Do you feel your quality of life is greater than that of the average bird?

Birds sometimes perch on their own crap and serve regurgitated food to their children. I’m glad I don’t have to do that.

Nope, all life forms are equal; we’re just more intelligent lol

I don’t want to barf into my kid’s mouths everyday.

I also have no natural predators where I live, which is a def plus. I can walk outside without thinking “OMG I may be eaten!”

While I am envious of their ability to fly, I much prefer my life, thank you :D

@seekingwolf Humans prey on each other every day.

Yes. I don’t think I work nearly as hard for my daily meals as birds do and my place of rest is pretty secure.

Birds have their own problems, they aren’t living some dream life

@hug_of_war lurve for your matter of fact answer.

I remember dreaming of being a bird, when I was young.

Today I saw a robin get attacked by a black bird. What happens if you’re a robin? Not too high on the totem pole. Just as it’s like to be a human.

Nope- not interested in scratching and begging for food. Being an artist I would still want to be painting would be limited to my own excrement. Not too inspiring for an artist.

However- if I could be one of these birds it could be entertaining for a while.

Everything suffers and dies. I’m not very cheery today.

There are kites here, they are hawklike birds who soar on the thermals. They are carnivorous, eat roadkill and the like. When I chop up chicken legs for the dogs they swoop down and wait for a handout. They can be so high they are barely a spot in the sky and suddenly they will come scorching down, I can’t imagine how fast they are going, it is a wonder they don’t set themselves on fire like a rocket on reentry. There are 2 kinds whistlers who are good at picking stuff up off the ground and roof, again at tremendous speed and the wedge tails who catch the scraps when I throw them in the air, they are the size of chickens. I used to wonder what happened to the leftover bones I gave the dogs, now I know, the kites pick them up and take them away to pick off any tidbits the dogs may have left.

Sorry for the digression, but they are the best hunters I see and I still think their life is not that good. I have read that they have to spend almost every waking hour hunting for food, and now the dry is here and the water holes are drying up so they can’t bathe and they get mites and are thirsty. Anyhow, nope I don’t think I want to be a bird, too much work although you would never have to worry about dieting!!!

Some birds are very concerned with material possessions and and some with fashion.

And while birds don’t have jobs in the human sense, some of them work much harder than any human ever considered.

It is true that they don’t have “bills” in the human sense, they better gather enough food to keep going and materials to build nests if they want to survive and mate.

It can be a rather tough life being a bird, unless you were one of the free-flying parrots at the old Parrot Jungle, trained to return each evening to feed, nest and chat with buddies.

I watch the birds every day and always wonder what it must be like to be one. Flying must be an extraordinary experience, you are navigating in 4 dimensions and at the same time avoiding predators, your eyesight allows you to see a speck on the ground a mile away. Since the rainy season is starting, birds are nesting like mad and good spots in the city are in high demand. There is a keskidee nesting in a transformer in the next street, and 2 pairs of grackles on an electric light pole down town. What is their quality of life? probably better than mine. They do what they have to do, without any apparent stress and make the most of whatever offers.

I’d say a bird or most animal that isn’t on the verge of starvation lives a much happier life that 95% of all human beings.

I often wonder this about my dog. He’s just so happy all the time, even when I’m stressing about money to buy him food with.
I think all life forms have potential to be as happy as that bird. We’ve just lost sight of just how important it is to ‘bath in the sun on the perch’ and how bills and troubles are just those pesky power lines we have to dodge put behind us.

I saw a grackle today, standing on a tree branch, with his mouth open and looking miserable because of the heat and humidity. I could go inside to the AC, he had to stay outside. Human 1, Bird 0.

Easier yes, happier no. Sometimes an easy life can be miserable. I remember as a child working on the farm all day long with my grandpa he had a hard life but had to be the happiest person I have have ever known. At the end of a long day we would enjoy each others company and a cold glass of sweet tea under an old oak tree. It was the simple things in life that I think brougt joy to him. I also know plenty of people who are spoiled rotton because everthing they have comes easy so there is no joy left for the simple things in life. So yes I think the birds have a better life.

Um, yes. I have greater variety of food choices which never includes worms and insects, I don’t have mites, and I’m not a BIRD. Though it would be cool to fly wherever I wanted.

To fly….mmmmmmm

This discussion seems to turn on the issue of whether consciousness makes humans happy or not. As far as that goes, humans are the only animals who explore the meaning of their own existence, which makes us special but not especially happy. But the really interesting question then is, can birds be happy at all? To think of a bird as capable of happiness is not just anthropomorphizing, it’s attributing a level of self-consciousness to them that they (apparently) do not possess – being happy involves a level of awareness of one’s own happiness, and the birds can’t get to the point of awareness of themselves as emotional beings. So yeah, my quality of life is greater than any bird’s, simply because it is possible for me to qualify my life and this is not possible for the bird.

@ wildpotato I think birds can be happy. In fact I thinks many animals are capable. My parrot enjoys swinging and climbing. I know my dog is happy when he sees me. He wags his tail and goes get a toy to play. He loves to play. He will pass up food for a good game of chase. Consciousness is not the connection to happiness.

Yes, I want to fly!

it’s all about perspective. i don’t know what it’s like to be a bird (but i might like to give it a shot). ‘better quality’ is subjective. cats, however, definitely have it better…(at least mine do, and i’m sure @gailcalled’s milo does too)

“No bird soars too high if he soars with his own wings. ” -William Blake
I think everyone needs to be happy with what they are.