A Bird's Tale

Reading Gallicissa's blog reminded me of an incident that took place about 3 years ago.

Setting: Sri Lanka, parent's home

It wasn't just once when birds searching for a place to make a nest to raise a family decided the best location for the new house was on a Ficus tree in our courtyard, inside the house. The parents-to-be would come into the house, inspect the location, the tree, all the branches and all the while talking with each other (trying to make a decision I guess) and then leave, after about 2 or 3 inspections, they would decide whether they are going to build the nest or not.

The first time someone decided that a high-up branch on the tree is the best spot were a couple of Kondayas (apologies for not knowing the real or scientific name of these birds, maybe Gallicissa can help!).

They built the nest and laid the eggs. There were 3 small eggs with brown spots. We could conveniently see into the nest from the second storey. We watched as the parents took turns in hatching the eggs, and going out in search of food. We watched as the eggs hatched and two teeny weeny pinky babies came out. The third one was a bit late, but eventually did manage to squeeze out. We watched as they grew feeding on whatever their parents brought home.

And then one fine day the little ones decided that it was time to stretch their wings. This was quite an exciting and anxious time, not only for the parents but even more for us, because just a few feet away from the foot of the tree was the fish pond. And then there was good old Bingo. Dogs are not generally interested in a bird for a meal, not even for an afternoon snack for that matter, but anyone fluttering around in 'his' house becomes his problem, so was a bit scary. And then there was the stealthy kitty cat, always choosing the most inappropriate times to show up.

So the little birdies took to the sky...... or more towards the ground. They would fly as far as their little wings would carry them........like a few centimeters at a time. Then they would sit on a low hanging branch of a plant, sometimes on a fern just over the edge of the pond (gulp!) and rest for about an hour before finally gathering up the strength to do it all again! The bird parents were behaving like any normal Sri Lankan parent would when their little ones first start moving around.......screaming, or rather chirping at high frequency and running behind the little ones excited and nervous at the same time. And whenever it seems that the babies were having trouble getting back to the nest, the mother or the father would demonstrate how it should be done, over and over again until the little birdie made the attempt.

This drama went on for a few days, quite nerve wracking for us knowing the potential dangers lurking in the vicinity. Fortunately everything went according to plan. Once the babies had had enough training the parents led them out to see the wide world. They flew up to the window, sat there for what seemed like ages, and finally made the move. The younger sibling, who seemed a bit smaller and backward than the others took a few more hours in mustering up the strength, but he (or she) too finally joined the others. The parents were heard making quite a racket outside for a while.

A couple of days later I spotted three Kondayas on the bird's eye chili tree (their favourite fruit, I think) and I knew it was them because one seemed a bit smaller than the other two. And they seemed to be happy, and it was really nice to see them doing well in bird society!

However not all bird's tales have a fairytale ending.

A few months later (or was it a year.....not sure) a couple of kondayas came in to inspect the ficus tree (Deja vu). I'm not sure if it were the same couple, for birds don't have facial features where we humans can distinguish between Tom, Dick and Harry (or maybe more likely chirp, choop and cheep). Anyhow, they built the nest again, and this time there were 2 little eggs. The eggs hatched and two little kondayas came out.

But this time the story took an unexpected turn, the bird mother was most tragically murdered.... the suspect was caught red handed (or feather mouthed) licking its paws and lying on its side quite content with the deed. The cat didn't get any lunch from me that day, he didn't seem to need any either....well, that's what he was born to do I guess.

The bird father had his hands full bringing up two children on his own. The elder one seemed a bit rebellious, for he left the house and straight into the wide world while the father was away gathering food. The father returned to find only the younger child on a plant in the courtyard, so he rushed outside chirping away to look for his other child.
The next day the younger one was seen sitting on the window grill looking into the unknown world out there. He looked quite vulnerable without the mother to guide him out.

Later on the day I was just outside that window, filling in the bird bath under the frangipani tree, when the little guy suddenly decided to make a dash for the nearest frangipani branch. Awwww...

As I watched the little bird sitting on the branch, I could see past him another pair of eyes watching intently. Kurulugoya! (again sorry I only know the names of these birds in layman's terms). It was such a helpless moment....I knew what's going to happen, and I knew I can't do anything about it, but I wanted to do something to save this innocent fellow, but there was nothing I could do....I can't shoo away the little guy for he could hardly fly, I can't stop the predator bird I didn't have enough time to cover ground...And all of these within a fraction of a second. So I watched helplessly as the big bird whizzed in.... like a missile, eyes focused on its target.

Swooooosh!!

Gone!