“Listen Carefully to the Voices of the Birds”: A Comparative Review of Birds as Signs

Wyndham, F. S.; Park, Karen E.

doi:10.2993/0278-0771-38.4.533

Cited by 30 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…The survey results indicated that the villagers were not aware of the importance of the endangered Greater Adjutant. In many cultures around the world birds are considered to provide omens of the future (Hull and Fergus 2017;Wyndham and Park 2018). The stork was treated by the villagers as a bad omen because it feeds on the carcasses of animals and brings bones and debris to its nesting trees.…”

Section: Overview Of Conservation Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Saving the Greater Adjutant Stork by Changing Perceptions and Linking to Assamese Traditions in India

Barman¹,

Sharma

Cockrem

et al. 2020

EBL

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The Greater Adjutant Stork (Leptoptilos dubius), locally known as Hargila (the bone swallower) is an endangered bird with an estimated global population of less than 1200. Habitat loss, poisoning, and poaching have caused large declines in populations of this stork in South Asia, with the Brahmaputra valley in Assam in northeastern India now the last stronghold for the species. The stork nests colonially in privately owned trees within thickly populated villages. Tree owners would cut down trees to prevent rotten food and excreta of this carnivorous bird from falling into their backyards. A change in attitudes of the nest-tree owners towards keeping their trees and towards Greater Adjutants has been the key to stork conservation. A conservation project involving community development, education and outreach, interlinking storks with local traditions and cultures, and capacity building of local communities was initiated in 2007. A rural women's conservation group named the Hargila Army was instituted and strong feelings of pride and ownership for the storks by the villagers have been generated. Cash incentives for nest protection were deliberately avoided, with schemes that indirectly contribute to the livelihoods of nest-tree owners and other villagers introduced instead. The success of the conservation program is shown by the increase in the number of nesting colonies in the village area of Dadara, Pachariya, and Singimari in Kamrup District in Assam from 28 nests in 2007–08 to 208 nests in the 2019–20 breeding season, making this the largest breeding colony of Greater Adjutant Storks in the world.

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Section: Overview Of Conservation Programmentioning

confidence: 99%

Saving the Greater Adjutant Stork by Changing Perceptions and Linking to Assamese Traditions in India

Barman¹,

Sharma

Cockrem

et al. 2020

EBL

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…There are some who continue to communicate with birds and share bird talk stories. Bird talk is recognized on many levels-interpreted for prognosticating weather or death and disease, bearing messages, witnessing solemn occasions, or auguring good luck and well-being (Wyndham et al 2018). For the Embera of Panama (Kane 2015:35), bird songs and calls are located between the invisible and the human worlds as they inform people of new birth and impending death.…”

Section: First Voices and Silencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bird Stories from Latin America: Lessons on Change and Adaptation

Sault¹

2020

EBL

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When people hear bird sounds, they understand them on various levels that are interpreted according to cultural context. Among Indigenous cultures of Latin America, avian voices are understood in relation to group identity, kinship affiliation, and personal experience, such as dreams and vision quests. Birds are recognized as social actors with their own voices that express intentions, desires, needs, and responsibilities. Certain birds may impart messages to specific people, and stories of these personal interactions represent both traditional values as well as individual explanations for what the bird communicated. These experiences are incorporated into the dynamic relationships people have with birds, the ancestors, the landscape, and spirit beings, and assist in addressing both cultural and climatic changes. This essay presents stories from Mexico, Costa Rica, and Peru, and shows how individuals interpret bird communications according to cultural values that relate to their personal situation. These avian messages gain new meaning and urgency during periods of dramatic change, like the current climate crisis. As people seek creative responses to survive, relationships with birds provide resiliency.

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“…It is generally accepted that based on data presented above, like other small ethnic societies around the world, Sundanese people of Kertasari, West Java, have local knowledge on folklore in relation with birds that are inherited from their ancestors and/or obtained from their experiences in their life and their close interaction with the local environment or local ecosystem (Kane 2015;Pam 2017;Wyndham and Park 2018).…”

Section: Folkloric Birdsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Folk name and lore of birds from the Sundanese of West Java, Indonesia: An ethno-ornithological survey

et al. 2020

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Abstract. Mulyanto D, Iskandar J, Madani A, Gunawan R, Partasasmita R. 2020. Folk name and lore of birds from the Sundanese of West Java, Indonesia: An ethno-ornithological survey. Biodiversitas 21: 4384-4395. Since last time, research on birds in West Java had been undertaken by ornithologists. The ethnoornithology research, however, has been rarely employed. The study aims were to account for vernacular or folk names, folk classification, and folkloric birds based on case of the mountain people of Keratasari, West Java, Indonesia. The method in this study was qualitative with the ethnoornithological approach. The field data were collected by focus group discussion and deep interviews with informants of 12 groups of independent village people of four villages of Kertasari sub-district. The naming of collected data was by systematic elicitation of names from pictorial representations of birds and organized here to facilitate analysis of various aspects of folk taxonomy about the scientific one. Folklore about birds that were collected in natural contexts is also included to indicate the birds' role and their names in symbolic processes that exceed the limits of literal reference. The result of the study showed that it was recorded 222 bird species, representing 170 vernacular names, 93 of them were recorded by Koningsberger (1901-1909). The taxonomic and folkloric mode of knowledge in this paper presents that birds play important roles in villagers' lives of Sundanese people, particularly in the study area. Generally, birds have been an important role in socio-cultural aspects, including in folklore of Sundanese people who reside in rural mountain areas of West Java.

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“Listen Carefully to the Voices of the Birds”: A Comparative Review of Birds as Signs

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 30 publications

References 32 publications

Saving the Greater Adjutant Stork by Changing Perceptions and Linking to Assamese Traditions in India

Saving the Greater Adjutant Stork by Changing Perceptions and Linking to Assamese Traditions in India

Bird Stories from Latin America: Lessons on Change and Adaptation

Folk name and lore of birds from the Sundanese of West Java, Indonesia: An ethno-ornithological survey

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