Many animals would tell us fascinating stories about their behaviors and marvelous abilities if only we could understand their language. As a result of years of research, many outstanding features of different animals have been discovered by scientists and these findings have formed the basis for numerous inventions. The Pacific golden plover (or the kolea, as it is called in Hawaii) is one such animal that is created with amazing abilities, like conserving huge amounts of energy with incredible techniques.

The Pacific golden plover is a migratory bird. The mother and father birds leave their nests in Alaska when their chicks are only a few months old, and return to Hawaii where they are originally from. Chicks by then have not yet learned how to fly [1]. After spending the summer in Northwest Alaska [2], when the winter comes chicks take off en route to the Hawaiian island where their parents are and where they have never been before. Considering that the distance is 4500 km (~2800 miles), this journey seems almost impossible for such a small bird, which, unlike many birds capable of trans-oceanic migrations, cannot swim, soar, or glide and weighs approximately 130 grams (~4.6 ounces).

Flying over the Pacific Ocean all the way from Alaska, the most extreme point of North America, to the island of Hawaii, the golden plover does not have a chance to land even for a short time to gather energy. The bird absolutely cannot fall under 130 grams either, because under this weight it would not have the energy needed for the remaining distance, which would be the end for the bird. To complicate matters even more, the Pacific golden plover loses 0.6% of its body weight every hour that it flies non-stop. There are two significant problems in this long journey; the fact that it cannot gain energy during its flight, and the problem of navigation. Not knowing which direction to fly in the vast ocean, or flying in the wrong direction for a short time, means an inevitable death for the bird.

The information we have obtained about this bird’s amazing ability to conserve energy journey is amazing. The flight time is 88 hours, or three days and four nights. For comparison, a modern Airbus A380 or Boeing 777-200LR can only fly about 18 hours without refueling [3]. During the flight, the Pacific golden plover flaps its wings 250,000 times, setting another record. “Imagine” says Dr. Oscar Wally Johnson from Montana State University “that flight you made from L.A. to Honolulu – only without the plane” [4].

Observations that have been made during the bird’s flight help us to understand how it overcomes these challenges [5]. The birds prepare for their journey by eating a lot and gaining a lot of weight in a short time. An average golden plover weighs roughly 130 grams and gains 70 grams of more weight, more than half of its body weight, during this intense eating period. Imagine a person that weighs 176 pounds (80 kg) gaining 100 pounds (45 kg) more to become 125 kg (275 pounds) in two weeks. The bird would normally lose 0.6% of its weight every hour it flies without a rest, and at the end of 88 hours it would remain only 117.8 g. As mentioned above, should the bird fall below its regular weight of 130 grams, it would be too exhausted to complete the journey. As soon as the bird runs out of energy, it would still have more than 497 miles (800 km) left before it reaches its destination. So, how is this problem solved?

If we want to save money on long car drives, then we set our cruise control to 110 km/h (~68 m/h) and drive at a constant speed. The bird does just that, and flies the whole distance at a constant and optimal speed of 51 km/h (~ 32 m/h) [6]. Flying slower than this speed would increase the amount of “fuel” that would be consumed, and flying faster would increase the energy consumption due to air resistance. Pacific golden plovers also fly in a “V” formation where the foremost birds flap their wings thus generating airflow that allows the birds in the rear of the formation to not have to use their wings in order to conserve energy [7]. Birds that are tired in front of the formation change their position with the ones who have had some rest at the back. Thus, they save about 23% of their energy and reach their destination of Hawaii while being slightly overweight. This excess weight is not stored in vain; it is estimated that more energy will be consumed in the case of bad weather conditions. During their flight, it is possible that the air could be foggy, cloudy, very sunny, or even rainy and windy, in which case their energy consumption can increase.

How does this bird determine the direction it should go? Imagine that this bird flies in absolute darkness for three nights without getting lost despite the fact that even a small deviation from their path could cause a huge deviation in the long run and cost the bird a fortune. They keep their flight formation and reach their destination despite all kinds of difficult conditions, including rain at night. With the help of a compass miraculously placed in the brains and eyes of these birds [8], they follow the magnetic field lines of the earth at a certain angle, adjust their position and follow their paths without facing any surprises [9]. Some scientists believe that the magnetic field map of the world is recorded in the eyes of migratory birds.

Migratory birds can also use the sun to correct their flight path. This difficult journey is successfully completed with the immigration program embedded into their genetic code by the Almighty Creator.

With their excellent energy saving and navigation features, the Pacific golden plover, a migratory bird species that has been doing this long-distance journey for thousands of years, provides us with very important lessons that can lead us to deep contemplation.

 “Have they never considered the birds above them, flying in lines with wings they spread out and fold in? Nothing holds them up except the All-Merciful. He indeed sees everything very well.” Mulk 67:19

References

1. If animals could talk-Wenn Tiere reden könnten Werder Gitt, K.-H.Vanheiden
2. https://academic.oup.com/auk/article-abstract/100/3/607/5185692
3. https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/232416/umfrage/reichweite-der-airbus-modelle/
4. https://hanahou.com/7.6/flight-of-the-navigators
5. https://www.nabu.de/tiere-und-pflanzen/aktionen-und-projekte/birdwatch/index.html
6. Peter F. Major, Lawrence M. Dill: The three-dimensional structure of airborne bird flocks. In: Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology Band 4, Nr. 2, 1978, S. 111–122.
7. Cutts, J. Speakman: Energy savings in formation flight of pink-footed geese. In: J. theor. Biol. Band 189, Nr. 1, 1994, S. 251–261.
8. https://www.weltderphysik.de/thema/hinter-den-dingen/wie-finden-zugvoegel-den-weg/
9. https://www.spektrum.de/frage/orientierung-wie-finden-zugvoegel-ihren-weg/1425607

We woke at the thud, panicked.

My wife and I had been dozing in bed, squeezing the last seconds of sleep out of our pillows before the inevitable onslaught of little people. It’s something of a delicious defeat when you hear the door creak open and steps on the carpet. You know you’re trading something so precious to you (sleep) for someone so precious, who you just wish would be precious elsewhere. But then they’re all warm and soft and tousle-headed and snuggly and saying things like “daddy, can we have special cereal?” and poking their knees into your side and sitting on your face with a full diaper and sticking cold toes into your armpits.

This morning they didn’t get to do all those precious, horrible things to us because we woke up to the sound of something thwacking against our window. After shaking off the confusion (no, it’s not a child on the roof; they can’t reach the window), I recalled why I knew the sound. It was a bird. And from the sound, a pretty sizable one.

I said as much to my wife, as I tried to open my eyes but managed only a half-squint. She half-muttered sympathy, as if she cared deeply inside but couldn’t get past the early morning fog. I added that since it was a big bird, it probably got away a little dazed, no harm done. I tried to find her to give her a reassuring pat, but I was too drowsy and missed completely. I also couldn’t pry my eyelids open still; they ached a little, as if I hadn’t used them for a week instead of approximately six hours.

I’ve read that birds, reptiles, and some mammals have something called a nictitating membrane, a third eyelid that acts as a translucent shield when they are diving or flying. They can draw it horizontally across each eye to moisten and protect it. For instance, many birds use it when they are regurgitating food for their kids so they don’t get their eyes poked out by little beaks.

I think of things like this when I’m abruptly disturbed from sleep. Things like this, and demonic children’s songs that will not be exorcised for hours.

We turned over and buried ourselves in the blankets for three more minutes before the precious, horrible people came and got us.

