It is the birds that first become so noticeable when I open my ears to all around me. But soon, my thoughts take me off to recent studies in neurology that has proven birds regenerate neurons in their brains seasonally. Like humans they learn their first repertoire for communication from their parents through listening and repeating. The listening and responding centers of their brains are much like ours. Scientists say they now know that birds generate new neurons in the brain for song learning in the autumn and put them into use in the spring as they try out new songs to attract mates and compete for territory. This gives medical researchers hope for finding a way to people suffering from Alzheimer and Parkinson’s to grow new neurons for communication to replace those destroyed by disease. Each bird has the song of its family, but with its own unique additions that can be detected electronically. I am listening to the songs of the purple finches trying to detect individuality among them but also marveling at them and enjoying. Floating on my back in the swimming pool, I am trying to listen to the birds’ listening. Suddenly a fledgling finch comes and lands on the fence looking at me curiously. She is all covered in tufts of fluff from her nest and looks a bit tuckered out from this early attempt at flight. She sings nothing, but she is listening as her mother and father both sing out encouragement and possibly a cautionary song to her. Then, poor thing, she flies off straight into a window with a little boom. But she is quickly up again and off. I think, this is a good early lesson for a bird, before she can get up much speed or confidence in her flight. No damage done. Her parents seem not at all alarmed. Perhaps they brought her to this fence for that purpose. After a bit more bird brain thinking, I return to rest in God. The Smithsonian has more on bird brains http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/birdbrain.html.
