Birds
Cont'd from page 2
step outside and within a few moments, have a read on what’s happening in the landscape just by tuning your ears to what birds are saying. They can tell you where food sources are; they can tell you when they’re in love, and maybe when they’ve lost their mate; they’ll tell you whose territory this is.
Just listening to birds will help form a connection with nature, with all of God’s creations. They are communities like us and they are always singing God’s praises.
[6:38] All the creatures on earth, and all the birds that fly with wings, are communities like you. We did not leave anything out of this book. To their Lord, all these creatures will be summoned.
References: birdfact.com and birdtherapy.blog
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Lined Up in Columns
[24:41] Do you not realize that everyone in the heavens and the earth glorifies GOD, even the birds as they fly in a column? Each knows its prayer and its glorification. GOD is fully aware of everything they do.
[67:19] Have they not seen the birds above them lined up in columns and spreading their wings? The Most Gracious is the One who holds them in the air. He is Seer of all things.
An article in the Los Angeles Times (accessed online) from 3 February 2015 was entitled: Birds flying in a V take turns in the top spot, study finds. And I’m using that study for this article.
The V formation isn’t a revelation to anyone who has ever looked up in the sky and watched a flock of birds migrating by. It’s classic and it’s amazing. We all know that being in the front is a tiring job, whether it’s running, bike racing, whatever. And sports teams have learned from the birds to take turns being the leader. You get to rest a bit while drafting off the guy in front of you. So, it’s no surprise that the birds take turns being in front. But how do they decide whose turn it is?
“I’ve been waiting for 40 years for someone to solve this problem,” said Robert Trivers, an evolutionary biologist at Rutgers University. “V-formations are very, very obvious. They cannot be accidental and they cannot be trivial, because the birds do them. They do them all the time.”
A study by the Austrian-based conservation group Waldrappteam decided to find out more about the V formation and the process of flying in one. They equipped a flock of 14 ibises with data loggers, containing very precise GPS monitors. These devices could pinpoint within about 20 centimeters where each bird was in relation to the other birds. They tracked the birds from the ground.
“As it turned out, no single bird took the top spot for an extended period of time. Each ibis would typically spend less than a minute, perhaps just a few seconds, at the vertex of the V before quickly switching with one of the next birds in the formation.
“In a one-hour flight, each bird would do a pair-switch with its nearest neighbor an average of 57 times, Voelkl said. On a typical flight, which could last around three to eight hours, each bird would perform hundreds of switches. The transitions were nearly seamless, Voelkl said, usually taking about a second to execute.”
I found this whole article fascinating, and most amazing to me was that they discovered that the birds, with these hundreds of shifts, ended up doing roughly the same amount of work. They would shift positions, even break up into smaller formations and then come back together, reshuffling smoothly and without conflict. No one tries to cheat and avoid the tougher lead position. They simply do what they are commanded to do, on instinct. They glorify God by following His commandments, submitting to His will. And they all benefit from the support and cooperation of the flock.
[16:79] Do they not see the birds committed to fly in the atmosphere of the sky? None holds them up in the air except GOD. This should be (sufficient) proof for people who believe.
[17:44] Glorifying Him are the seven universes, the earth, and everyone in them. There is nothing that does not glorify Him, but you do not understand their glorification. He is Clement, Forgiver.
May God give us the strength to learn from the birds’ cooperation, submission and sacrifice for others so that we can become better Submitters.