I woke one morning recently and, as always, noted the birds fluttering outside my window at the feeder. This alone was not unusual, but the fact that the movement persisted while two of my cats approached was peculiar.
On closer inspection I found a black-capped chickadee trapped inside. The opportunistic little thing had somehow managed to squeeze herself inside the spherical feeder where the seeds are plenty. But she could not get back out. With several and various carnivores on high alert, the poor thing flurried and flapped and seemed generally overcome with terror.
I took the contraption down and moved to the front of the house where fewer individuals up the food chain from a chickadee lurk. As I carried the feeder away she became more and more alarmed, unaware that I was merely transporting her to safety. I imagined she feared the worst, resigning herself to some awful fate as I worked at opening the tiny prison.
Does a little bird feel joy? They surely don’t understand what it is like to be chained to the surface of the earth and so flying must seem ordinary. But I think if a black-capped chickadee is capable, she would surely have felt it at that moment she first flew free. The experience of nearly losing something dear may very well have allowed her the ability to know of great joy.