The Art of Mindful Birding
Sean McCann Mindful birding is the intentional use of birding for cultivating mindfulness. Anyone who has been entranced by seeing a murmuration (a phenomenon in which a flock of birds, sometimes thousands of individuals strong, flies in perfect harmony as one shifting, undulating mass) has had a taste of the wonder and grace available in such moments. These kinds of experiences can connect us with the present moment, and the gentleness and appreciation available there.
Birding for Mindfulness
As I walked into my backyard this morning, I heard the sweet, tinkling chorus of at least 50 cedar waxwings in the canopy of a nearby dogwood. The thoughts that had preoccupied me moments before vanished as I listened. Birdsong, like a meditation bell, has a way of bringing one’s focus into the present.
Birdsong, like a meditation bell, has a way of bringing one’s focus into the present.
I have had many experiences like this in the presence of birds, and it has occurred to me that, taking things a step further, birding can be used as an intentional practice (rather than a passive experience) for cultivating mindfulness.
Defining Birding (and Bird Watching)
Birding is finding, identifying, and cataloging bird species; bird watching is more about passive enjoyment of the experience. The two can overlap.
Birding is different from bird watching. The former is the searching out, identifying, and cataloging of bird species; the latter is more about passive enjoyment of the experience–identification and cataloging of species is not a primary concern. The two can, and often do, overlap.
Defining Mindfulness
Throughout this article, I use the term “mindfulness” to refer to “right mindfulness,” the seventh step on the Noble Eightfold Path:
“Right mindfulness is to be diligently aware, mindful, and attentive with regard to (1) the activities of the body (kaya), (2) sensations or feelings (vedana), (3) the activities of the mind (citta) and (4) ideas, thoughts, conceptions, and things (dhamma).”
Birding as an Aspect of Artful Living
The Shambhala tradition of Tibetan Buddhism utilizes a wide range of practices and forms for cultivating mindfulness and panoramic awareness, the ultimate goal of which is the realization of basic goodness.
Basic Goodness
Basic goodness is how the Shambhala tradition talks about Buddha Nature. The following quote is from The Sacred Path of The Warrior by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.
“Every human being has a basic nature of goodness, which is undiluted and unconfused. That goodness contains tremendous gentleness and appreciation…It is not just an arbitrary idea that the world is good, but it is good because we can experience its goodness…We have an actual connection to reality that can wake us up and make us feel basically, fundamentally good.”
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
Artful living describes how we can expand the realization and embodiment of basic goodness from the meditation cushion into other activities and environments. This requires that we curate our activities, engagements, forms of entertainment and education, and so on with this goal in mind.
“Art is not merely being able to do your music or your painting or your little arrangements or installations of this and that. The kind of art we are talking about is big art. It is having basic goodness in an environment, which in itself is a work of art.”
Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche
(For a more in depth exploration of these concepts, consider reading True Perception: The Path of Dharma Art by Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche.)
Birding offers a powerful means of engaging life artfully.
While I am not aware of Chögyam Trungpa being particularly fond of birding, it seems to me that birding offers a powerful means of engaging life in this way.
Exploring the wonders of nature, pursuing rare birds, and protecting fragile ecosystems is an example of artful living: “Having basic goodness in an environment.”
How Does Birding Encourage Mindfulness?
Most simply, birding can be used to encourage right mindfulness by focusing the mind on specific phenomena in the present moment, thereby clearing the mind of discursive thoughts and strengthening one’s powers of focus and awareness.
Birding can focus the mind on specific phenomena in the present moment.
This is not a new strategy. Eastern traditions, in general, have long utilized arts as diverse as calligraphy, martial arts, farming, medicine, and so on as ways of living in harmony with the Dharma or Dao (depending on the nomenclature of the tradition).
Mindfulness also has an aspect of non-attachment, which is indispensable to the cultivation of wisdom. If we are attached to certain phenomena and their outcomes, then we are not being completely mindful. In this way, it is easy to see how birding could be antithetical to the cultivation of mindfulness. It is, therefore, important to clarify one’s motivations and keep in mind one’s most foundational principles when engaging in such an activity.
Being aware of and taking responsibility for one’s actions are the foundation of authenticity, so it is important that we are clear about these pieces if we are serious about internal cultivation.
Birding with the Senses
The senses are our means of engaging the physical world, which is why all observable phenomena are also sometimes referred to as sense objects. It follows that working with the senses is necessary for cultivating mindfulness. Birding is an ideal activity for working on this because it requires one to tune the senses in very specific ways.
In birding ,we tune the senses in very specific ways.
Birding teaches us to focus our eyes and ears on different layers of the environment at different distances. It also requires that we feel the ground beneath our feet in order to step as silently as possible (and to avoid tripping while our attention is elsewhere).
While taste and smell are not as much a part of birding, birding often takes us to places in which these senses are strongly engaged: the smell of a wastewater treatment plant (they tend to be great birding sites) where you may spot a great-tailed grackle as you try not to breathe through your nose; the scent of ponderosa pine and dry red dirt in the Sierra Nevada mountains while searching for a glimpse of an American goshawk; the taste of ripe wild blueberries picked from a bush in the blue ridge mountains as carolina chickadees call from every direction; or the smell of the sea filling your nostrils at dusk as you search with binoculars for a glimpse of a marbled murrelet returning to roost its high in an old growth redwood after a day of fishing at sea.
