...The very next morning during breakfast on the verandah, while we were watching the traffic in our bird-feeding tree – we suddenly stood up to cheer, like the crowd surging up for a brilliant goal: a small bird pushed the pin-tailed polygamous preening parasite right off the seed-tray – and did it again when the whydah returned. It was the first time in almost ten years that we have seen the pin-tailed whydah bested by any other bird remotely his own size. And we do get annoyed at the way he hovers, chirps and dives on any Little Brown Job that isn't one of his six wives, keeping all the little ones of all kinds away, throughout the season, from the seeds we put out every day. This morning's bold hero was it's true, slightly larger than an LBJ. He may have been a Greyheaded Sparrow, judging by the single white wing-bar. But it's also true that the whydah sometimes sees off birds as big as doves from coming near the tree. This abashed King-of-Six returned only afte
Left wing commentary from the heart and the head