THE STATE BIRD ON THE STATE TREE

The tiny peck-peck sound on the coconut tree captured my attention. On the bark of the tree stood a giant beak- or so I thought- it was the huge bill of a beautiful little bird – the Giant horn-bill, I was captivated by this little creature, though the name was mighty enough to scare the life out of children.

It wasn’t the pecking that fascinated me, the little bird was trying to cover his nest with whatnot – now that wasn’t a clever thing to do. The horn-bill looked around and spotted me staring at him. Without another thought it flew away towards the setting sun and that was enough to leave me baffled. The giant horn-bill was considered the state bird because it covered its nest with mud? Well! Don’t be wrong the answer is yes!!!

I dwelled into the shadows of the trees behind me so that the bill would return. And it did. It carried out the routine of checking that the coast was clear and then lodged beneath the nest on the bark of the tree. Then, the next thing took my breath away, I could hear muffled voices of birds from inside the bark. I hurriedly grabbed a stone and aimed at the bird who was still closely examining the partly mud covered nest.

But my sudden upsurge was drowned as I watched the bill give a crumb of food to the mother’s mouth. The drizzling of rain did not stop the father bird from flying away to get food for his family. The drizzle turned into raining cats and dogs but yet the bird was flying to and fro providing food for his family.

This continued for a few days until I noticed a creaking sounds on the bark of the tree, it was the father bird clearing away the mud. Mother and the children hopped out merrily melted by the bright and beautiful day.

This whole episode left me awestruck. What a love for the family. And what if by chance the father bird wouldn’t return? Yes, the mother and children would die with starvation. Such was the affection and trust that these birds passed on generation after generation

This love is seen not only in horn-bills, but in all the true children of mother earth. Fathers work hard to be the guide for the family’s contentment and rejoice. And obviously this is the reason behind declaring the bird as the state symbol of love and faith in the god’s own country.