Last week, that is the last week of January, a friend arrived all the way from Delhi, with a shoebox that he said had a little surprise for me. I opened to find not a little, but a big surprise looking up at me. A beautiful Brown headed Barbet. Scared, confused, holding on to it’s dear life.
Apparently, the bird had crashed into a window pane. Thankfully, there were no injury marks. My friend brought it to me since I have a giant peepal tree on my gate and the Barbet’s favorite food is the small fig that grows on peepal. But the kiddo was in no position to fly so I had to keep it for the night. Feeding it was another challenge. We had to nearly force feed it some banana by opening it’s mouth and pushing the pulp into it. A call with an expert rescuer enlightened me about the fragility of the Barbets.
I was told that the only chance the birdie has at staying alive is by being let out of the box. Barbets are birds of the wild and do not survive confinement, often dying of heart-attacks due to fear. With two dogs in the house, there was no way I could have let the bird let roam free. A few frantic messages to birders of Malibu led me to Abhi Jatya from the towers. An avid birder who readily agreed to take in the tiny bird. Off went the Barbet.
Once home, it hopped out of the box and once again fed on the banana and this time, even drank water which meant that it felt safe and comfortable in its surroundings. It was another night of anticipation and anxiety for all concerned and when I called up Abhi Jatya in the morning, the bird was sitting in the balcony.
Immediately after the call, I got a message from him with the happy news we all had been waiting for; the bird had taken flight. It now has a new home, hopefully in the dense trees of Jharsa Bandh that we Malibu residents only planted few years ago. And life comes a full circle!