Nadia was playing hopscotch out on the sidewalk later in the morning when she found the bird. Robins are always the first birds my children encounter and remember. It was easy for her to name the body she stumbled upon, one story below our window, and quite dead. We had a little flurry of don’t-touch-that’s and daddy-is-it-going-to-be-okay’s, and I managed to deposit it into a small terrarium for them to look at. Animals can die of diseases communicable to humans, but this one died upon impact, and it was still warm. So the kids and I examined it carefully.

It was larger than any bird I’d seen this close. The wings were tucked in beside its impossibly light body. Many of its bones were hollow, for ease of flight. The neck was at a weird angle, a wrong angle. The death in front of me was at a wrong angle. It always has been, but it just felt much more wrong suddenly, because it was also in front of my children. Blood speckled its beak, a dark decoration above the warm red tinges on its chest.

I realized that it was a young one, probably a teenager in robin years. Its feathers were perfect, straight and sleek, pinions just slightly larger and smaller on each side, forming beautiful strong wings. And the roses on the sides under the wings were just barely forming up into a speckled breast. It was about the size of an adult but without the experience, which is why it probably hit our window.

One eye was slightly open and looking like black jelly, like it would spill out of the socket as liquid if you tipped the bird over slightly. The other eye was closed. This teenage robin had eyelashes on the under-lid. It had whiskers. Its feet were curled and delicate.

It was too beautiful. It was too sad.

Nadia was watching me. She told me she was sorry that it died because she could see the sadness in my eyes; but I wasn’t really mourning after the bird. We touched its wings, feeling its perfect form beneath our fingers: the surreal softness, the preciousness of a young fleeting life snuffed out. Not a sparrow falls but that He sees it. God saw this.

Woodpeckers will close their nictitating membrane, then tighten it a millisecond before they hit the tree so that their eyeballs don’t fall out on impact. Perhaps we need similar shields.

Only a few days earlier we had discovered a young robin hopping around the pine tree down in the yard. We took pictures. The kids enjoyed watching it hop around. There was a hawk above, circling around, and I like to think we saved that little robin’s life. There was a little one then, alive and bouncing, and then a bigger one, dead and stiff.

God saw this.

What is it about seeing that is comforting? Wouldn’t catching the sparrow be more comforting? Wouldn’t solving the problem, ending the great horror – death – wouldn’t this be a more lasting comfort? You see me, God. You see my children. But if you were to let them fall…

Sharks close their third eyelid when they attack. This way they can see their victims without getting blood in their eyes.

Kai got out of the house when he was only one year old. We noticed when it was too quiet. He had slipped out the screen door moments after I arrived home from work, and neither Linnea nor I had seen him. I locked the door. It was five minutes before we noticed he was gone, and in those five minutes he was down the outer stairs of the apartment building and toddling along the street.

The terror in my heart: I was running down the sidewalk in my dress slacks, socks, and undershirt, desperately looking for my son, expecting to see him lying in the street, expecting to be one of those parents we pray for, expecting to live with the knowledge that we didn’t see him, we didn’t see him, and then it was too late to see him…

He liked stairs, so he had kept to the house side of the sidewalk, and a kind and observant couple had pulled over and were with him four houses down when I ran up. The man was on the phone with the police, and I heard him say, “Oh never mind, it’s okay. The father’s here.” I thanked them, breathless, and held my son, and held him walking back, and held him up the stairs, and held him for another hour until he didn’t want to be held anymore, promising him I would see him, always, I would see him.

God saw this. How can I say it differently, to ease the pain? God sees… me?

If we mourn this way, how must God mourn at all He sees, at all the flickering lights snuffed out, the bruised reeds broken, the sheep silent before the shearer? Death is nothing new to Him, and in fact, He knows it as an old friend, an old foe, better than us all.

Today, this day, my children are alive and real, perfect in form and surreally soft. They are the preciousness of young life, fleeting, and my God sees them. Lest you think me morbid, think on why this is precious, why as a parent, as a child, as a human I am determined to cherish this thing we call life, why I must defend it for those I love, why death is such an aberration and a destiny and a defeated foe. The thought of death is morbid, maybe, but so is the thought of life without the thought of death. For now, we need both. And God sees us, in both.

God sees us.

Peregrine falcons see too, because as they dive at over 200 miles per hour, they blink their nictitating membranes repeatedly to clear away the debris and clean each eye.

In the midst of holding onto my family’s break-neck life, I find that I am unable to bring myself to accept such a thing as death, and yet… I know that it’s what I must do, for we will all encounter it, sooner or later. This dark thing I wish to dismiss by forgetting, or fighting, or examining on the operating table of a small terrarium: Death will come for us all.  I know, in my spirit, it is good – a gift given so that our difficult, fallen lives will not last forever, but it will never lose its dread, even when it has lost its sting. And perhaps I will embrace it as a friend when more years have passed beneath my feet, or perhaps I will embrace my Savior, and He will carry me through it into the place where it cannot enter.

And my heart holds its breath for all the times I must try to prepare my children for that moment – the one I feel certain I will never be fully prepared for, the one that God sees. I know I am actually only trying to prepare myself. I know it is not up to me, and I wish I could take more comfort in that. Perhaps someday I will. Every day is another reminder that I am not in control, and death is the great Out-of-My-Control.

But I know this. Each day that I walk in the sight of God, He will train my eyes, and my sight can be strengthened by seeing life and knowing it itself is but a shadow of the life to come.

Nadia, my little avian maven, knows that birds need nests. So she settles herself in a patch of fragrant clover and picks flowers as a pillow for the bird. She is kneeling in her pink flowered dress, a lily ringed with gingham, examining the ground and plucking appropriate stems carefully, precisely, preparing for burial. Perhaps, preparing for flight.

And I blink back a tear.

Original article: Kim P. et al, ACS Nano (2012, online ahead of print)

Frost formation on aircrafts at high altitudes poses major safety threats and high-maintenance costs. Now, Joanna Aizenberg with her research team present a solution in their recent publication reporting on outstanding capabilities of a surface coating to prevent frost formation on metal surfaces. The technology called SLIPS (Slippery, Liquid-Infused Porous Surfaces) was inspired by the slippery surface of the carnivorous pitcher plant, which enables the plant to capture insects. “Some of the most extreme examples in biology can provide the most amazing and unexpected ideas…” says Aizenberg, who is a professor at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University. Rendering surfaces slippery is not new to scientists, and the earlier inspirations also came from biology. Mimicking the surface of the leaf of another plant (Nelumbo nucifera, or commonly known as the Lotus plant), scientists have been successful in fabricating surface coatings that would repel water-based dirt, but Lotus-inspired coatings failed for oily substances. On the other hand, Aizenberg’s SLIPS technology offers a single solution for repelling any type of accumulated unwanted material. The pitcher plant thus offers a solution that virtually proves to be the “silver bullet” in generating non-sticky coatings as described again in Aizenberg’s own words: “In following its example, we should be able to develop a platform that works for almost any sticky problem, no matter how seemingly unrelated, whether it’s ice accumulation, bacterial attachment, environmental contamination, clogging of pipes, marine biofouling, or graffiti, rather than having to come up with a host of individual solutions.” Thanks to the wondrous design in the pitcher plant, it looks like doctors will be delivered from replacing bacteria-contaminated arterial stents, and we can all give a kiss goodbye to frosty freezers.

2- Airborne bird flu virus possesses a great risk

Original articles: Herfst S. et al, Science 336, 1534 & Russell C.A. et al, Science 336, 1541.

