Yesterday I was driving along the freeway when a flock of about 30 birds appeared to follow my trail. I watched them playfully dip and swoop across the sky in perfect formation, like an expertly trained pack of Canadian Forces Snowbird Tudor jets.

The birds’ instinctive, playful display takes years for the most talented human pilots to perform. And the results are still less than perfect if you consider the proliferation of air-show accidents.

We pay money to gaze in awe at the stunts performed by our best pilots. But hunters don’t think twice about picking up rifles to shoot birds out of the sky. Instead of cutting down these majestic creatures in flight, shouldn’t we just stand back and watch the free show?