Close Encounters of the Bird Kind

Birds have always enriched the human experience of life. By their flight, colours and songs, they have inspired and enthralled all who love them. Birds touch us in ways that go beyond our primary sense of sight and sound. For those who watch with their hearts, birds do enrich and embrace the deeper aspects of their living.

Collected in the South East of Australia, from islands in Bass Strait, Mallacoota inlet, Narooma and the Illawarra, these stories are accounts of meetings with birds and interpretations of those fleeting moments.

Habitats where these encounters have taken place include coastal wetlands, urban gardens, islands, beaches, eucalypt forests, roadways and rain forest gullies.

Indigenous people talk of bird and animal spirit in a way that is based on family relationships and with an acceptance that humans are linked to all things in existence. This inter-relationship enables people to have a grand experience of their surrounding world and through this expanded sight to develop an understanding of their place and identity within the natural world.

In our modern life, we tend to view all creatures in a logical and scientific way. By following this conventional approach we can, with practice, learn to identify the physical characteristics, anatomy, family types, bird song, habitats and migratory patterns of any sighted birds. Missing however from this scientific viewpoint is any observation of the character and personal strength inherent in birds and the possibility of spiritual instruction and interaction between bird and human.

It is hoped that the descriptions of these meetings with birds will help to bring out the bird spirit that lives inside you.