Science magazine recently published a special issue (June 22, 2012 issue) on the H5N1 infection (a.k.a. bird flu) with two reports revealing the pandemic (a disease prevalent throughout an entire country, continent, or the whole world, such as AIDS) potential of bird flu. Bird flu virus has so far killed millions of birds and many more millions of birds were culled to stop the propagation of the virus. Thankfully, this virus has not yet caused a pandemic in humans mainly because of its inability to spread easily among humans. One mechanism that makes viruses highly contagious is their ability to spread through air, such as through the nose and mouths of people when they cough and sneeze. Viruses that spread through air are called airborne viruses. One big difference between bird flu virus and the more recent swine flu virus (H1N1) was that swine flu is an airborne virus and bird flu is not, and therefore swine flu caused a mild pandemic in 2009. As reported in these studies, researchers identified several genetic mutations that will cause bird flu virus to become airborne. Viruses undergo mutations all the time and unfortunately some of these identified mutations have already started taking place in circulating virus strains. This poses a great risk. One important aspect of these reports is that they were written about a year ago but withheld since now, because of concerns about misuse of this information to pose a threat to humanity. Now that the information is public, our hope is that it will be used to monitor the virus closely and be prepared if bird flu virus transforms into an airborne virus.

3- Not all bacteria are the same after all

Original article: Chung H. et al, Cell 149, 1578 (2012)

The impact of our own bacteria on human life has been intensely researched in recent years. One of the common ground is that humans acquire many useful bacteria over their existence. However, this microbial flora constantly changes as the conditions do. Therefore, the real number of 500 to 1000 microbial species inhabiting mammals is anybody’s guess. Nonetheless, some scientists did not shy away predicting a connection between having a specific microbial flora to avoid certain diseases. A recent article by Chung et al presented an interesting clue why constant change in microbial flora, especially if that leads to a loss of important bacteria, may be linked to the increase in human autoimmune disorders. “For every cell in your body that is you, that contains your specific genetic information, there are approximately nine foreign bacterial cells, primarily in your digestive tract and even on your skin,” said Dennis Kasper, professor at Harvard Medical School and senior author on the paper. To address the question if microbial affects immune system development, authors compared two groups of mice, both of which had never had bacteria in their intestine before the experiment. One group of mice received mice microbial flora and the other received human microbial flora. Both groups had similar number of bacteria in their digestive tracks. However, authors observed a stark contrast between the two groups in terms of the level of immune cells in intestinal tissues. Mice that received human flora had surprisingly low number of immune cells compared to the mice that received mouse flora, which is native to mice. When this experiment was repeated with rat microbial flora, astonishingly, similar immune deficiency was observed. “I was very surprised to see that. I would have expected more of a half-way response,” Chung said, considering how closely rats and mice are related. The study points out that we really need to preserve our own microbial flora that has been tailored for us. Disrupting this balance by means of current antibiotics overuse may have detrimental effects in the future.

Not long after, I saw a minuscule thing coming to me from that direction; I thought it was a bird of some kind. Strange enough, the bird came to me so abruptly that I heard its sound only after it passed me… Guess what? It was not a bird; it was a fighter jet. This time, I knew where to look, and I followed it for the short while it played pick-a-boo with me.

The following day, mom took me to the celebration arena for a national day. I couldn’t believe my eyes, everywhere was full of fighter jets; but my eyes looked for the one that mesmerized me the day before. And, it was standing right there, waiting for me to come. I approached it with respectful steps, and carefully touched it. It was so cold and tough, yet so beautiful. That day, I knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. The smell of the jet fuel coming from the engines was so powerful that even I could fly with that kind of a drink.

“Hey; come here” I heard someone calling me. There was really nobody around. “Follow the sharp smell, come on here,” insisted the voice. Was I daydreaming, or had I been poisoned by the jet fuel and lost my conscience? Yeah, yeah, the voice was coming from the rear-end of the engine. It was the nozzle that was talking to me.

The moment I realized who was talking to me, I found myself in the circular, hollow structure of the nozzle. I was too nervous and surprised at first, but after a moment of looking around admiringly, I spoke with the words: “I know the inferno fire that you are exhausting. Isn’t it beautiful? You are so powerful. You are the one that is powering this beauty in the sky.”

The nozzle was not happy to hear my words of flattery. “Hey little boy, you know something, but you don’t know everything. Yes, it is true that I am exhausting that violent river of gas. You are right that this stormy exhaust is in the heart of this beauty in the sky. But you have got to learn more. I am only a solid duct that is accelerating what comes into me. I have no power to compress that humongous amount of air into a volume as small as a bird’s nest. I am completely unable to heat up the air to inferno level. And, the beauty in the sky is not taken up there by me either.”

I was totally disappointed and frustrated by the nozzle. I had thought for an instant that it was my hero; but now, my dreams were destroyed. I felt all alone in a desert. The nozzle must have realized my situation, so it picked up again: “Come on. I am going to introduce you to the unseen heroes behind our mysterious beauty. I am going to show you the inside.”

I was truly perplexed. What else could be more mysterious than a speaking nozzle? The voice of the nozzle slowly diffused into the deep and dark hallway into the engine, and I followed it. Soon, I came by long towers that had a nicely curved shape. As soon as I stepped near them, the floor that the towers were built on started moving. In the midst of this earthquake and a blinding darkness, I could faintly see another row of towers that were stagnant. I threw myself towards them. As I was dealing with my horrified and troubled soul, I heard a thunderous voice that reverberated everywhere:

“How nice to see you here, Adam!” I was doubly shocked. Not only was this unseen thing talking to me, but it also knew my name. “Do you know me?” I replied. “How could I miss your glittering eyes fixed at us whenever we pass over you? I am the turbine, one of the unseen heroes. I am the one that powers the compressors that squeeze the air. I am the one that faces the hot air before it goes into the nozzle.”

Wow, this was the man; this was the legendary hero behind the beauty in the sky. I looked at its towers that displayed nobility and their curved surfaces that embodied beauty. As I was losing myself in admiration, I heard the voice again:

“These are the eyes that I have been seeing every time we passed over you. But I have to tell you something. What you are looking for is not me either, because I cannot create the hot air that energizes everything, including me. Despite the beauties and power embodied in me, I am not the essence that bears the real beauty you are looking for.”

What was that supposed to mean? First the nozzle, now the turbine; every time, I am being attracted, and then I am left alone with a sense of deception. Are these heroes making fun of my admiration of their beauty? If so, they don’t deserve my admiration anymore; if not, then why am I having this feeling of deception? Is it wrong to attribute hero status to something?

Lost in feelings and thoughts like these, I left the turbine, and proceeded further into the darkness. Not only didn’t I know where I was, but also I had no means to determine my whereabouts. In total silence and darkness, I sat at a place that felt like a smooth and large room. Suddenly, a wind started blowing with growing speed, and a constant noise occupied everywhere. I was alarmed and sought somewhere to cling to. With the help of lightning that seemed to come out of nowhere, I saw a cavity that looked safe. After a challenging crawl, I was there. Then, a second lightning came and everywhere burst into fires. As if winds from the hell were gushing out. My jaw dropped down, I stared at this miraculous display of fire.

“Welcome, finally you are here,” told a voice that was distinctly heard despite the violent storm. I felt like I am being driven through a scenario so that where ever I enter, I experience things that I was meant to. “Am I the hero of this scenario?”, I asked myself inside, and laughed at the idea. Upon seeing so many extraordinary things, my awe of the strange things was veiled with habituation. So, I couldn’t pay the respect that was due the voice I heard. Maybe because of this, I received a kick from behind, and I had to struggle against the winds of fire to get back to my seat where I was safe and comfortable.

