Birds

There is a long history of human-avian relations. In antiquity, for example, both Romans and Hittites made political decisions using the practice of augury, which divined the will of the Gods by observing the flight of birds. In Taoism and Chinese culture, the red-crowned crane is a profound symbol of longevity and spiritual elevation, and birds are similarly mediators and messengers in most systems of belief. Charles Darwin observed finches in the Galápagos to develop his theory of evolution. Rachel Carson wrote of the lack of bird song as a harbinger of ecological collapse. Maya Angelou wrote of a caged bird’s song as a metaphor for her own childhood traumatic experience of racism. From the mythical phoenix to Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s albatross and Edgar Allan Poe’s raven, humans have long imbued birds with mythological, poetic, political, and divine–in addition to scientific–meaning.

Scientifically speaking, birds are taxonomically diverse–with over 11,000 known species occupying land, sky, and water, though this number continues to decline. Migratory birds traverse vast distances multiple times a year, without regard for human-imposed borders. Evolutionarily linked closely to the dinosaur, birds connect us to the deep past. Thinking with birds requires taking on new planetary vantage points and occupying nonhuman scales space and time. In this salon, we will consider birds as animals, birds as symbols, birds in art and mythology, and the birds-eye-view as a mode of seeing. We will think alongside birds about flight, music and migration.

Some questions we ask: Why are birds such an enduring symbol in art and mythology? What can birds teach us about extinction? And about freedom? What is it like to fly? What can birds show us about movement and migration? Why is birdwatching such a pervasive pastime? What can we learn about ourselves by observing them? What can we hear when we listen to birds? Are birdsongs music? How are we behaving with birds, from owls to chickens? How do we make the city more inhabitable for them? Can we create a new, contemporary symbolic and ritualistic role for birds in these anxious times of intolerance and insecurity?

This Salon took place on May 11, 2026.