Today is National Bird Day in the Philippines and so I thought it appropriate to share something related to astronomy as an astronomer and birder. I will be emphasizing three points in this article: dark sky preservation, instrumentation, and ethnoastronomy.
Dark Skies are for Birds Too
Dark skies is an important need in astronomical observation. When I began doing dark sky advocacy work, I began studying how different species are adversely affected by artificial light at night. Among these are the avian species who can get disoriented in flight by light pollution, and at times causing birds to become over exhausted, exposed to predators, and even having them collide to buildings. Light pollution has also put them at risk of mistimed of bird migrations, which can result to lack of necessary environmental resources by seasonal difference. In 2022 the World Migratory Bird Day celebration focused on the theme "Dim the Lights for Birds at Night" to raise awareness of the threat of light pollution to migratory birds. See also some of the articles from our partner the Dark Sky International (formerly IDA).
Instrumentation
For astronomers, we rely on telescopes and binoculars to observe distant celestial targets. But some of our astronomical gear are also fitting to birding use. Binoculars and spotting scopes are an obvious handy tool to help spot birds. Other portable grab-and-go telescopes can also be fitting to use for observing and imaging as a telephoto lens. I personally use my Celestron TravelScope 70 in most of my birding sessions as it is light weight, has the right size, and a convenient focal length to be conveniently carried around by hand while trekking. You can also use longer focal lengths with the aid of a tripod. Note that the long focal lengths are harder to use when following birds that tend to move, but are perfect for those birds that tend to perch longer. Our AWB partner Celestron has many birding guides as well on their website such as this one.
Birds in Starlore
Birds are one of the most common figures you would see in cultural astronomy across the world. From the official constellations we have many avian references: Apus the Bird-of-paradise, Aquila the Eagle, Corvus the Crow, Cygnus the Swan, Grus the Crane, Pavo the Peacock, Phoenix (mythical phoenix), and Tucana the Toucan. Vulpecula the Fox was originally called "Vulpecula cum Anser" which means the fox and the goose. If you've been keeping track of our Milky Way Star Festival you would also see various starlore relating birds to the Milky Way such as the Aboriginal Great Emu in the Sky, the Finnish Linnunrata (Pathway of the Birds), and the Sami Ladderaiddaras.