“Hello, are you still there?” I asked. “Can you tell me where I am?” That distinct voice appeared again in my ears: “Indeed, I am here, but you weren’t!” I bowed my head with shame. Having hurt the only one that could help me in this situation was as foolish as it could be. “And I was with you all along from the start.” What was this? I didn’t know whether to feel ashamed because of my selfish and pragmatic sense of respect, or to burst into a thousand pieces for not having recognized the one who has been with me all along?

“This is as far as you can go in this story. You are in the place where the energy that empowers everything is revealed. It is the heart of the beauty that you have been admiring.” After a second of silence, “Did you find what you were looking for?” asked the voice. I had seen strange things, but none of them had satisfied my heart nor quenched my curiosity. A sad face was my response to the question, but I didn’t know if the voice could see my face. Apparently it did, so that it directed me to another place. “You see this violent fire going on, would you like to fly away with it?” Was this guy crazy? How in the world could I survive in fire? “Well then, there are two ways to get out of here. Either you go along the fire back to where you came from. Or, if you are not able to do so, you go forward.”

With that directive, I started crawling towards the front, into the strong wind. I came across a thing similar to the turbine, and then another hallway similar to the nozzle. At first I was puzzled, because I had seen the same things that I had seen on my way previously. Had I made a mistake and proceeded backwards? That mustn’t be the case, since I had moved away from the fire.

After this stupefying similarity, I was at the mouth of the cave where everything starts. I was able to see the wings too. But now, the aircraft was moving. All of the storm that was going on inside was for accelerating. The force of the acceleration was so strong that I slipped from where I was clinging, and found myself stuck at the beautiful front curve of the wing. Strange enough, the same voice welcomed me again: “Finally you are here.” I didn’t know whether to reply to it or to lose myself while watching the beauty of the aircraft as it soared into the air with an ever increasing speed. It definitely felt like the divers who hear that beautiful voice when they go deeper than they should. I could not resist melting my body in the excitement of the maneuvers. After a while, we were hundreds of meters above where we had started. Now, the aircraft was cruising, and despite the rareness of the experience, it felt like sitting in the living room. With the steadiness of my state, I found myself emerging from the depths of excitement.

“Have you found the beauty you are looking for?” asked the voice again, to which I said yes. “Where do you think that beauty is coming from? From the engines or from the wings?” That question was most unexpected. The engine itself was not able to fly, it was only able to create a strong push. The wings were only beautiful. They did not actively do anything. They only stood there in the wind, and then, lift was there. Without the air, the wings would not create anything. As for the air, we are completely sunken in it, let alone flying. “I don’t know where the beauty is coming from. There seems to be something missing in the ingredients that created the beauty of flight. None of the ingredients seems to originate it. It looks like you put the engine, the wings and the air in the pot, and suddenly something that you did not put comes into being.”

“But you did not realize this point until you made this journey, despite that you have been witnessing the same beauty all along. “

Why was that the case? Why did I have to make this incredible journey in order to become aware of this uncertainty in the source of beauty?

“When you are not actually in a journey like this, you take all the mysteries for granted, because you consider them natural, ordinary. But once you are in the journey, you realize something different that exists neither in you nor in the things you come across. It is as if somebody is tracking what is going on, and whenever the necessary ingredients are there, he secretly adds the missing spice into it at the right amount. And, then? Behold the beauty!”

Able to dive into the water at a speed approaching 90 km, the kingfisher can grab its prey at this speed in a depth of 60 cm, instantly pivot back and then, using its wings as oars, surface above the water. In order not to lose its prey, the bird’s precisely timed diving and surfacing takes place in three seconds.

A torpedo as light as a fly

The most basic factor that enables an animate creature to dive into the water is its body being heavier than the water. With a weight of 40 g and a length of 18 cm, the kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) should remain on top of the water and not be able to catch fish because it cannot dive. However, because God put the sustenance of this bird in the depths of the sea, He gave it the special diving ability. Able to dive into the water at a speed approaching 90 km, the kingfisher can grab its prey at this speed in a depth of 60 cm, instantly pivot back and then, using its wings as oars, surface above the water. In order not to lose its prey, the bird’s precisely timed diving and surfacing takes place in three seconds. In a short period of time the kingfisher has traveled a distance 414 times its height. This shows that it can move as fast as a fighter aircraft. If we consider what the kingfisher does on a human scale, a person would be able to dive 26 meters in three seconds and then resurface with a prey the size of a sheepdog. Here another interesting point should be made. The fish the kingfisher wants to catch is actually in a different position than it would visually appear from the sky due to the difference of the degrees of deflection of light in water and air. Bereft of any knowledge of optics, how does this bird solve this problem of physics?

How heavy is a bird feather?

There are physical limits to bird’s flying capabilities. In order for a bird to be able to fly, its weight should not be more than 15 kg. In order for birds heavier than this to fly, their wings have to be proportionately larger so it is difficult for this big a bird with heavy wings to fly. Male silent swans (Cygnus olor) weigh more than 14 kg; in fact, there are even some that weigh 20 kg. However, God compensated for this situation with a special structure. Like other birds, the silent swans have some bones filled with air and the inner part of these bones has been made stronger with small props. For this reason, the feathers and bones of these birds are one-tenth as heavy as their bodies. There are more than 12,000 muscle ligaments in the wings of swans to activate the feathers used in flying. Long (50 cm) wing feathers greatly increase the carriage surface of the wings. Each feather can carry 200 grams of weight during flight. For this reason, a swan that loses just one wing feather can no longer take flight. It takes 60 days for the feathers to be completely renewed.

Because the owl’s ears were created asymmetrically (the right ear is higher), sounds reach the close ear 1/300,000 of a second earlier. This small amount of time difference is enough for the owl to determine the exact place of the source of the sound.

Are owls flying radar stations?

Under normal conditions it is not possible to hear the sound waves of a mouse eating a hazelnut in a hayloft. Possessing a sensitive receiver, owls are an exception. The facial structure of owls resembles the high tech early warning equipment on AWACS planes. Focusing on even the smallest sound wave just like a satellite antenna, this structure cannot be explained by the intelligence of an owl.

Because the owl’s ears were created asymmetrically (the right ear is higher), sounds reach the close ear 1/300,000 of a second earlier. This small time difference is enough for the owl to determine the exact location of the source of the sound. Through the 95,000 nerve cells in the simultaneous hearing center, the brain imagines a 3-D image of the prey. Due to the anatomy of it 14 neck vertebrae (humans and other mammals have seven vertebrae), the owl was given the capability of turning its head 270 degrees and determining the exact position of its prey. While flying towards the place where the sound came from, the owl can constantly recalculate the position of the prey relative to its own position, even if the prey changes its place. As a result of this precise calculation, only three seconds passes between the moment the owl first heard the sound of the prey and the moment it makes its deadly attack.

Is there a mathematical formula for remaining alive?

The formula is this: 7-15-70. It is difficult to immediately understand what these three numbers mean. However, these numbers make it almost impossible for a starling to be caught by its enemies.

We can explain the meaning of these numbers as follows: Whatever 7 close neighbors do, imitate them; constantly fly at least 15 cm from them; do not ever fly more than 70 km per hour. There is one more rule: Keep your distance from all enemies. When these principles are followed, enormous protection follows.

