Birds certainly have a strong emotional impact on humans, as you can see with this short list of facts about how we value birds and bird-related products.
Highest price paid for a bird book — $3.96 million US, in 1989, for a set of John James Audubon’s The Birds of America.
Highest price paid for a mounted bird — 9,000 British pounds (about $17,000 US) for an extinct Great Auk by the Natural History Museum of Iceland, in 1971.
Highest price paid for a live bird — 41,000 British pounds (about $ 80,000 US) for a racing pigeon named Peter Pau, in 1986.
Highest price paid for a cage bird — 5,000 British pounds (about $9,700 US) for a Hyacinth Macaw.
Highest price paid for an egg – 1,000 British pounds (about $1,900 US) for an egg of the extinct Aepyornis maximus.
First bird featured on a U.S. postage stamp – Bald Eagle.
Largest collection of bird skins – the British Museum of Natural History, with 1.25 million.
Most valuable bird – the estimated 8 billion domestic chickens, which produce 562 billion eggs annually.
Most valuable nest – that of the Gray-rumped Swiftlet, which is used to cook bird’s nest soup.
Source of these facts: The Bird Almanac, by Dr. David M. Bird