This is Bird Note.

Glenn Albrecht grew up in Western Australia, where he became enamored with birds.

But one bird in particular, the grey fantail, would come very close.

In fact, sometimes would land on my grandmother's head and steal some of her hair.

And for the rest of us, it would come close.

It would fly around our heads. It's an

acrobat so it can tumble and twist and turn. And as a child, I thought that this was such a

special bird because it felt like it was directing its attention to humans and to me in particular.

He later learned that these acrobatic flights allow the fantail to catch insects.

And it wasn't until I became a more serious bird lover and bird watcher

that I read that the gray fantail does this special bonding and acrobat trick to anyone

that enters its territory.

And it turns out that it's just using me as a broom or as an extension of its own fan

to get more insects up into the air so that it could catch them.

As he grew up, Glenn witnessed how coal mining devastated the Australian countryside and the

birds that live there. He's since become an environmental philosopher. He's developed a new vocabulary

to describe human relationships with the natural world. Glenn wants to expand the human imagination

about our future on Earth, honoring the kinds of connections he built as a child with a gray fan tale.

This bird was inviting me to share its world.

All I had to do was pay attention to it.

Learn more about Glenn's work on our website, birdnote.org.

I'm Nick Byard.

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