Flocks of starlings are comprised of several thousands of birds that move like one organism. In less than a second, the flock’s direction, size and breadth can change. In this situation their enemies do not have much of a chance against such a tight mass. For predatory birds need to determine their targets in order to catch their prey. The fast and sudden movements of the flock prevent attack from predatory birds. In spite of this, predators who attempt attack go back empty-handed. For acting like one body, this enormous flock encompasses the enemy in a counter current with the waves they create and narrow it down until the bird can no longer fly. Becoming dazed, the predatory bird has no choice but to fly away from the flock. This instructive action of the starlings brings to mind the Qur’anic verse: “There is not an animal (that lives) on the earth, not a being that flies on its wings, but (forms part of) communities like you” (6:38).

The world’s best camera can see objects as big as a mouse from a height of 300 meters. This is an amazing thing, but even so, no camera can compare in any respect to an eagle’s eyes.

Can eagles see from the side?

The world’s best camera can see objects as big as a mouse from a height of 300 meters. This is an amazing thing, but even so, no camera can compare in any respect to an eagle’s eyes. Eagles can clearly see their targets from a distance of more than 1,000 meters. Eagles can even see a fish in fine detail from this distance. This special quality bestowed upon eagles is something technology would have difficulty imitating. For the lens of the eagle’s eye is soft contrary to human eyes’ and it sees clearly more quickly and it more greatly magnifies its object. In addition, each of the eyes of the eagle has two separate vision centers. This allows the birds to see clearly both in front of them and at their sides. To attain this perfect vision, more than a million light receiving cells are on duty in each square millimeter of the retina. Comparing this to a human eye, a person has 200,000 cells in the same unit of space in the retina. Due to this structure of the retina and lens, an eagle’s eyes are as large as a human being’s eyes. If a human eye were to have the same capability, it would have to be as large as an apple. Because a human does not need to hunt like an eagle, he was not burdened with such big eyes.

How much can a brain be shaken?

G-force expresses changes in a body’s weight caused by acceleration. For example, when a jet is climbing towards the sky, the gravity a pilot is subject to increases immensely and his blood puts a lot of pressure on the veins in his legs. A space vehicle has 3 G when it takes off; a war plane has an average of 10 G; and a car’s peak force is 120 G when it crashes head on at full speed. With every peck, a woodpecker’s beak reaches 1,200 G in a way that is hard to believe. In other words, it is like the bird’s head hits a cement wall at a speed of 25 km per hour, and the woodpecker does this 20 times a second.

Experiencing pressures greater than 14 G is deadly for a human being. In comparison, woodpeckers have been given the ability to endure several hundred times what astronauts experience in their landings. This is only possible with a very special histological/anatomic structure and a skull created with perfect proportions. With the beak hitting a tree in a hard manner, a woodpecker’s brain almost completely fills its skull in order to prevent a trauma from developing. Created with a spongy structure, its bone structure acts as a shock absorber. The head and nape of the neck muscles contract towards the place it has hit and the waves from the blow become harmless. Even the lower part of the tongue is wound around the skull once in order to secure the brain and protect it from shaking. This situation does not create a problem or difficulty for woodpeckers which hit their heads against trees for a handful of larva, for they have been prepared for these conditions in their creation.

Small birds creating the power of a hurricane

Having a spread of 35 cm between two wings when they are opened, swallows weigh less than a normal size lighter. At first glance the apparent body structure of swallows suggests that they should only display an average flight capability with their deficient ability to maneuver. However, when we go out into nature and see swallows soaring in the countryside, we see that the situation is not like that at all. With the amazing way in which they were created, swallows succeed in doing a job that appears to be almost impossible physically. These birds can pass with jet speed through a space only 2 cm wider than their bodies. They succeed in this by flapping their wings rhythmically without stopping. Researchers have determined that they do this by means of a wing structure that moves with a special mechanism. The upper part of the wings of swallows can turn the air into an eddy. With the pressure created by this eddy, a great power of lifting and balancing occurs. The birds virtually fly with the power of hurricanes. Until now, this style of flying was only known to exist with insects. By seemingly gluing their wings to their bodies with this wonderful mechanism bestowed by the Creator, swallows easily pass through difficult places. Consequently, swallows can make 90-degree turns at astonishing speeds. Supersonic planes also benefit by generating these same kind of mini-hurricanes.

Can there be flying submarines?

Every year in May, tens of thousands of sharks, whales and dolphins come to the South African coastlines because of the schools of sardines (Sardinella). However, the strongest sardine hunter is not under water; it is a bird eyeing its prey from 30 meters high. The northern gannet (Morus capensis) a much better hunter than other sea birds, has a perfect body structure. While even sharks can only catch one out of two prey, the northern gannet’s perfect hunting techniques enable it to make a record success. The first reason for this is its reaching its target quickly and directly; the second reason is its being able to move about comfortably under water. These sea birds can go down 10 meters at first and then 20 meters by flapping their wings. They can dive at a speed of 120 km per hour. Their capability of holding oxygen-rich air in their air bags allows them to hunt up to one minute under water. Because they usually finish their prey under water, it is not common for them to bring it to the surface.

As research supported by technological possibilities increases, many more amazing biological mechanisms will be discovered. Doesn’t it strain reason to explain the existence of animate creatures that continue life with such fine calculations by means of chance?

“You know, I wasn’t always like this,” began the butterfly. “I used to creep on the ground instead of flying in the air. I used to have gloomy colors and obnoxiously long hair instead of these lovely colors and elegant wings.”

It was really hard for me to believe that the butterfly had ever been in the situation she was describing. I am sure the other fellows in our group were also surprised to hear this, but none of us wanted to interrupt the flow of her beautiful words.

“My situation back then troubled me, indeed. Why was I doomed to get smashed under the feet of others? Why was beauty innate to other creatures while ugliness was my fate? Dissatisfied with my situation, I wanted to change, dreamed to wake up into a new day, desired to breathe a fresh life. My creeping ugly body did not match my spirit within.”

At this point, I couldn’t hold my breath anymore, and asked: “So, what did you do about it? Was it then that you turned into this beautiful state?” The butterfly reacted most unexpectedly to my question. She neither smiled nor gave a humble answer. Without even changing the expression on her face, as if she hadn’t heard me, she continued: “I couldn’t do anything about it.” Then she stopped. You know how long intermissions like this can feel. After a few seconds the butterfly took the word again seriously, as if she had a duty to tell her story, rather than an urge to praise herself.

“In that desperation, I decided to bring all this to an end. I slowly climbed a high tree. From that height, the scene looked very different. I was able to observe things just like the birds. I had found a security that I could never find on the ground. A perfect day to initiate my change. If I wanted to be revived anew, I needed to die first.”

We weren’t expecting to hear such sentences from this unique guest in our forest. Why was she telling us all this anyway? We were all young trees looking forward to our bright futures. The gloom in her words veiled her beauty, and eclipsed our interest in listening to her. But observing the change in our facial expressions, the butterfly continued:

“And slowly, I started tying the rope that I carefully made myself, and rendered myself to the hands of the wind. And just like I had predicted, things started changing very quickly as I descended towards the ground. I realized something that I had never thought before: I belonged to someone who did not want me to perish like this. It was as if time suddenly stopped, and I had a chance to communicate with my Owner. I was ashamed of what I had done, and asked for a second chance, which was given to me. Then I came to find myself hanging from the tree.”

I was thinking that the butterfly was going to conclude with “hanging from the tree in this vibrant beauty.” Astonishingly, there was more to the story of how she gained this beauty. My interest started to build up again, and I observed the same curiosity on my friends’ faces.

