The ‘Brown Bird’ is etched in my memory. My earliest remembrance of it is at age seven. I saw many generations of the bird, officially called the Brown Rock Chat, in my childhood home, where the cavities in the old brick garden walls were the birthplace of scores of chicks over the years. The most fascinating feature for me then was the way the brown bird bobbed its tail and head rhythmically.
Decades later, my fascination with the bird remains. No other small bird in our surroundings can match the brown bird’s patience. You can watch it in between many breaks, sometimes for as long as 20 minutes. Found mostly in north and central India, it stays close to human habitation, but is wary of us and keeps to perches at a safe distance.
I lost touch with the bird in my 20s, and for the subsequent three decades as a mainstream journalist, reporting on bees and birds of the political variety. I did, however, wonder about the little brown beauty many times when I visited my folks in Punjab, whose homes have the bounty of nature. I got to see many new birds there, but missed the bobbing tail.
Birders report that the brown rock chat has largely disappeared, although, its status in the wildlife index is one of “Least Concern”. Seven years ago, when I took to photography, I saw a look- alike with a smaller tail, but not the brown bird itself.
Back in Delhi, one fine day in Spring, I saw three or four pairs from the rooftop of my apartment building, sitting patiently on poles around water tanks in the neighbouring high-rise residential complexes. Watching the bird pump its tail–after a gap of decades–gave me a rare thrill.
“It is as though they are breathing with their tails,” was an interesting comment made by a young relative who had never seen the bird before. And, unfortunately, not many other birds either.
The bird hops around mossy ground, bushes and stagnant water pools around storage tanks, foraging for its diet of beetles, ants and other insects. On rare occasions, I have seen it sample grains, and even juicy grapes, may be, for the water in them.
The brown bird symbolises strength and stability. Going by my reading on the subject, the sudden reappearance of the bird around me over the last few years is supposed to be a good sign, carrying spiritual messages.
The messages do not interest me. It is enough for me to know that one of the sweetest avian presences of my childhood is still around and that it has survived our assaults on nature.
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