Sophie Zyla Photos
Autumn — Red-Tailed Hawk.
Autumn, a red-tailed hawk, is perched on an handler’s glove with an almost quizzical look on her face. Her wings seem half-ready to take flight, her beak a little open, as if she has something to say. It is so tempting to anthropomorphize her. But, as photographer Sophie Zyla’s thought-provoking photography exhibit, “Raptors, Rescues, and Ambassador Birds from A Place Called Hope,” suggests, that’s part of the problem.
The exhibit, in the Ives Gallery of the main branch of the New Haven Free Public Library on Elm Street, runs through Jan. 11.
The 14 birds in Zyla’s exhibit are rendered in the detail-rich, colorful style of the best nature photography, which is much of what encompasses the photographer’s practice. But in this case, as the exhibit’s accompanying notes relate, the birds weren’t photographed in the wild, but at A Place Called Hope, a bird rehabilitation center in Killingworth that takes in injured birds with the goal of releasing them back into the wild.
Eshe — American Kestrel.
However, for the 14 birds in the images, this isn’t possible “due to injuries which inhibit their ability to hunt or human imprinting that makes them too comfortable with humans rather than cautious of them.” As Zyla further explains, that they’re willing to be around us makes them wonderful ambassadors, as very few raptors and birds of prey would allow us to get so close. But it also comes at a cost.
Autumn, for instance, was at the rehabilitation center because she was blind in one eye from a car collision; the notes also relate that she died this year in A Place of Hope’s care. Eshe, an American kestrel, suffered a broken wrist from a balloon entanglement. Cedar, a Northern saw-whet owl, lost part of her wing after being hit by a car. Ash, a peregrine falcon, sustained wing damage after being shot. The proximity that their injuries allow means Zyla can create beautiful, revealing images of them. But Zyla’s also the first to show us the, for the animals, contact with humans has had only negative consequences. To risk a little anthropomorphizing, if these birds had their way, they’d be out in in the wild and Zyla’s close-up photographs of them might not exist.
Amber — Great Horned Owl.
Perhaps most poignant is the case of Amber, a female great horned owl, whose injury, as Zyla lists it, isn’t a broken wing or a blinded eye, but the fact that she imprinted on humans; simply because of her association with us, she won’t be able to return to the wild. The impression one gets from the exhibit to a large extent is that, as much as we complain about our encounters with animals — think coyotes in Morris Cove or bears in nearby towns — and worry about what they might do to our domestic animals, it’s the wild animals that come out the worse for it. And as the exhibit’s notes reveal, it costs A Place Called Hope about $1,000 to feed each animal per year.
But “Raptors, Rescues and Ambassador Birds” isn’t put up just to traffic in guilt. For bird enthusiasts — or anyone who hasn’t had a chance to see birds of prey up close — Zyla’s photographs also work as documents of these marvelous animals, from the curves of their talons to the variegation in their plumage to the depths of their eyes. These animals are very good at being what they are, that is, wildly effective hunters. The exhibition reminds us, as some naturalists point out, that the line between city and wilderness is an abstract concept, entirely human-made; these birds will do what they do whether they’re in the middle of the forest, in the suburbs, or in the city.
As Zyla’s images give us the chance to get up close and be in a little awe of these birds, maybe from that can be born a little respect. Maybe we’ll be a little more cautious around them when we see them along our roads, or hovering over our apartments, or perched in trees along the street. It makes sense to give them a little bit of space. After all, they were here first.
“Raptors, Rescues and Ambassador Birds” runs in the Ives Gallery of the New Haven Free Public Library’s main branch at 133 Elm St. Admission is free. Click here for hours and more information.