Balance in writing

Quotes from The Grapes of Wrath in which Steinbeck mentions birds:

They arose in the dark no more to hear the sleepy birds' first chittering, and the morning wind around the house while they waited for the first light to go out to the dear acres.

Little sour apples have grown large and sweet, and that old grape that grew among the trees and fed the birds its tiny fruit has mothered a thousand varieties, red and black, green and pale pink, purple and yellow; and each variety with its own flavor.

Black cherries and red cherries, full and sweet, and the birds eat half of each cherry and the yellowjackets buzz into the holes the birds made.

Birds an' stuff like that, too; not just word writin'.

The cotton field scurried with waking life, the quick flutter of morning birds feeding on the ground, the scamper over the clods of disturbed rabbits.

A redness grew up out of the eastern horizon, and on the ground birds began to chirp, sharply.