The Beauty and Plight of Birds are Addressed in the Movie The Messenger

This week, Dave and I attended the second movie in The Future of Nature Film Series sponsored by The Nature Conservancy. The Messenger was presented with support from Harvest Capital, Orr & Reno and Eastern Bank and held at the Red River Theatres in Concord, New Hampshire. The Future of Nature Film Series is a great opportunity to delve deeper into an environmental topic by watching a film, and then engaging in a Q & A session with a panel of experts.

Savannah Sparrows have a beautiful song

The movie is about the importance of song birds to our planet and their current struggle to survive.  The Messenger is beautifully filmed with the opening scene of a single colorful bird flying in slow motion. It truly captures the miracle of flight. Whether you enjoy flying in an airplane, or not, who hasn't imagined being able to float effortlessly in the sky with no mechanical assistance? The colorful beauty and melody of birds has inspired artists, poets and musicians over the centuries. Although this quote from Harper Lee's famous book "Mockingbirds don’t do one thing except make music for us to enjoy." minimizes the numerous benefits that birds provide to the environment, there is no question that all humans can appreciate them for the single trait of their song.

The movie touches upon a host of topics related to birds across the globe including migratory patterns, hunting traditions in France, songbirds role in the origins of music in Germany, and threats to their existence. Songbirds have shown a drastic decline over the past 50 years, almost 50 percent in North America, according to monitoring studies. Among the reasons for songbirds decline presented in the movie are mortality from building strikes, light pollution, pesticides, habitat destruction and predation by cats. I learned that songbirds migrate at night, so that excessive lighting in urban areas can disrupt their migration patterns. I also learned that neonicotinoids, a pesticide known to adversely effect bees, have been detected in surface water near farm fields that have previously grown plants that were derived from neonicotinoid treated seeds. It is suspected that this pesticide may be killing aquatic born insects, a major food source for many birds.

The movie ends somberly with a display of hundreds, maybe thousands of dead birds, laid out in a geometric pattern on the floor. If we want future generations to continue to hear and admire these graceful creatures, we all need to take action. It could be a simple act such as keeping your cat indoors, eliminating pesticides or providing food and shelter in your yard. On  a larger scale we can lobby for bans on neonicotinoid pesticides and help support land conservation efforts in the United States as well as in other countries where birds congregate and live after migrating south.