How many of us have fleetingly yearned to take wing and fly like the birds? How many have dreamed of touring the world from end to end like them on beating wing?
Was not this dream behind the airplane in which you are sitting at this very moment? What inspired Hezarfen Ahmed Celebi, who, leaping into the void one morning in view of all Istanbul, flew from the Galata Tower to Uskudar across the Bosphorus, thus going down in history as the first person in the world to fly? Surely it was the birds.
In a few hours your plane is going to land. But what about the birds when they get tired of flapping their wings? Are there no ‘ports’ where they can take refuge? There are, right here in the city, on every side. Near homes, mosques, inns, baths, everywhere. What are these stopping off places, you ask. Bird houses! Man’s humble offering to his winged, feathered friends, and one of the oldest and most important expressions of the love of and compassion for animals that is gradually being lost today.
The history of houses built for birds like sparrows, finches and swallows goes back a long way.