Our house has an inner courtyard which is open to the skies and encloses a few flowering plants within. Two tiny birds came looking for a place to nest and chose a small bit of rope hanging from a hook on the edge of the roof as the ‘site’ for their new home.
Painstakingly sticking together pieces of straw, dry leaves, twigs and grass, they went about making one of the cosiest hanging nests, which on completion took my breath away with its sheer architectural skill.
It had a louvered opening towards the top with the ‘sunshade’ extending more towards the side which was exposed to rain and sunlight. The eggs would be tucked away deep below, not visible from the entrance and safe from predators. Truly an engineering marvel made without diagrams or specifications!
The male bird was a black beauty, svelte and agile, no bigger than an acorn, with a shining peacock blue head and throat. The female in contrast was a coffee brown ‘plain Jane’ with a pale yellow underbelly.
Their curved needle thin beaks fed on insects and sucked honey from flowers, while still airborne, reminiscent of humming birds but I chose to call them ‘honey eaters’.
We left them to themselves though we would watch their goings on unobtrusively. After every egg laying, feeding and weaning session, the birds would disappear for a couple of months, then come back, reinforce their dwelling and nest again.
Once, to my horror, a little boy who came visiting, gave the nest a violent swing, throwing out two fledglings, which flew and landed on the ground. The parents took them away, hopefully to safety but they never came back.
I missed their playful twitter and swift actions. Months passed into years and I had lost all hope, when suddenly one day I heard their twittering and was thrilled to see that my feathered friends were back with a bang and were busy flitting across, making a new nest.
Everything fell into place and we were none the happier for it, but our birdy tenants taught us a thing or two. That it takes a long time to build trust but only seconds to shatter it! At the same time they showed us that there are no break ups that time cannot mend.Let us strive to live and let live, forgive and forget and co-exist with man and nature in trust and harmony.
Elizabeth Koshy
Email: kitty.koshy@gmail.com