Joy of Birds

This Stay-home Spring, Birds Sing – and Birders Write Poetry

Bored at home during the coronavirus pandemic? Read these birdy poems to brighten your day.

Photo of a bright-red bird sitting amidst pink dogwood flowers in early springtime.
Birds, like this male Northern Cardinal amidst newly emerged dogwood flowers, can lift our spirits and inspire poetry this spring. Photo: Phyllis Burchett/Audubon Photography Awards

As Mecklenburg Audubon Society members began staying home to slow the spread of COVID-19, former president Ken Kneidel decided to share a bird poem on the Meckbirds email list serve. Spontaneously, five more members followed suit with poems of their own. Now that everyone in North Carolina is under a stay-at-home order, we hope you enjoy these cheery words and the springtime birds who inspired them. Get your Vitamin N and stay healthy.

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'Tis an early sign of spring,

When Kinglets start to sing,

But you know that spring has struck,

When you hear a *Butter Butt.

– Ken Kneidel

*”Butter Butt” is another name for a Yellow-rumped Warbler.

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Can’t leave my house, sequestered inside,

    forced isolation, this virus high tide;

Our windows are open, bird songs raise our moods,

    Spring migrants and residents, sweet interludes.

Cardinals, Wrens, Thrashers, Warblers, and Owl,

    Bluebirds, Jays, White-throats, they’re all on the prowl;

Chickadees, Titmice, Red-tails and Dove,

    Red-Bellies, Downies and all that I love;

My heart is so lifted by my Garden’s delights,

    I find gifts in solace and joy in its sights;

In the midst of this crisis, with sane fortitude,

    we’ll take our Vitamin N (Nature) with calm gratitude!

– Wendy Kaplan

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Cardinals, thrashers, mockingbirds sing,

Cedars full of hundreds of waxwings,

Forced at home is not too crappy,

When birds daily are making me happy!!

– Laura Blakesley

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If you don’t get in a rush,

You might spy a waterthrush.

When bluebirds claim a nesting site,

Our scary world almost seems right.

– Malia Kline

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Said the male to the female starling

“Just look at that townhouse, my darling!

A bathroom vent maybe

Could shelter our babies—“

Said she, “You’re both brilliant and charming!”

– Angel Harris

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Hey birds! My son, who’s home from his U,

Might join me in wandering to look for you!

Two Barred Owls outside our door,

Got him jazzed by “trading fours!”

– Don Stuart

How you can help, right now