reserved