Why do middle-aged people love birds so much? | Emma Beddington

I have become obsessed from afar with Flaco, an owl who fled a zoo in New York nearly a year ago. Over Christmas, I could no longer resist the urge to track him down

I often wonder why birds speak so universally to the sagging middle-aged soul that it has become a comic trope- the vertiginously swift passage from: Is that a robin?" to: There's a lesser yellowleg two hours' drive away, start the car."

Is it the freedom they represent? No cholesterol, no mortgage, no self-assessment tax deadline to worry about? Or a sense of wonder in the everyday miracle of their existence, induced by an awareness of mortality? Whatever it is, I am in deep: disposable income frittered on fat balls; constantly snooping on feathery goings-on in the garden; home decor reminiscent of the Portlandia put a bird on it" sketch.