Birds are liberation that never ends. But enjoying their company is also to know an inconsolable sadness | Richard Flanagan

The fairy penguins under my shack are gone, and soon the forty-spotted pardalotes and swift parrots will join them. Our children knew these birds; their children will not

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I am not a twitcher's binocular strap, but I adore birds. I watch birds for hours. Their freedom and joy move me. Something in their play and way suggest minds far different than ours. A man I once met who kept cockatoos told me that you have to be careful because they fuck with your head.

And they do.