For the whole of human history, we have shared our world with birds. We have hunted and domesticated them for food; worshipped them in our religions; placed them at the heart of our myths and legends; poisoned and persecuted them; and celebrated them in our literature, art and music. Even today, despite a very worrying disconnection between ourselves and the rest of nature, birds continue to play a role in our lives.
The current official list of the world’s birds stands at roughly 10,800 different species. But there are 10 whose stories stand out, for the way they influenced a crucial aspect of our history, and shaped our lives.
Raven
Mythology
The raven – the world’s largest species of crow – is at the heart of creation myths all around the northern hemisphere, from the First Nations of North America through Norse culture to the nomadic peoples of Siberia. It is also the first bird mentioned in the Bible, when Noah sent one out from the ark to discover if the flood was finally over; true to this bird’s independent character, it failed to return. The raven still resonates with us today: when Game of Thrones author George RR Martin wanted a species of bird able to see into the future, he chose the raven.
Pigeon
Communication
As humans switched from hunter-gathering to agriculture, they began to domesticate wild birds. One of these was a shy, cliff-dwelling species of pigeon, the rock dove, originally bred for food but later used to communicate over long distances. Our relationship with pigeons is a complex one: often dismissed as “rats with wings”, they nevertheless carried messages that saved thousands of lives during the two world wars, some even changing the course of those conflicts.
Wild turkey
Food and family
Soon, birds were not just providing food but spiritual and social nourishment, too. Without the sustenance the wild turkey provided for the early European settlers of the Americas, it is likely that the colonisation of the New World might never have come about. It soon became the centrepiece of Christmas feasts in Britain and Europe, and Thanksgiving in North America.
Dodo
Extinction
From the Renaissance onwards, exploration and colonisation kickstarted the globalisation of today’s world. But there were casualties, most famously the dodo, a huge relative of the pigeons which lived on the oceanic island of Mauritius. This flightless bird could not survive the 17th-century invasion of humans, and the dogs, cats, rats and monkeys they brought with them. At first, the church would not entertain the idea that the creator could let any living species go extinct. Ultimately, the dodo became an icon of extinction.
Darwin’s finches
Evolution
The key turning-point in the rise of science came when Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. Although Darwin’s finches of the Galápagos islands are often said to have provided him with the “eureka moment” for his revolutionary theory of evolution by natural selection, in reality he showed little interest in these curious birds. It was not until long after his death that scientists realised their importance – they revealed that evolution can take place in a much shorter timescale than was once thought.
Guanay cormorant
Agriculture
We often assume modern agriculture began after the second world war, when chemical fertilisers massively increased crop yields. Yet a century earlier, droppings harvested from vast colonies of the guanay cormorant, off the coast of South America, provided the phosphate needed to launch a boom in intensive farming. This altered the landscape of North America and Europe for ever, and hastened the decline of farmland wildlife.
Snowy egret
Conservation
The snowy egret of North America was one of many species of bird that fell victim to the fashion trade, its plumes adorning women’s hats and dresses, and resulting in the murder of the brave men who tried to protect the birds from the plume collectors. A backlash against such wanton cruelty was organised by pioneering women in Britain and North America. This led to the formation of today’s bird protection organisations, which saved the egret and other victims just in time.
Bald eagle
Politics
Eagles have always been associated with the strength of nations and empires, through their symbolic use in ancient Greece, Rome and other early civilisations. They also appear on more flags around the world than any other bird. But the Nazis changed both the direction of the eagle – making it face right – and its meaning: turning it into a symbol of totalitarianism.
Tree sparrow
Hubris
The story of China’s Chairman Mao is a salutary one: he took on nature and lost. Mao’s war against the humble tree sparrow for eating grain seed resulted not just in the bird being wiped out, but the deaths of millions of his own people, too, in a terrible famine: the worst human-made disaster in human history. Crops were left vulnerable as the sparrows had controlled the insect population, particularly locusts.
Emperor penguin
Climate crisis
The fate of the emperor penguin – the only bird that breeds during the harsh Antarctic winter – is now potentially the fate of us all. As we career towards oblivion, the world’s largest penguin has become, along with the Arctic polar bear, the “canary in the coalmine” of the climate crisis. Bluntly, if they fail to survive, then so might we. Will the crisis result in the catastrophic extinction of thousands of species – including, perhaps, us – or will we manage to pull back from the brink?
Ten Birds That Changed the World by Stephen Moss (Guardian Faber, £16.99). To order a copy for £14.95 go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply
