Humans Don’t Have a Monopoly on Culture
It was mid-April, and the petals from Washington, D.C.’s famed cherry blossoms had just fallen to the ground. Several weeks into my coronavirus self-isolation, the most frequent visitors to my third-story apartment were songbirds that alighted on my tiny balcony—the doves, starlings, blue jays, mockingbirds, and, most frequently, sparrows, shrilling and swirling as they searched for mates.