Eastern Phoebe Animal Symbolism and Nature's Lessons on Patience

“I want a golden goose and I want it now!” demanded Veruca Salt in “Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”

In our instant gratification world, we often think that everything should come quickly when we desire it. But, nature teaches us that things take time. Whether it’s the seeds we plant that have a germination period to grow or whether it’s the fruit trees we plant that don’t bear fruit for 3-5 years, nature teaches us good things take time.

We have an Eastern Phoebe couple who built a nest over our porch light. They now have four little babies. I stood on something on the far side of the porch and used my telephoto lens to capture these photos of them.

The mother arrived with a bite of food shortly after I got in position. She fed one baby and then flew away to find more food for her babies. The babies kept their mouths wide for at least another 20 minutes waiting for her to return.

The male came over while they waited. I imagine he was standing guard for maybe 5 minutes and then flew away. Finally, I got tired of standing there holding my heavy telephoto waiting for the mother to come back and decided to come in and see how my photos turned out.

There was something so pitiful about the younglings with their little mouths held wide, waiting for food to be dropped into them. I’m not sure how much longer they waited with their mouths open before the mother found more food. I imagine if she only brought enough to feed one at a time, these little ones were waiting quite a while to be fed.

In our instant gratification world, we often don’t think about that in nature, things aren’t always instant. These little ones are learning patience from the start. They won’t turn out like Veruca Salt:

Eastern Phoebe Animal Symbolism

Eastern Phoebe’s are one of the first birds to arrive on the scene in spring, thus they are associated with rebirth and renewal. They signify new beginnings and a fresh start. With such a tight association with spring, Eastern Phoebes also represent transformation (the death of winter transforming into life of spring).

Eastern Phoebe’s are resourceful (as you can tell by their nest at our house). They are songbirds who are an inspiration to writers, artists, and creators of various kinds.

We enjoy sitting on our front porch watching them flit around. While they don’t come right up to us, they don’t seem too concerned about humans, otherwise they wouldn’t have built their nest right above the rocking chairs where we sit all the time.

Hopeful Expectancy, Receiving and God’s Provision

These baby birds are also teaching me something about putting our hope and trust in God. The Eastern Phoebe’s babies are born blind, naked and completely dependent upon their mother for sustenance. They are continually open to receiving, completely expecting their parent to return and bring them sustenance.

They model what it is to trust in God. They cannot see where their sustenance comes from. They don’t try to micromanage where it comes from. They have no expectation about what will be brought to them next, only that what is brought to them will be good. They shut off nothing from their parent.

What if we lived in that kind of hopeful, open expectancy that God will provide – even if we have to wait for a while in receiving mode – hoping, expecting, knowing that God will come and make things right, orchestrate things on our behalf, make all things work together for our good?

Like these baby birds, we are often going through life blind in many ways. We do not always see what’s coming around the corner. In fact, we rarely do. When we put our trust in specific people or outcomes, we are often disappointed. But if we live in trust, knowing God will provide what’s best in each moment, we can relax, release our anxiety, and live in day-to-day hope that God will prevail, and God will provide.