Birding and Focus
Being able to detect and accurately identify birds in the wild requires that one ignore certain sensory input and zero in on others. Sometimes, that means ignoring sounds from nearby in order to focus on a single calling coming from hundreds of yards away; or we may have to listen for a call from a single individual in the midst of a noisy flock in order to differentiate a species that is difficult to pick out by sight alone.
Visually, one must train the eyes to pick out minute details in plumage, size, posture, and more. Experienced birders can identify many birds from impressive distances by only their silhouette, shape, pattern of wing beats or other information that may be lost on the novice.
This type of focus requires the mind to act as a telephoto lens, which focuses on a certain layer of experience while blurring out others. It leaves no room for extraneous thoughts. Utilizing the mind in this way brings one entirely into the present moment and has the potential to engender a sense of connection with the broader world.
These experiences, not infrequently, elicit a sense of awe, which is an important aspect of spiritual experiences and our modern understanding of psycho-emotional health alike. They may also be capable of helping us to be more responsible in nature, as well as in society in general.
Birding and The Middle Way
Birding can have a competitive aspect. If we are not careful, it is easy to be pulled into focusing too much on tallying more birds than others and/or chasing down rare sightings for the sake of bragging rights, which can lead one to mistreat habitat and disturb birds unnecessarily in pursuit of these goals.
While there is nothing inherently wrong with competition or achievement (indeed, these can be positive and enjoyable motivating factors), if these become too much of a focus, we lose out on a great deal of the depth and richness available to us, as well as possibilities for connection and community.
I personally try to enjoy the excitement of seeking out rare birds, and watching my life list (the list a birder keeps of every species they have seen) grow, while respecting the needs of the birds and their environment. It also leaves room for me to connect with and learn from other birders, which would be more difficult if I were coming from a place of competitiveness or a desire to be superior.
The competitive side of birding can make for some great stories. The Big Year is a hilarious movie based on a true story about three birders vying for first place in a record-breaking birding year. I recommend the extended version, which includes John Cleese narrating in the style of a David Attenborough nature documentary. Here’s a review from me of the movie and the book it’s based on.
Birding and Mental Health
Birding leads us to wild and remote places, which can benefit our physical and mental health in many ways. Fresh air, expansive views, endorphins from exercise, and dopamine from the process of searching, anticipating, and discovering are all healthy for us.
Birding leads us into wild places, which can benefit our physical and mental health in many ways.
Sometimes, when we are going through a difficult time—whether we’re battling addiction, depression, weariness, feelings of helplessness, etc.—we need something to ease the pressure or craving we feel in that moment. Experiencing and appreciating the beauty and grandeur of nature can, in some cases, afford us the respite we need.
An egret preening the feathers of an outstretched wing in a marsh at dawn; a swallow-tailed kite soaring gracefully overhead; the song of a Pacific wren trickling through the Redwood forest; the serene beauty of a misty mountain morning and a distant spiral of California Condors rising on thermals as the sun warms the earth–all of these have to potential to ease the mind and bring joy to the heart.
Birding and Sobriety
More than one person has utilized birding as an aid to staying sober. It’s far easier to shift our focus from our addictions than to resist an addictive behavior directly. Birding requires a great deal of focus, and it offers different experiences and learning opportunities every time we venture out, all of which can help us in these cases.
You can learn about one person’s journey of recovery through birding in Birding Under the Influence: Cycling across America in Search of Birds and Recovery, by Dorian Anderson
Birding as an Antidote to Isolation
Feeling connected to other people, nature, and the wider world in general can do wonders for our mental health. Birders are part of a global community, joined by a shared passion.
Birders are part of a global community.
This community is doing substantial good in the world, through citizen science: it continuously generates and shares data on bird sightings, which is a tremendous help to scientists working to understand bird migration, populations, the effects of climate change, and more.
Birding and Karma
How we enter a space matters. Just like we can sometimes feel a person’s energy when they enter a room, wildlife often sense and react to us long before we have noticed their presence. Abrupt movements and loud noises will scare off most birds and other animals before we have a chance to observe them.
Recognizing how our energy, posture, and behavior affect all the living things in a space gives us the opportunity to reflect on karma in a new way. We can see how an action (or even a thought) can ripple out through the world, causing a cascade of effects.
Karma, after all, is the Sanskrit word for action, and it refers to the entire web of causes and effects in the universe. Our actions are rooted in our thoughts, so approaching birding with a view of basic goodness starts with watching our thoughts. Next, we pay attention to how our mental state affects how wildlife reacts to us.
When we tune our senses and behavior to the natural world, a whole new experience unfolds.
When we begin to tune our senses to this hidden world and moderate our own behavior in order to be “welcomed” into that space, a whole new experience unfolds. We become aware of the rich, varied, intense, competitive, beautiful, and sometimes touching or hilarious life all around us.
Mindful Birding: Give it a Try
Fall migration is in full swing, the leaves are turning color, and daylight dwindling–It is a perfect time for birding and contemplating the Dharma. Thank you for reading!
This article is part of the Shambhala.org Community Blog, which offers reflections by Shambhala community members on their individual journeys in meditation and spirituality.