“In my anguish and shame, I started covering my body. I wove a small tent around myself. As such, I was alone in my darkness, away from the insults, from the harassments, and from myself. During my retreat, I tried to re-evaluate things and thought about positive ways to change. After a while, I decided to rid myself of my cocoon and do something. But there was one hurdle: I was hanging down in the middle of the air, covered with a genuinely woven house. I had to undo the excellent job I had done, but it wasn’t easy to tear my silken prison apart.

“As small pieces of the house were torn and as I was able to glimpse the daylight, I tried even harder to free myself. When the hole I made was large enough, I squeezed myself through. It was then that I saw my new self, reflected in the puddle below me and gave the most heartfelt praise to my Owner.”

Thus concluded the butterfly’s story of change. She even gave us admonitions about positive ways of making changes in our lives and in ourselves. She also talked about how potent our bodies are in facilitating the process of change.

All this was wholeheartedly embraced in our forest by the young trees, including me at the time. Why? Because we were in the same place where we were born; so we wanted to do something about it. We were all inspired by the butterfly’s story and decided to mobilize ourselves. Even the peaceful nights that used to be filled with the rhythmic voices of crickets were now filled with the whispers of our discussions on how to enact this fundamental change.

No wonder the old trees found this activity among the young outrageous and inappropriate. They thought that we were trying to achieve something against our nature. The time spent on these efforts was regarded as a waste. The old trees first tried to warn us against our “hallucinations,” but it turned out to be a fruitless effort. Then the old trees threatened to block our sunlight by covering us from above. This, too, became a wasted effort when the old trees realized they were engaging in sanctions that would kill their young ones instead of changing their minds. In the mean time, our ideas caught the attention of the newer generations. Upon hearing the whole story regarding the butterfly and our efforts to change, they too joined us in that desire to mobilize. So eventually the old trees decided to wait and see what would happen. After all, we were simply trying to imitate the butterfly.

Ever since that spring when the butterfly shared her story, we all covered ourselves with as many leaves as possible, similar to the cocoon of the butterfly. We were hoping that when the winter winds blew those leaves away, our mobilized selves would come out, just like the flight of the butterfly. We persistently covered ourselves this way year after year, but neither our roots became feet, nor did our branches transform to wings. Eventually, we realized that we were only getting older and that we were wasting our time. No one was out there anymore to advise us, either, because the butterfly had died that same spring, and the older trees shunned us because of our stubborn foolishness.

Once young trees, now experienced and mature, we decided to talk about the failed plan that was supposed to lead us to change. This time, instead of reciting the misleading story of the butterfly, we were going to talk about why this had happened to us and how we should advise our young. We started by analyzing the cautions of the old trees. Although we were not fully able to understand the wisdom behind the words of the elders, we could feel that they carried some implicit good in them.

As our voices undulated in the air, one of the migrating birds heard this talk and made a swift landing near our place of discussion. She quickly started to talk: “You know, we also had a problem among our young, but it was in the opposite direction. They wanted to quit traveling and stay in one place. We even lost some of them last winter when they decided not to migrate.” The unexpected interruption by the bird evoked other questions in our branchy minds. Why was this problem always occurring with the young? And why did they fancy a nature opposite to their own?

We couldn’t come to a conclusion. But one day, a short time after the discussion with the bird, we witnessed a mobile tree and a stationary bird. The tree was being carried behind a huge animal that was making a horrible, obnoxious noise. This was an animal we had never seen. To our surprise, the two Men who were riding the animal had captured a bird and somehow made her into a stationary bird that could constantly stand on the walls surrounding their home. Neither the mobile tree nor the stationary bird induced joy in the forest.

The mobilization of the trees and the stationing of the birds continued until one day when there were hardly any trees and birds left. Something was terribly wrong because none of this brought any good to our forest. The few remaining trees wanted to stay where they were born, and the few remaining birds wanted to fly.

On a once breezy and warm, but now unusually hot spring day, a butterfly appeared in the place where our forest used to be. She carried a poetry book she had composed. As the butterfly voiced her yearning for the glorious trees in the land and the soaring birds in the skies, tears of regret filled our eyes. And her verses of nostalgia ended with a prayer:

Oh the Unchanging One despite the transients,
Oh the Eternal One in the face of all mortals,
Oh the Creator of all animals that are now only in the tales,
Resurrect nature, we implore with our silence.

Seth Mette has a PhD in Aerospace Engineering and is currently working as a postdoctoral fellow at West Virginia University. He has a special interest in psychological fiction.

His dreams drove him crazy; a crab had pierced its claws into his brain. He forsook his prayers and devotions, and neither ate nor slept.

Unable to rest tranquilly in one place, he wandered to a meadow, his head confused with the charms of his vain fancies. An old man was kneading mud upon a grave in order to make bricks. Absorbed in thought, the old man said:

“O foolish soul! Hearken to my counsel. Why have you attached your mind to that gold brick when one day they will make bricks from your dust? The mouth of a covetous man is so wide open that it can be closed again by one morsel. Take, O base man, your hand off that brick, for you cannot dam the river of your avarice with it.

“So negligent have you been in the thought of gain and riches that the stock of your life has become trampled underfoot. The dust of desire has blinded the eyes of your reason-the wind of desire has destroyed the harvest of your life.”

“Wipe negligence from your eyes, for will you not be buried under the dust tomorrow?

“Your life is a bird, and its name is Breath. When the bird has flown from its cage it does not return to captivity.

“Be watchful, for the world lasts but a moment, and a moment spent in wisdom is better than an age in folly.

“Why do we fix our minds upon this caravanserai? Our friends have departed and we are on the road. After us, the same flowers will bloom in the garden, and the same friends will still be sitting.

“When you arrive in Shiraz,² do you not clean from yourself the dust of the road?

“Soon, O you are polluted with the dust of sin, you will journey to a strange city. Weep, and wash away the impurities with your tears.”

Footnotes

1. Sadi of Shiraz (1209-1291) was one of the greatest poets of Persia. Sadi, the traveler, was born in Baghdad and saw a great part of the world before he finally settled in Shiraz, where he died. This story was taken from his work The Orchard.
2. The city of Shiraz represents one’s native land.

Birds, class Aves, are the only animals that have feathers. Aves is a large, highly diverse class with 8,600 species of water birds, songbirds, and birds of prey, including huge flightless runners, deep divers, and migratory species that travel thousands of miles each year. Although most birds have similar body structures, taxonomists, those who classify and name things such as animals and plants in groups, use variations in bone structure, muscles, and internal organs to distinguish one order from another. Variations in the shape and structure of the bills, wings, tails, and feet are also useful for classification and identification. Birds inhabit a wide variety of habitats and can be found on all the continents, most islands, and even on the open sea. They also have a wide range of size. The largest birds are the ostriches of Africa, up to 2m tall and weighing 136kg, and the great condors of the Americas, with wingspreads of up to 3m. The smallest known bird is Helena’s humming bird of Cuba, less than 6cm long and weighing less than 4g.

The skeleton system of birds is highly adapted for flight. In spite of its low weight, a bird’s skeleton is extremely strong. Hollow and fused bones are the two main bone types. Most bones` being hollow lessens overall body weight making flight more efficient. The skeleton of a bird is much lighter than any other kind of warm-blooded animal. However, this is achieved at a cost, and the skull of a bird is thin and susceptible to fracturing. Further lightening of the bird`s head has also been made possible by the absence of teeth. The other noticeable feature of a bird’s skull is the size of the eye sockets, to house the large eyes. This is probably because vision is a bird’s most crucial sense. The skeletal structure of the wing is relatively constant among the different species, but the actual shape of the feathers can be quite variable, depending on the flying capabilities of the species concerned. To provide effective thrust, the bones in the wing move together. As the bird’s wing beats downwards, special bones prevent its chest from being crushed. The thrust of the wing articulates with the scapula on each side of the body. The corocaid and the wishbone also provide reinforcement. The chest cavity is reinforced by the unusual structure of the ribs. The ribs have projections, known as incinerate process, which are directed backwards, overlapping each other. These help to provide support, especially in diving birds. In cross section, the wings are honeycombed. During flight, this lightens the load on the pectoral muscles which, attached to the keel of the sternum, may account for half of the birds body weight.

