Dinos In The Sky Aren't Birdbrained

No human likes being called names, nor does any Animal. It's especially harmful when we cast aspersions on entire species, such as Bird, by calling others 'birdbrained'. Bird says, "If you were actually to become 'birdbrained', then we'd be more interested in listening to what you have to say." The DD (dinosaur DNA) still runs through the least assuming bird (Blue Footed Boobie) leading us to think twice about their feathers hiding an alter and surprising predatory nature. 

https://americansongwriter.com/meaning-behind-lucy-in-the-sky-with-diamonds-by-the-beatles/

https://farmerish.net/2023/09/05/why-people-think-chickens-are-stupid-and-why-theyre-wrong/

https://www.bioexplorer.net/flying-dinosaurs.html/

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-startling-intelligence-of-the-common-chicken1/

https://www.birdlife.org/news/2021/12/21/its-official-birds-are-literally-dinosaurs-heres-how-we-know/

Transcript

I'm Lizanne Flynn. I'm a master healer who holds space for any Earthling as they reunite body and soul. I am a bridge for relationships between all species so that 

the heart bond becomes stronger, deeper, and more loving. I serve in the roles of animal communicator, medium, and medical intuitive, and I use the tools of shamanic journeying and soul retrieval 

to support all Earthlings in their recovery from past trauma. I'm certified as a canine massage therapist and Reiki Master Teacher. This is the Animals' iView podcast.

What I was hearing in my head when coming up with a title for this podcast was a riff on "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" that you are more than free to try out on your own. Either under your breath or out loud, you do/be you! John Lennon's song was not about LSD as popular wisdom at the time had it, rather it was based on his son Julian's drawing of his schoolmate Lucy with stars behind her. When asked what the picture was about, the title of the song was born: Lucy in the sky with diamonds was what young Julian told his father. So from one creative brain to another, the elder Lennon's imagination took flight and we were gifted the dreamy and ethereal Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. And since the Universe/the Animals came up with the title of the podcast, perhaps they'd prefer we follow their lead and move away from our historic denigration of Bird in general and maybe get just a bit afraid of them. Sure, who among us has not come across a family of Geese in the late Spring with goslings in tow and faced the righteous wrath of a good-sized wing span and snake-like hissing should we deign to even share the path with the kindschenschema or uber-cuteness factor of the young Geese? I'm hearing from a human perspective our feelings are easily hurt when we receive a fierce defensive reaction from Goose because we think to ourselves, "Silly Goose! Can't you tell I mean you no harm?! Didn't I even say that out loud?! I'm a good person and wouldn't dream of hurting you or your darling family." To which Geese would reply - pfft - as in sticking out their tongue at you and blowing a raspberry. Meaning, how quickly we forget that we are predator and they are prey and our species is currently holding the rest of the planet hostage with our actions based on greed. And BTW, in case you've wondered, geese and goose can not be compared as these are the two terms we use for the same waterfowl. For sure it's one Goose, a flock of Geese, and it could also be "Lookie! I see a Geesey Goose or a Goosey Geese!" You get the picture and I've found that if I can see any interaction with an Animal from their perspective, I'm much less sensitive about how they might react when we're both in close proximity and they have their offspring with them. If you were to switch that picture up and imagine they were Pterodactyl or a more modern name, Pterosaur which is literally "winged lizard", how quickly you would find the roles of predator and prey changing place while you're out on a walk around the local lake with young Susie or Brian in the stroller whose kindschenschema of large eyes, wobbly head, and small body would probably not save them from being a quick snack, yourself included, for a pterosaur. Which is spelled with the silent 'p' like a pterodactyl.

As early as 1600, we have denigrated the general species of Bird starting with a human being bird-witted or flighty and lacking capacity for prolonged attention, then bird-brained whose synonyms are

as in cuckoo goose, scatterbrain, ditz, fool, silly, nitwit, flibbertigibbet, featherhead, featherbrain, simpleton, softhead, rattlebrain. If we move away from the perhaps lighthearted cuckoo, we find ourselves in the territory of bird-brained meaning the same as moron and I won't tell you about the three times as long list of synonyms. Perhaps it was our raising chickens initially in an agricultural society that caused us to adopt the overall perspective that Bird was not very bright. Quoting from the Charlotte's Web author, E.B. White, who wrote "The Hen (An Appreciation) in 1944 - "A common charge made against the hen is that she is a silly creature. It is a false charge. A hen is an alarmist, but she is not silly. She has a strong sense of disaster, but many of her fears seem to be well founded." You may be aware of recent research that's come about in the last 10 years or so and probably with the rise of humans once again sharing their lives with Chicken, that their intelligence is quite remarkable. Quoting from the article in the podcast notes - "According to a 2017 meta-analysis published in the peer-reviewed journal Animal Cognition, chickens can make inferences, do basic math, and are highly emotionally intelligent. As it goes with most of our relationships with other species on Earth, our perspective is molded by what we're told about them while our direct experience with them can either cause significant cognitive dissonance for us or shatter those pre-conceived molds outright. And it's not just Chicken, either. I know I've mentioned in the past being enthralled with Bird in general and having a couple of feeders outside my back door that Mr. and Mrs. House Wren visit regularly and on occasion a Red Breasted Nut Hatch. I've got the Merlin bird ID app on my phone as well as another app that identifies for me the calls of the particular species of Bird which is always such a kick to do a 15-20 second recording and find out that it's made up of 4-6 different species. Even though I can't see them I can hear them and for me, that makes all the difference when I'm out and about in Nature.

