Comment by bbarnett
For some reason, I immediately thought "no way that bird is 70 years old", and reasoned that the bauble on the birds leg is now a status symbol.
After all, all the other birds see humans staring, pointing, admiring the bird with it!
So the bird returning for 70 years, is just whichever bird that managed to kill and take the bauble for its own. I envision a bird arena, and Spock/Kirk fight music, all of it.
And here we just think it's the same bird.
That's not reason, that's post-facto rationalization.
The two are often conflated, to the detriment of us all.