God Made the Birds
“Natural beauty is divine, artistic beauty human, and this is explained why precisely sensitivity to Nature only truly succeeds in opening itself thanks to art”
A flash of verdant green and orange darted in front of the boat, flitting from one mangrove branch to another. At about five inches tall, the American Pygmy Kingfisher (Chloroceryle aenea) is a marvel of creative engineering. The beaks of these remarkable birds allow them to catch fish seamlessly under the water, without even a splash to scare their prey away. The shapes of their beaks have inspired the bullet trains of Japan and the suture pins that curb the damage of tissue by preventing the deformation of needles during surgery.
Drawing by Davis Dear
Around the bend of the river, a towering figure rises in the grasses along the marsh, standing head and shoulders above the ibises and spoonbills. It waited in solemn repose as if a part of the landscape itself. At five feet tall, the Jabiru (Jabiru mycteria) waits patiently for some oblivious organism that will, unfortunately for the creature, fit into his beak. The name of this stork translates to “swollen neck,” a neck which is a faded pink when relaxed and eye-catching scarlet when angered or surprised, a striking contrast to the stark white feathers of the bottom half of the bird.
In the largest Mayan site in Belize– Caracol– trees house teardrop structures hanging from their many branches near the canopy. At first, it looks as if the trees themselves are weeping; but then you see the birds swoop to and from each tear to the next. These are their nests. Here the birds flit from one branch to another, or glide away to catch the next insect or pick the next fruit. The Montezuma Oropendola (Psarocolius montezuma) sounds almost like gurgling water over a bubbling stream, ringing out a flurry of musical notes; notes believed to be a part of a mating display. These birds are rusty brown, with a flashy yellow tail, an orange-tipped beak, and a pale blue oval under their eye connected to a pink patch of skin.
While in Belize for a study away semester on Ethnobiology and Marine Biology, I explored the beauty of God’s Creation in a vivid light. On the Mainland, there were many breathtaking plant species, ranging from the majestic kapok tree– thought to connect the underworld to the heavens, to the snake plant– which lowers the blood pressure of a snake bite victim. I collected pages and pages of different species, mammals, birds, and marine organisms- and we saw even more than those I could document. But it was the birds which best caught the light.
Drawing by Davis Dear
Some of my favorite species of Belize’s birds I illustrated: the American Pygmy Kingfisher, the Montezuma Oropendola, and the Jabiru. Each one stood out to me in a different way, and each reminded me of the craftsmanship of God. The American Pygmy Kingfisher’s small size does not make her any less adept at catching fish. The Jabiru's magnificence shines like a beacon among the mangroves, and he wears it proudly. The Montezuma Oropendola's calls carry over the incredible structures of the Maya. In Belize, the Creation story of Genesis kept popping up in my head; "God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good (1:21).” All of the organisms I saw were a reminder of His hand at work in the continuous changes of species in time and space. I chose to illustrate the birds because, in the same passage, “God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth (1:21-22)." The birds of Belize had many shapes, sizes, and colors– and all are important to the story of the world. God masterfully designed each with purpose and beauty- the tiny, mighty kingfisher, the gurgling Montezuma Oropendola, and the majestic Jabiru.