I've also mentioned that in the FB birding group of which I'm a member, there are broad perceptions of definite villainous Bird species, chief among them being Starling. I'd add Rufus Hummingbird to the list, as well as Grackle. These three among others are usually because of their behavior and what we perceive or rather project onto are traits we don't care for, which are usually about their being territorial and loud. We feel sorry for the Ruby Throated or Broad-Tailed Hummingbird when the Rufous ones come to the feeder as we think they're bullying the first two. We perceive Starling to be an invasive species - which they are - and we don't care for Grackle, either their song or the fact that they're omnivorous and won't hesitate to take for food a much smaller Barn Swallow that swoops by. And in fact, while we might initially be enthralled with the outer plumage of any species of Bird thinking them quite pretty, that does not alter the fact that some of them will absolutely take over the nest of another species and destroy the carefully placed eggs of the nestbuilder. The species who do that are Cowbirds, Cuckoos, and Indigobirds. Some species of Bird will also, due to their omnivorous nature eat the young of other Birds as well as practice what's called obligate siblicide, where the stronger of a pair of chicks kills the weaker one due to their parents laying an insurance egg at a later date, sort of the spare to the heir. There's also facultative siblicide that occurs when there is more fighting in the nest itself among the chicks and for species like Osprey where chicks remain in the nest longer than say Ducklings do. Which is interesting as Osprey themselves are identified as predators. An example of this might be in the case of the blue-footed booby, a sibling may be hit by a nestmate only once a day for a couple of weeks and then attacked at random, leading to its death. More birds are facultatively siblicidal than obligatory siblicidal. This is perhaps because siblicide takes a great amount of energy and is not always advantageous. Another example from an article by the New York Times talks about Penguins and how the younger and weaker chick are often mercilessly attacked and dispatched with the parents in close enough proximity to intervene and who did not. Perhaps this contrast aspect of Bird isn't something with which we're familiar and we'd much rather focus on "oooh, the pretty colors and look how fast they are" or "look how strong they are (Eagle, we're talkin' 'bout you, now)" or other Birds as totems we like such as Hawk which y'all know how I feel about Animal totems in general.

The fact is we actively live with other descendants of Dinosaur who actually look their part like Alligator, Crocodile, Turtle, Tortoise, etc. which may acknowledge how species that we once deemed to be bird-brained according to the size of their brains (about a walnut in Chicken) are the dreaded DD - dinosaur descendants - as well. And if they have current behaviors that we would consider to be survival-based and then some, what's to stop them from turning their survival-based beady eyes toward humans? Again, we're masters at deflecting away from our predatory behaviors because our species is also focused on our survival alone as much as we say pretty words about our feeble attempts to preserve other species along with ours. And if we are comparing intellect abilities we don't have to look any further than the family of Corvid that includes Crow, Raven, and Magpie. Maybe there's a reason we call a group of Crow a murder of crows because of their ability to recognize those humans who have been kind to them and those who have not. Talk about your bedtime stories, this information is passed down from generation to generation so can you imagine Mama and Papa Crow reading to their latest flock - "Then Mr. Smith did a bad thing and threw stones at your Uncle because Mr. Smith thought he was making too much noise. Little did he know that Mrs. Smith was leaving corn and other food out for our family so we left buttons and shiny things for Mrs. Smith to use in her voodoo doll of Mr. Smith!" I'm just kidding, sort of. While Bird today is warm-blooded, perhaps there is some of that cold-bloodedness that we demonize in other Animals and other humans that remains as part of their overall DNA structure. Evolution is, after all, about survival of the fittest for all species including ours yet somewhere along the line we got way off track in sacrificing other species for our survival so that we ended up being out of balance with other species whose numbers are, for better or worse, managed by evolution. And for those who may doubt that your feathered Parakeet companion is a dinosaur, we have this offering from science. If birds aren’t dinosaurs, then we have no idea what they are. Birds share so many features with theropods and there are no other candidate fossil groups. When you understand that birds are a type of dinosaur and that the evidence has stacked up, everything starts to make more sense. Birds inherit their bipedalism from theropods, explaining why they evolved flight using just their forelimbs, unlike bats or pterosaurs. If that hypothesis was wrong, we’d expect to be just as uncertain about bird origins today as 30 years ago. And like most things on Earth, if you wait a bit for that cognitive dissonance to subside while resonance takes its place, you may find a deeper appreciation for the Dinosaurs in the Sky who sing the song of their people at o'dark hundred to wake you up. It helps to send a thought - hopefully a nice one - to the resident miniature Dinosaur just outside your window. All Animals keep track of our relationships with them from your companion Animals to the Animals in the wild

including those in whose veins run the blood of Pterodactyl; keeping it neighborly and neutral seems the best way to go. And at least, that's how the Animals see it.            

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This has been the Animals' iView podcast - I'll see you next time.