At sunrise a few days ago, I waited for the arrival of birds in the trees in our front garden, as some birds are regular visitors to the Bell Fruit tree in the morning.
The first to arrive was a Magpie robin. It looked well groomed and charming.
I noticed the movements of the leaves in the rear part of the tree and it was a Tit moving between leaves. Its movements are swift and too difficult to follow. A small bird as it is, it can easily get covered in the foliage.
What caught my attention was its search for insects for its feed in the bark of the tree.
It moved between branches, and having fed on some insects it rested for a while.
The next step in its activity was movement between branches before it flew away to the close by Neem tree to continue its flight path for the morning.
I am not sure if this bird is resident in our garden. It is one of the birds who follows a regular flight path between adjacent trees in our garden. If I am late to be in the garden, I would have missed it as it has a precise timing for its arrival and departure.
The small birds have a pattern that is common between them. They stay away from trees where bigger birds use for their flight path. The Barbets, Pigeons and Parakeets use taller trees with plenty of foliage as their flight stations. The smaller ones such as Magpie robin, Tit, Sunbird, and Bulbul prefer shrubs and smaller trees.
I noticed this since Anna and I came to stay in our cottage twelve years ago. Since then we planted a few trees around our garden which will be small enough for the smaller birds to use for their flight path.
The bird bath and feed we have in the garden do not attract the smaller birds as crows and squirrels claim their right to them. But a pair of bulbuls come looking for fruits in the bird feed we have adjacent to our dining room. If no fruit is placed there, this pair will fly into our dining room in the morning and feed from the fruit basket.
I feel that the routines of the small birds helped me to regard them even more. They need their daily bread and search and find them. They toil and live. There is a sense of responsibility which they display in this behaviour.
I know of a family who introduced the habit of watching birds in their garden that both children, one four and another six years, are up early in the morning to wait for the birds to feed them. The parents find it easy to get the children ready for school as they begin the day with a pleasant experience. Both children draw the birds they observed in the garden before they go to school. The family has an album of the drawings of the birds. What a thoughtful way of using birds to impart habits and skills in children!
Yes, the avians introduce some good habits. I remember how one family refer to the well groomed body of the birds, when their five year old son is reluctant to have bath on some occasions.
Another family taught their daughter, the Lord's Prayer, by narrating it when birds feed from the bird feed. The phrase, 'Give us our daily bread' fascinated the child.
Another parent, records the bird calls during his walk and replay them for children at breakfast time and use the bird book to identify the birds. Their mother would play the bird calls in the piano. Both children in their early-school years and are attentive to tunes and rhythm of music. Some bird calls of birds have different frequencies and are well modulated to create tuneful sounds.
It was about 25 years ago, I got introduced to sighting and identifying birds, while Anna and I lived at the Christian Medical College campus at Bhagayam, Vellore. It was in 2000, I was able to get a single lens camera, which started me to observe bird movements and take photographs.
It was Anna who took the lead to publish the book, Bird movements- inner responses in 2022, categorising the birds, we noticed in our garden and made a summary of our learning experiences from them. Bishop Rt Rev Dr Irenaeus, whom I knew during my association with the CMC governing council time, after receiving the book wrote to say, 'the birds came to receive your hospitality and in that process, you were moved by your feathered friends'! It was he who introduced the phrase, 'feathered friends' to describe birds.
Birds, our visitors and messengers! You make our garden vibrant and your home!
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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