The Sunbird

 

Blue Skies
greens and browns
my window frames.

Quiet sunbird!
Yellow breast reflecting in
my window frames.

Watching sunbird
Catching her reflections, in
my window panes.

Working moms
exchanging glances, through
my window frames.

A moment's experience
a connection in a blink, through
those window frames.

Female, Purple-rumped Sunbird Leptocoma zeylonica

One cuckoo flew out of the nest

Eudynamys scolopaceus

raucous and  rapacious

uninvited eggs were deposited

she emerged  brown and spotted

And the crows found her appetite quite capacious.

Through August and September

Her loud demands I remember

The crows found her rude

But kept her in the brood

Until she fledged in October.

14th August 2022 - the first time I spotted the Koel fledgling in the neighbour's teak tree.

Most days I would see her tail and hear her insistent rattling call

15th August - and she flew from one branch to the other, first flight, but no proud parents to watch or guide.

25th August 2022  - and she flew to our terrace! My attention drawn by the ballyhoo of her calls and the rattling of the clothesline.                                               

From then on, she was a regular up there, getting strength into her wings and begging for food.  Every time there was the shadow of a crow passing, her calls would be more frantic.  The crows ignored for the most part.  Every now and then one crow would desultorily feed her.

And then one day, she was not there.  Flew off!

The mystery to me is that crows and koels don't mate, so they do recognise them as different species, then why do they feed the fledglings?  is there altruism here, that we cannot even begin to fathom?

The videos 

Koel learning to fly and balancing on a wire

Trying her luck with the crows

The crows are unimpressed