Romfilatelia adds to the theme dedicated to “Fauna” a new issue of postage stamps dedicated to birds from all over the world entitled “International Bird Day”, which will be introduced into circulation on Wednesday, April 5, this year.
The oldest celebration in the Environmental Protection Calendar, dating from April 1st, 1906, is included in the UNESCO programme under the chapter entitled “Man and the Biosphere”. In Romania the celebration was promoted in the interwar period, especially during the reign of Carol II, in the framework organized by schools. In winter, the pupils made handcrafted bird nests, which, in spring, they placed in trees and nesting areas for migratory birds.
At the initiative of the Romanian Ornithological Society, this Bird Day has returned to the Environmental Protection calendar since March 1994. April 1st then became a day to which new definitions were added in some counties, such as “Bird Day in Nature” or “Let’s Love Nature”, etc.
With their flight, their trills and their beauty, birds delight and inspire us. They are known and appreciated as true sanitarians of the forests as anonymous seed-spreading cultivators, they manifest themselves as true tourist attractions and above all they give us countless life lessons. We know the well-known expression „se iubesc ca doi porumbei” (translated: “they love each other like two doves”), or the concern of penguins raising their chicks in real “kindergartens” organised and functioning under the careful and demanding supervision of adults. The blue tit brings lavender and mint into its nest to create a fragrant environment, the raven chicks help and feed their parents as they grow old. But there are many more examples.
The trill and beauty of birdsong can be found in the scores of composers, see the famous “Ciocârlia” (”The Lark”) included by George Enescu in the Romanian Rhapsody. The flight of birds has inspired the creation of many great artists. The great Brâncuși is an edifying case: „ Towards the immensity of the sky, this is my Bird. As a child, I always dreamed that I wanted to fly among the trees, up to the heavens. For 45 years I have been nostalgic for this dream and continue to create Great Birds. I do not wish to represent a bird but to give expression to the essence, its spirit: the flight, the impetus…”
The philatelic issue, consisting of four stamps, a First Day Cover and a set of maxicards for maximaphily enthusiasts, illustrates, in new, exciting poses, the following species:
Rock dove – Columba livia (Gmelin, 1789), represented on the stamp with the face value of Lei 2.90;
Gouldian finch – Chloebia gouldiae (Gould, 1844), depicted on the stamp with the face value of Lei 3;
Black-and-red broadbill – Cymbirhynchus macrorhynchos (Gmelin, 1788), reproduced on the stamp with the face value of Lei 4.30;
The imperial penguin (father of the family) – Aptenodytes forsteri (Gray, 1844), illustrated on the stamp with the face value of Lei 11.
All these graphic representations convincingly present the reason why we need to care for the bird fauna and the beauty of the species illustrated in the rainbow of postage stamps colours.
Romfilatelia thanks the representatives of the “Grigore Antipa” National Museum of Natural History in Bucharest, for the documentary support given to the creation of this issue of postage stamps.
