By observing birds during sleep, a particular corporeal strategy becomes evident. The bird withdraws its head beneath a wing, while the plumage expands to generate a microclimate that mitigates exposure to nocturnal cold. This configuration temporarily alters the bird’s visible anatomy: the head disappears into the body, suggesting a suspension of outward perception and a partial retreat from the surrounding world.
This work considers vulnerability not only as exposure, but as an intrinsic consequence of self-protection. While the bird’s posture functions as a defensive mechanism, it simultaneously produces a state of heightened fragility. In withdrawing its sensory organs and consciousness from the environment, the bird becomes less reactive, surrendering control in order to rest. Protection, in this sense, is inseparable from risk: the body survives by entering a condition of dependence on the stability of its environment.
The sleeping bird thus embodies a relational state in which the boundary between organism and environment is continuously negotiated.
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