Let Me Live!

Chapter 3

I expected Peggy to stop returning but she kept on coming back. This became a routine. Every two days, Peggy would return with a new message. I would read it, do some research about the birds, and put the new message with the others. In the end I got a total of ten letters. Before those messages, I didn’t even know that those species of birds even existed! I did not know about birds as much as I knew about dogs but the more I researched about those birds (which were all in my area) the more I got interested in them.

The other seven messages read as follows.

Message number four:

I am a small grey and brown bird.
My home is in the Western Mediterranean, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Western and Southern Asia.
More than fifty percent of my suitable habitat was destroyed during the twentieth century.
Please protect my habitat and please stop hunting my species.
I am a bird and this is my home too!
Let me live!

~Marbled Teal

Message number five:

I am a large, dark brown and white bird.
I breed in Austria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Turkey and Ukraine.
I also live in the Middle East, East Africa South to Tanzania, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian subcontinent and South and East Asia in winter.
My suitable habitat is in the lowlands.
My habitat is threatened because of intensive forestry in the mountains and shortage of large trees in the lowlands.
Please stop nest robbing, shooting, and poisoning.
I am a bird and this is my home too!
Let me live!

~Eastern Imperial Eagle

Message number six:

I am a medium-sized dark brown bird.
I breed in Estonia, Poland, Belarus, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, mainland China, Mongolia, Pakistan, and India.
In winter, I live in Central and Eastern Europe, North and East Africa, the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and South, South-East Asia, and Hong Kong (China).
My suitable habitat is in the lowlands.
My habitat is threatened by afforestation and wetland drainage.
Please stop illegal shooting and poisoning.
I am a bird and this is my home too!
Let me live!

~Greater Spotted Eagle

Message number seven:

I am a medium-sized brown bird.
I live mostly in theCape Verde and Canary Islands in the west, through Morocco and parts of West Africa, Ethiopia and East Africa, Arabia and the Indian Subcontinent.
I am threatened by the disturbance, lead poisoning (from gunshot), direct poisoning, electrocution (by power lines), collisions with wind turbines, reduced food availability, and habitat change.
I am a bird and this is my home too!
Let me live!

~Egyptian Vulture

Message number eight:

I am a large brown bird
I breed in the Palearctic region from Eastern Europe to western China.
I also live, during winter, in several countries in the Middle East and Africa.
The loss of degradation of steppes and dry grasslands through agricultural intensification, plantation establishment, and declines in sheep pastoralism are the main threats in Europe.
I am a bird and this is my home too!
Let me live!

~Saker Falcon

Message number nine:

I am a small grey and black bird.
I breed in Northern and Central Kazakhstan and South-central Russia.
I live in many countries in the Middle East and Africa.
I am threatened by the conversion of steppe to arable cultivation.
Please stop hunting on passage and wintering sites.
I am a bird and this is my home too!
Let me live!

~Sociable Lapwing

The tenth, and final, letter was the shortest one. It was different from all the previous letters. When I got the tenth letter, it was the last time I ever saw Peggy. The moment I read the message I knew that it was the last time Peggy would return. She had delivered her all her messages.

The tenth letter held a small message:

Save the birds in the Middle East! You need them as much as they need you.

After getting all those messages, I searched the benefits of birds to humans and the results I got were very surprising. They were things I had never even thought of!

Some of the results were that first, birds play an important role in ancient and modern human culture; birds express qualities such as freedom and power.

Second, birds play a huge role in arts; birds are found in many famous paintings and even the songs that birds sing are considered an art.

Third, birds provide humans with material benefits. Birds provide us with: feathers for fashion and large amounts of food such as eggs, turkey, and ducks.

Fourth, birds provide many ecological and social services. Pigeons have been used for delivering messages, Vultures dispose corpses, Hummingbirds and Sunbirds are key pollinators of plants, etc.

Fifth, birds help with life science development. Darwin’s theory of evolution, for example, was inspired by Galápagos finches, a species of birds!

When I realized how important birds were, I made it my goal to raise awareness and protect the birds, especially the birds in my area. I kept on researching about them, I even studied about them! I became obsessed with birds!

When people would look at me weirdly and ask why I was that obsessed with birds I would reply: Birds are important species and we cannot live without them therefore every person should feel responsible for the birds’ safety.

Hopefully, one day, every human will help the birds live on Earth with us. It is their home, too, after all and they deserve to live in it as much as we do!

                               The End