Philornithist

I'm reasonably sure there is no such word, but I created it to signify a friend of birds, analogous to a philanthropist, a friend of humankind. (There is a word ornithophile, which means a bird lover.)

With the storms we have been having, the birds have been eating away furiously at the seed and suet supplies out back. This afternoon Tom shoveled through several feet of snow -- I mean about two and half feet deep and for a goodly distance -- in order to restock the big feeder and the suet boxes. Then he had to take a ladder out there and fiddle with the cold latches without his gloves on. It had been snowing most of the morning, but that had tapered off. Still, it was 12 degrees out there with a wind chill of five below.

It reminded me of Mama cooking bacon for her feral cats. She was going to drink a SlimFast for breakfast, but she was making a hot meal for the cats that lurked in the woods. I guess that makes her a philailuropist. (As above, there is a word ailurophile, a person fond of cats.)

Birds, cats and the rest of us are lucky there are such folks around.