Birds: good for eating, not much else.

The subject of birds just came up in my immediate cubicle area. Apparently, one of my coworkers is an avid birdwatcher. Doesn't that mean he's really good at sitting and waiting?
I don't get the fascination with birds.
My mom and dad have a bird feeder set up on their deck and everytime a little birdie comes by, they call out for one another to come look at "the little redhead" or the "beautiful so and so." I'm like so what? I'm glad it makes them happy and all but birds just don't do it for me - they're not cute and they don't do tricks. I just don't see the point.
Growing up we had a parakeet named Mr. Tootsie. Say that name out loud: "Mr. Tootsie." Sounds funny, right? The thing is when I was a kid that was just his name, not funny at all. Now, I LOVE that name, it's awesome. Also, we had a little mirror set up in his cage that he use to spend a lot of time with. We brought him to the vet for one reason or another and when we explained his obsession with the mirror, the vet told us that Mr. Tootsie was in love with himself. See, now that's funny. That was a good bird, a bird worth talking about.