Lessons from Common Birds on the Farm

Lesson from a House Sparrow 

At Urban Roots we often find house sparrows in the chicken coop, taking bits of chicken scratch or perching on the chicken wire. Surely the house sparrow does not understand everything about chicken life, like dust baths and kicking yard scraps around the coop. Still, the sparrows respect the chickens. They gather in the coop, sometimes a dozen at a time, to sing, play, and bask in the sun. They are brave little birds, unfazed by their much larger cousins. The house sparrows that visit the farm teach us that we should break bread with those who are different from us, and that life is richer with friends who expose us to ways of life that contrast to our own. 

Lesson from a Mourning Dove  

Mourning doves visiting the farm love to hang out in the hoop houses. We can only assume that they want to garden but struggle due to a lack of opposable thumbs or thumbs altogether. Still, we find them in our hoop houses all the time, roosting between garden beds. When spooked, the mourning doves will fly up toward the roof and flutter around, unable to figure out how to get out. Many of us farmers can relate - sometimes we get stuck in the hoop houses ourselves, weeding until we don’t know how much time has passed. A mourning dove teaches us that it’s okay to get lost in your gardening. Perhaps you’ll find yourself exactly where you were meant to be. 

Lesson from an American Crow 

Crows are among the smartest critters in the avian world. Known for their problem-solving skills, memory, and social nature, crows always come up with intelligent solutions to their problems. Funnily enough, those intelligent solutions always seem to revolve around teamwork, interdependence, and resourcefulness. When we see crows at the farm, they’re always working in groups to scavenge food, nesting materials, and of course a shiny trinket or two. Crows teach us the importance of mutual aid. When we all look after one another, getting by is easier than it could ever be with all of us working alone. 

Lesson from an Anna’s Hummingbird  

The Anna’s Hummingbird is known for its incredible ability to hover in place using a wingbeat pattern too fast to perceive with the naked eye. While most birds’ wingbeats feature a downstroke which pushes down on the air and creates lift, and an upstroke which repositions the wings for the next downstroke while minimizing the air it pushes in the other direction, a hummingbird displaces air downward to create lift with both motions. Hovering is an impressive physiological and evolutionary feat, but perhaps more impressive is the reason a hummingbird hovers. Nectar from flowers is a major part of the hummingbird diet, so holding a steady position relative to the flower a hummingbird needs to drink from is essential. Anna’s hummingbirds teach us that treating ourselves is worth whatever incredible effort we decide it’s worth. They also teach us that being kind to ourselves may yield positive results for the world around us, as a hummingbird going after its favorite snack is also pollinating flowers along the way. 

Lesson from a Chicken 

Last are the main characters of Urban Roots, the chickens. The chickens teach us something every day. Chickens are omnivorous, meaning they eat plants and animals. The feed we give them is totally plant-based, but they’re always on the lookout for bugs they can find in the soil. We recently learned they’re even capable of catching and eating a rat, which is quite nasty. The chickens’ lack of pickiness is a huge boon to us on the farm. We give them the weeds we pull from out beds, and on the frequent occasions that I bring a banana to the farm as a snack, I can give them my banana peel.

In the first couple days in November of last year, I fed the chickens my jack-o-lanterns. Everyone at the farm appreciates the chickens for gobbling up our scraps, and not just because it makes disposing of orange skins and strawberry tops easy. The chickens are great composters. We get rich, beautiful soil from the chickens, and that is the most valuable lesson we learn from them- to compost.