Flight is one of the most outstanding characteristics of birds. A bird’s body is adapted to meet the two major requirements for flight, which are low weight and high power. Unlike other vertebrates a bird has a skeleton that is very light in relation to body size, e.g. a pigeon’s skeleton accounts for only 4.4 per cent of its body weight. Birds have a compact, streamlined body, and the fusion of many of the bones gives the body the rigidity needed for flying. A birds wing bone is thin and hollow, with criss-cross reinforcements on the inside which provide support while adding little weight. Besides the unusual structure of bones, it is the presence of feathers that distinguishes birds from all other creatures that have conquered flight. Feathers are made of dead cells, and become dehydrated and are exceedingly light. Thus, they can be large and form the flight surface of the wings and tail without weighing much and without being susceptible to water or heat loss. Along with keeping a birds body warm, feathers function for flight. The long overlapping contour feathers streamline the body. These feathers form the wings and much of the tail. Wings made of contour feathers have much surface area and little weight. They are well adapted for fanning the air and for gliding on air currents.

The flight of birds is one of the most beautiful and wonderful things in nature. The make and arrangement of their feathers and bones, and their stream-lined shapes, from beak to tail, are instances of purposive adaptation. They soar with outstretched wings; they dart with folded wings. Their upward and downward mobility, as well as their stability in the air, and when they rest on their feet, have given many ideas to man in the science and art of aeronautics, But who taught or gave to birds this wonderful adaptation? None but God, Whose infinite Mercy provides for every creature just those conditions which are best adapted for its life. This is stated in a verse in the Qur’an (Mulk, 67.19):

Do they not observe the birds above them, spreading their wings and folding them in? None can uphold them except (God) Most Gracious: truly it is He that watches over all things. 

Flying techniques depend on the principles of aerodynamics. Reducing air pressure and friction against the body requires perfect aerodynamic structure. Up to recent times, a rain drop was accepted as the most perfect aerodynamic shape. However, the shape of a bird’s body is now accepted as the most perfect, and aircraft are designed according to the aerodynamic structure of birds. Compared with birds, the latest aircraft are still clumsier and have less agility than birds. Moreover, hypoxia, which is a deficiency of oxygen and results in drowsiness, mental fugitive, headache, and sometimes euphoria, affects pilots severely and can cause them to lose their consciousness on flying upward. But this is not a hindrance for birds because the air between their feathers, their bodies and wings is absorbing and reducing air pressure, Along with this ability, there are some movements which birds can do easily, such as turning sharply, doing somersaults, steep ascents and descents, whereas manmade flying machines face some serious risks in attempting the same movements. Birds can also glide for long periods without beating their wings while aeroplanes cannot sustain flight with stopped engines. Vertical take off and landing is something many flying animals such as bees and birds have been able to do for millions of years. The structure of birds has inspired engineers to design specific modifications in recent models of aircraft, such as the F-14, F-18, and M1G-25, It is true that producing an aircraft requires complex skills and knowledge, improved steadily over a long time. But is it not marvellous that birds have been demonstrating perfect flight for millions of years?

Birds have become adapted to a variety of environments, and various species have very different types of beaks, feet, wings, tails, and behavioural patterns. Although all birds must eat frequently (because they do not store much and yet must maintain a very high metabolic rate), their choice of food varies widely among species-seeds, fruits, worms, molluscs, rodents, rabbits, fish, snakes, lizards, even dead animals. The shape of the bills reflects the birds feeding habits. For example, nectar-feeders have narrow, pointed bills; finches, which consume large quantities of seed, have short, stout bills; and birds that eat insects and berries have a non-specific bill shape and so on.

Birds also lack teeth and this probably reduces body weight for flight. Instead of teeth, their mouths are modified into bills. In addition to this modification, birds have another adaptation for digesting food. A bird swallows small bits of gravel, which act as teeth in the gizzard, mechanically breaking down food. An interesting feature of the bird’s digestive system is the crop, an expanded, sack-like portion of the digestive tract below the oesophagus, in which food is temporarily stored, and where food such as hard seeds is softened with mucus. As a storage organ, the crop allows the bird to feed rapidly and to store large amounts of food. The bird also produces a white secretion, sometimes called crop milk’, which is rich in proteins and fats, and birds use this secretion to feed their young. Birds (except for the ostrich) do not possess a bladder, and so the uric acid passes directly, through the uretors, to the cloaca. After reabsorbing water back into the bird’s body, uric acid is excreted in the form of a semi-solid, whitish concentrate.

Birds often build up high concentrations in their bodies because they consume salty foods or sea water and lose water through evaporation in the urine and feces. To rid themselves of this excess salt, these animals have salt glands, special secretary organs near the eye or in the tongue that remove excess salt from the blood and secrete it in a solution of tear-like drops. Sensors in the wall of a bird’s heart apparently monitor the osmotic pressure of the blood and send nerve signals to the brain that trigger activation of the salt glands. Thus, the animal can drink sea water and yet, by excreting some of the water and all the salts, achieve a net water gain. This is an adaptive mechanism that helps to maintain a light body weight.

Birds have a well-developed nervous system with a brain. They rely heavily on vision; their eyes are proportionately larger than those of other vertebrates. Hearing is also well developed, in striking contrast to most animals, birds have developed the voice. The spoken word in human speech is different from the means of communication which birds have between each other. But no man can doubt that they have means of communication with each other, if he only observes the orderly flight of migratory birds which live in communities. This is also stated in the sacred book, Qur’an (al-Naml. 27.16):

And Solomon was David’s heir. He said: ‘O ye people! We have been taught the speech of Birds, and on us has been bestowed (a little) of all things.’ this is indeed Grace manifest (from God.)

Most birds have short simple calls that signal danger, or that influence feeding, flocking, or interaction between parent and young. Songs are usually more complex than calls and are performed mainly by males; they are related to reproduction, attracting and keeping a mate, claiming and defending territory.

Birds have a special system of air sacs that make fresh air almost continuously available to the sites of gas exchange. This provides the animal with the large quantities of oxygen needed for long distance, high- altitude flights — even a flight over Mt. Everest. A bird’s many air sacs also lower the body weight relative to its size. Air sacs lying between certain flight muscles are squeezed and relaxed on each stroke of the wing and this helps increase the amount of air during inhalation and exhalation. The faster the bird flies, the more rapid is the circulation of air through the lungs.

The paired lungs are relatively small and nine or more hollow air sacs are attached to the lungs and fill much of the body cavity. They are like balloons that lighten the body and serve as reservoirs for air that will later be needed. Experiments show that air flows continuously during both inhalation and exhalation, in one direction through the lungs, and the air is renewed during each inspiration. Therefore, oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange occurs in the lungs’ air capillaries during both inhalation and exhalation. The direction of blood flow in the lungs is opposite to the that of air flow through the parabrocni, tiny, thin-walled ducts in the lungs. This counter current flow increases the amount of oxygen that enters the blood.

