Angry Bird

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The last few weeks of the semester, I saw an angry mockingbird aggressively attack people in the parking lot outside the science wing of campus. Eventually, I figured out what he was doing and realized there was nothing wrong with his behavior if you understood the context. I also learned that he recognized me and responded to me after a while.

One particularly windy day, this bird swooped down on many people while I watched, so I decided to find out what its issue was. When other people distracted him, I looked around in the trees from which he mounted his attacks until I found a simple solution. He was protecting his nest. I got close enough to see the tiny bird heads in the nest before he caught wind and flew in front of my face until I put enough space betwixt myself and his brood. I think that he's foolish to put a nest in such a highly trafficked area, but they keep trimming trees for some reason, and so it was probably one of the only ones high enough and nice enough to facilitate his family.

I saw him enough that he eventually stopped pestering me. The first time he dove at me, he made the mistake of doing so while I was holding my racquetball racket which I held up to protect myself. He backed away. In subsequent encounters, all it took was to talk and hold out my hand, and he kept his distance or flew away completely. Today, he just looked at me from a branch and knew that I would keep walking and not pester his nest. That's right; he can be taught!

Most people don't like mockingbirds, particularly the students at whose heads he pecked. However, I realized he was doing what he felt necessary to be a good dad. I have to respect him for that; he's doing what I would like to think I would do to protect my young. He challenges those who threaten a safe zone around the nest. I think he goes a bit too far, but in a society with absent fathers, sperm donors, and baby mamas, I think excessive but honest fathers should be encouraged rather than dissuaded. We need more good dads.

In the end, the angry bird wasn't angry at all, and his attacks weren't personal. They were part of his instinctual drive to look out for the helpless children he sired. I respect that. I admire that. I go out of my way to not aggravate him so that he can protect them when they really need it. Like most people, it just needed me to try to understand before its behavior made sense. There's usually a reason why a bird is angry. It's also usually simple.