God and Nature Spring 2024
On camera: scripture in creation
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Birds' Eye View
By Cheryl Grey Bostrom
By Cheryl Grey Bostrom
“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” (Matt 6:26a)
As northern flickers probed our lawn for ants this week, the avian food I’d always associated with this verse came to mind: insects, seeds, fruit, worms, fish, rodents, and the like. Absolutely, our Creator feeds his birds.
But given broken ecosystems and habitat scarcity, food’s not strewn like manna along flyways anymore. Bird numbers are declining. In some areas, it’s a wonder birds eat at all. How are so many surviving?
Ah. I thought, remembering. The provision’s internal, too.
Consider birds’ eyes alone:
As northern flickers probed our lawn for ants this week, the avian food I’d always associated with this verse came to mind: insects, seeds, fruit, worms, fish, rodents, and the like. Absolutely, our Creator feeds his birds.
But given broken ecosystems and habitat scarcity, food’s not strewn like manna along flyways anymore. Bird numbers are declining. In some areas, it’s a wonder birds eat at all. How are so many surviving?
Ah. I thought, remembering. The provision’s internal, too.
Consider birds’ eyes alone:
Four ocular cones (to human’s three) allow diurnal birds to see colors invisible to us. The ability to see UV-lit trails of rodent urine can lead raptors to breakfast.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” —2 Cor 4:18
Four ocular cones (to human’s three) allow diurnal birds to see colors invisible to us. The ability to see UV-lit trails of rodent urine can lead raptors to breakfast.
“So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.” —2 Cor 4:18
Where humans have one fovea (area of sharpest visual acuity)—per eye, raptors like eagles and kestrels have two. In those retinal depressions, cones are small and dense, allowing detailed vision at significant distances. A cottontail a mile away? A beetle at fifty meters? Lunch.
“You will see a land that stretches into the distance.” —Is 33:17b
An abundance of rods concentrated in owls’ retinas equip them with highly sensitive, achromatic vision—perfect for night hunting.
“Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” —Ps 139:12
An abundance of rods concentrated in owls’ retinas equip them with highly sensitive, achromatic vision—perfect for night hunting.
“Even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” —Ps 139:12
Birds: equipped to read the invisible, sight-in eternity, and soar in the dark.
“Are you not much more valuable than they?” —Matthew 6:26b
Pacific Northwest naturalist and photographer Cheryl Grey Bostrom is the author of four books, including the multiple-award-winning novel SUGAR BIRDS and its recently released sequel LEANING ON AIR. A former teacher and columnist, she lives with her veterinarian husband and a small pack of Gordon setters in rural Washington State.
“Are you not much more valuable than they?” —Matthew 6:26b
Pacific Northwest naturalist and photographer Cheryl Grey Bostrom is the author of four books, including the multiple-award-winning novel SUGAR BIRDS and its recently released sequel LEANING ON AIR. A former teacher and columnist, she lives with her veterinarian husband and a small pack of Gordon setters in rural Washington State.