This system enables birds to do the intense work of flying, even at high altitudes, and still maintain a high body temperature. Interestingly enough, rapid breathing also contributes to such a high performance; a Venezuela hummingbird, the sparkling violet ear, breathes 330 times per minute at sea level and 380 times per minute at high altitudes. This is a very high heart beat such as no other warm-blooded animal can accomplish.

The very effective respiratory and circulatory systems provide enough oxygen to the cells to permit a high metabolic rate. This is another important adaptation of birds: the maintenance of a high and constant body temperature in spite of changes in the external environment. High metabolic rate is necessary for the tremendous muscular activity required for flying. Some of the heat generated by metabolic activities is used to maintain a constant body temperature (between 35 and 42 degrees C) which permits birds to remain active in cold climates. Birds are among very few animals able to maintain a constant body temperature. Though birds are sometimes called warm-blooded, the preferred term is homeothermic.

One of the most interesting types of behaviour in birds is migration. Migration is the instinctive movement of animals, usually between their wintering grounds and their breeding grounds. Migration provides birds a better chance of surviving. By instinct, migrating birds make their long journeys each year to reach more favourable habitats. Some birds, such as the golden plover and arctic tern, fly from Alaska to Patagonia, South America, and back each year, flying 25,000km en route.

Migration is probably set in by several external stimuli, such as temperature and length of daylight. It is also triggered by the secretion of hormones. For many species the direction of migration is probably based on such factors as the bird’s observation of the sun and stars and even by the earth’s magnetic field. Few modern biological discoveries have been more surprising than the finding, in the 1970s, that bird’s, bacteria, and perhaps many other types of organisms orient their bodies to the earth’s magnetic field, How such animals can have acquired this magnificent ability is a question yet to be answered. How can living things perceive a force as elusive as magnetism?

Many birds and at least one mammal-the porpoise-have a small number of tiny crystals of magnetite (a form of iron oxide) in tissues near the brain. Likewise, magnetobacteria, have magnetite crystals in their cytoplasm and swim toward or away from the poles of an applied magnetic field. How some higher organisms use magnetic particles to sense the direction of the lines of magnetic force generated by the earth’s core remains a subject of research. One hypothesis suggests that the crystals in, for example, a pigeons head, function like tiny compass needless, and mechanoreceptors might detect their relative movement. Other work indicates that in the rat, changes in magnetic yield can alter enzyme activity and levels of melatonin in the pineal gland. Still other work suggests that regularly arrayed layers (also present in pineal glands) undergo certain changes as the head and eyes move relative to the earth’s magnetic field. They could allow the animal to sense magnetic fields, but not by a mechanoreceptor mechanism. Whatever the mechanisms, homing, migration and many other directional animal behaviours depend on detecting magnetic fields.

Birds with their perfect features are wonders in nature to be marvelled at as such. All creation, both animate and inanimate, celebrates Gods praise and bears witness to His power, wisdom and goodness. We can aspire to true knowledge of God through observing the wonders in nature. However, this is possible only if people do not insist on their positivistic viewpoint and see the direct manifestations of God’s Names in His creation:

The seven heavens and the earth, and all beings therein, declare His glory: There is not a thing but celebrates His praise. And yet you understand not how they declare His glory! Truly, He is Off-Forbearing,’ Most Forgiving! (Bani Israll. 17.44)

The merchant asked: ‘What gift may I purchase for you, my pretty pet, and carry back for your pleasure and delight, all the way from India?’

The parrot spoke straightaway, as though he knew he would be asked and so had prepared an answer: ‘I will not ask that you bring me back any gift, but I would ask a favour of you, a task to perform for me in India.’

‘Ask, my pretty pet,’ said the merchant, very curious, ‘and if it is in my power to do what you ask, I will do it, God willing.’

‘Well, then,’ said the bird, ‘when you reach India and you see there many parrots like myself, address to them this speech. Say:

“So-and-So Parrot sends you his greetings. He longs to be with you, but he cannot be. He is, by the decree of Heaven, a prisoner of the good merchant who brings you this message, a slave in a cage, locked up.,,

Then convey to those parrots from me. “So-and-So Parrot begs you to remember him. Remember him, imprisoned in his cage, when you fly about freely in gardens of fragrant roses. Remember him, alone and without the company of his fellows, while you go about with one another, cheerful and jolly.”

Add also this plea to your speech, since the one who will understand it may be listening. Say: “What! Have you forgotten your friend so soon, that you can fly about happily in the company of others? It may be that I was at fault in my service of you, and you are punishing me by forgetting me in this way. Is that as it should be? Is it right to answer a wrong with a wrong? Would it not be better to answer a wrong with a right?

“And yet, because it is you, still you, who have turned away from me, your turning away is dear to me. It arouses my love the more. Even your anger, your revenge on me, is dearer to me than my own life. Your anger is fire, and it burns me with love. If that is the affect of your fire, how must your light be? If I ever escape this cage, I swear I shall make straight for your rose-garden. There, I shall sing songs of desire like the nightingale. The nightingale’s songs gather the thorns as well as the roses, the bitter as well as the sweet, in the same joyful embrace. In the songs of the nightingale, love surpasses the pleasures and pains of love, and is entirely and purely itself.”

The merchant listened to every word and promised to deliver his pet’s complaint as best he could.

Towards the end of his journeying in India, he came across a rose-garden in which were a company of parrots like his own pet bird. To them, according to his promise, he faithfully recounted the parrot’s words. One of the parrots who had been listening began to tremble and shake, then fell from its perch in the rose-tree, and lay on the ground, dead. The merchant was deeply upset. He said: ‘I have been the cause of that poor creature’s death!’ and he regretted that he had kept his promise.

On returning home, the good merchant gave to all the servants in his household the gifts that they had asked for. To the parrot, he said nothing. But the parrot demanded of him: ‘What of me? Did you not do what I asked? If you did, tell me what you saw and heard.’

‘I did do it,’ said the merchant, ‘and how deeply I regret that I did. I wish I had kept silent and not conveyed your words.’

‘Why do you repent of keeping a promise and fulfilling a trust?’ asked the parrot. ‘What has caused you to be so remorseful and upset?’

‘I conveyed your complaints to the parrots where I found them, and one was so touched by your pain that she trembled and dropped down dead.’

As soon as he heard this, the merchant’s parrot also began to tremble, then he seemed to lose balance, and fell onto the floor of his cage, cold and senseless.

The merchant was now so struck with grief and despair, he began to tear his hair and clothes. ‘My dear, sweet companion!’ he cried, ‘My singer of sweet songs! Keeper of my secrets! Ah, what shall I do without you? How shall I live without you?’ Then, in his great sadness, not knowing what else to do, the merchant took the corpse (as he thought) of his beloved pet out of the cage and laid it gently on the palm of his hand.

Suddenly, the parrot awoke and flew, through the open window, to the safety of the high branch of a tree in the garden. The merchant was relieved to see his pet well. He looked up into the tree at the bird and said:

‘Dear friend, explain to me the meaning of what that Indian parrot did, which enabled you to devise this trick to escape from your cage.’

‘She gave me excellent advice’, answered the parrot from the tree. ‘By her dying, she conveyed this advice to me: ‘Your own fine voice is the cause of your being in a cage. You are held in that way so that you may entertain people with your singing and your speech. Their praise and the flattering love of your master are the walls of your cage. Renounce your cage-renounce your voice and your master’s affection. Become dead as I am dead, and find freedom.’

‘Go in peace under the protection of God!’ said the merchant. ‘You have shown me the way to a far country to which we must all go, sooner or later. That is the great journey and I must prepare for it.