Year 2020 through the pandemic we all were at home, anxious and worried as everyone was. In those bleak times we noticed small things and found happiness and joy in them.
My mother kept herself busy with growing vegetables, growing a batch of hens and also making some of her delicious recipes.
While tending to the chicken, near the coop she found a baby White Cheeked Barbet which had fallen from its roosting nest. Fire ants had covered the chick and were dragging it away. Overnight they would have made an easy meal of the Barbet chick.
My mother removed the fire ants, cleaned the bird and gave it some water. We had seen the Barbet’s feeding on bananas, papayas and other fruits which we grow.
Mom mashed a banana and fed the hungry Barbet and made it sleep in a small box. By next day morning it was energetic and and hopping around. Soon it started making small flights and perching on things and people around.
Out in the open, the little Barbet kept looking at the branches of trees as if it was searching for its parents. It kept making little flights, which it could do easily as the day progressed.
Mom kept an eye on the Barbet as it hopped around higher and higher up the branches. But soon it was difficult to distinguish the bird as its green coat acted as a camouflage.
We believe our little Barbet would have grown to become an adult bird and would be one among the many Barbet’s around our house which are heard more often that seen by their constant calls “kutrook-kutrook-kutrook”.
https://youtu.be/kRq2Mj--rlM?si=PgwpbpWRYezFVny1