Toastmasters International has a club at my “day job,” and I recently performed a speech about lessons that birds can teach us to apply in business and everyday life. As with any speech, the trajectory and content changed drastically throughout the writing process. Several points had to be cut from the final draft due to the time limits of the project (5-7 minutes), and the focus was narrowed from birds in general to herons and egrets more specifically. Here, I will share individual sections of that speech as originally conceived. 

When you think about “learning,” what normally comes to mind? Perhaps a classroom, white boards, overhead projectors, computers, and a farrago of books. In the digital age, maybe your mind goes to tutorials on outlets like YouTube or Pinterest. Some of us may also think of watching our parents, uncles, aunts, grandparents, or siblings taking on a task, and trying to emulate their movements to learn their skills. But what about learning from the non-human world around us? As many of you know, I enjoy nature photography as a hobby, which entails spending a fair amount of time in the fields, in the woods, in the mountains, and near the water. While I enjoy almost all types of life in nature, birds in particular have always fascinated me, and I’ve found that they can be some of the most remarkable teachers. Today, I’d like to share with you just a few lessons that I’ve learned from these beautiful creatures on the wing, which I hope we can also relate to in our work here and in our everyday lives.

A Blue Jay finds a nice spot to have a snack and take it all in

Positioning

It’s no secret that a significant portion of success comes from being in the right place at the right time. Sheer luck definitely has a bearing on that, but you can, as they say, “make your own luck” by making every effort to put yourself in the right place. Many bird species, like humans, are remarkably adaptable, and can thrive in a variety of settings. However, they are wise enough to know that some settings are better than others, depending on the goal and the task to be accomplished.

When the goal is to eat, birds go to where the food is. Most herons eat fish, so when they’re hungry, they’ll place themselves near the water. Great Blue Herons are a common sight in the water and the shorelines of lakes and streams here in East Tennessee; they’ve also been known to perch on beds of kelp off the shore in the Pacific Ocean. Green Herons will wade in the shallows, or strategically place themselves on low branches that hang over the surface of the water. Hawks and will find perches high in trees, or circle high in the sky, to get the best view of the rodents, snakes, and smaller birds that they eat. Blue Jays love acorns, so they congregate where oak trees can be found (in both forests and suburbs). Goldfinches eat nuts and seeds almost exclusively, so they’re more likely to be found on the edges of forests near fields, where they have access to a wide variety of grasses, desirable flowers, and trees like alder, cedar, and birch.

The American Goldfinch is a seed-eater, so it forages where its favorite seeds are likely to grow

When the time comes to raise offspring, birds will stake out a spot that gives them the best protection from predators and other dangers. Often this means nesting high up in a tree; sometimes this means finding an available cavity, or a protected area on a rocky cliff. Kingfishers dig burrows near a riverbank, usually high up where floodwaters are unlikely to reach. Hummingbirds have been found to deliberately nest near hawk’s nests. This may seem precarious, but they have their reasons. Mexican Jays have been documented pillaging hummingbird nests… but these Jays will also avoid getting too close to the hawks so that they don’t become the meal. Hummingbirds are too small for a hawk to bother with them as potential prey, so their strategy keeps them safe from Jays without putting them in the line of fire.

Yellow-Crowned Night Herons feast near the water, but build their nests high in trees. 

As we can see, there is no single best position to seek out for every circumstance. The proverbial “place to be” ultimately depends on your goals, both short-term and long-term. When planning out your career path, first ask: what is your aspirational position? What are the skills needed to succeed in that position? Are there intermediate positions you can look at that will help you to build those skills? Life won’t necessarily take us on a straight path, and there could be more than one way to go about it. However, the path should still make sense. If your goal is to be the next Regional Sales Director in your company, the most logical career move is probably not going to be moving into the Informational Technology department. Sure, it could get you there eventually….but it’s probably not the most direct or logical route. On the other hand, if you want to be a Senior Manager, first moving into a lead or business coach role to gain experience as a people leader could be beneficial. Like a bird, sometimes you may need to “migrate” to another team, department, or even industry in order to get to where you need to be.

A Great Egret moves around the lake to find a better position for hunting.  

Coming soon: Practice

• Birds
• Lessons from Birds