The Problem with Pretty Birds

This chapter claims that the problem with pretty birds is that they are so hard to ignore. It recounts how the author saw a painted bunting alight on their bird feeder while he was arguing with his wife about their respective workplace obligations. The painted bunting is not merely pretty; it is ridiculously pretty. Nonpareil, the French name for the bird, means “without equal.” It is hard to fathom that such a bird has evolved over millennia, existed, and exists, alongside scruffier sparrows and finches and flycatchers in North America. It is in moments like these, when a pretty bird interrupts an irascible mood, that the author is reminded of how poor a watcher he is, or has become in his harried adulthood.