Important to God

Birds are important to God. If you have read the previous posts (indicated by *Blog Post Title* below), this truth should already be evident.

After all, God made a point to create the birds. “God said, ‘Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the open expanse of the heavens’” (Genesis 1:20). *Beginning of Birds*

God encouraged the birds to prosper and spread in the earth. “God blessed them, saying, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth’” (Genesis 1:22). *Global Distribution*

God included the birds in His covenant regarding future global floods, as well as protecting them in other ways. “They and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds” (Genesis 7:14). *Conservation Practices*

God feeds and cares for the birds. “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26). *Preservation of Birds*

All of the above is review. Together (or even alone) these realities show that birds matter to God. The tiny birds – and the large birds – do not escape the watchful eye of God and are not separated from the care expressed by His loving heart. But there’s even more that reveals how much birds matter to God.

God made sure the birds had names. “Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name” (Genesis 2:19). Each bird species was worthy of an individual identity. God valued their uniqueness.

God cares individually for each bird, in spite of its small size and insignificant status in the world. Two similar passages support this truth. “Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father” (Matthew 10:29). At the very least, this means without the Father’s knowledge; most commentators believe it extends to mean without His oversight or supervision (providence). God notices what happens to each bird. While that may seem like an exaggeration, it is true that God is omniscient. He knows everything.

As humans, we cannot comprehend the ramifications of omniscience. God knows every minor detail, just as He knows the major events. Humans, with all their collective resources, do not know how many individual birds exist today. I found an estimate of 50 billion. What do we know about the whereabouts of those 50 billion?

We have tried to study birds. One of the significant tools is banding. Birds are captured momentarily, a tiny lightweight band is placed around a leg, and the birds are released. I found an estimate that over 70 million birds have been banded. What good is that? Well, it only helps if that same bird is captured again later by someone familiar with the process and if that person reports the data to the proper agency. What do we learn? For a small percentage of banded birds, we learn a tiny snapshot of information. For example, a bird that passed through Maryland in April 2024 passed through the same location in April 2026. We know nothing of its other travels. We don’t know if it came through in 2025.

Radar is another helpful tool. Radar is normally used for weather, detecting rain or snow. In recent years, it has been increasingly noticed during migration season. The vast flocks of birds migrating in spring or fall are significant enough to show up on radar. Birders can use this data to know when it is a good morning (or a bad morning) to go out looking for migrants. What do we really know from this data? Mostly, we get a broad picture and an estimate. We can estimate how many thousands of birds are crossing an area, and we can guess from past observations which birds might be in that cloud.

Or, there is an interesting technology called GSM. This is a step up from banding. Rather than a tiny bracelet that can be accessed only if the bird is captured again, the GSM is a tracker that sends messages by cell phone. It might send several messages per day, relaying the bird’s location. The battery, with solar recharging, can last up to two years. However, the cell signal can be blocked by clouds or other objects, and it becomes useless if the bird flies out of range.

As far as I know, the most advanced technology would be a tracking device utilizing GPS. I read that tens of thousands of birds (especially raptors) have been tagged with this technology. This device reports by satellite and can give pretty much constant data regarding the bird’s location, to within a few feet. The battery lasts three years, and some can be enhanced by solar recharging. This is used primarily to track migration paths, stopover points, and the extent of a bird’s range. Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania is currently tracking eighteen broad-winged hawks with this technology. Most of them are in their first year of tracking. Several have been tracked for two to three years, and two birds for four years.

If there are 50 billion birds, and we have tagged 50,000 with GPS (or less precise) technology … I hardly trust my math skills for this, but I think that means we have a good idea of where .0001 percent of the world’s birds are. (Reduced by birds that have died and trackers that have malfunctioned or expired.) For less than GPS technology, that might be only a few times per day, rather than in real time. What else do we know about them? Nothing. We don’t know if they are in a nest or on the ground. We don’t know if they are eating or what they are eating. We don’t know how many other birds are with them or what predators might be approaching. In reality, our knowledge, as impressive as it is, is very limited. And it is in relation to an extremely small part of the bird population.

God, on the other hand, knows the precise location of every bird at every time of the day. He knows their habitat, their nesting site, their companions, their predators, their actions, their food sources, their water supply, their weather conditions. Everything. According the verse quoted above, He knows when every one of them falls to the ground.

A similar verse states, “Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God” (Luke 12:6). The commodity rate is even lower in this verse. Perhaps inflation. Perhaps different pricing in a different region. Although the content of the two passages is very similar, it is believed that the two discourses were given two years apart, in different regions of Israel, and to different groups of people. Jesus’ teaching here is a repetition of the same ideas He had taught earlier. This time He tells us that not one tiny bird is forgotten by God. He remembers each one.

While the incomprehensible knowledge of God is enough to boggle our minds, the intent of the verses is not about how much God knows, but about how much God cares. He cares for each bird, because each bird belongs to Him. “I know every bird of the mountains, and everything that moves in the field is Mine” (Psalm 50:11). He claims and keeps faithful watch over each one. Yes, birds are important to God.

Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.