Maureen....I found this quote by the modern Australian poet, Robert Adamson ( best Poems of 2009, Black Inc )
I thought you might find it interesting.
" People ask me, why are so many bird poems being written and published? I have a theory; we miss having poets among us who can imagine that a soul can 'clap its hands and sing, and louder sing', that we need to to acknowledge visitations by intense psychological presences, and that birds are the closest things we have, more or less, to angels. "
p.s. although a modernist poet, Robert Adamson in 1990 won the C.J.Dennis Prize for Poetry. hmmm
