[The following is a hint of what you’ll find next year in my new work, a book of unusual bird illustrations and commentary. The art is mine and so is the story.]

A man holding a heavy sack entered the forest. He trudged down a beaten path until he came to a grove of trees. A Blue-Crested Palaver and a sparrow were spying on him from separate branches of a twisted and gnarled beech tree. Neither knew that the other had been following the man. Yawning, the man sat cross-legged beneath the beech and loosened the ties of his sack. He pawed through it until he pulled out a sausage and a loaf of bread.

The Palaver stretched his neck to see better. That looks tasty. Ah, the smell of bread. I must have some. I’ll watch him. He might drop a piece and I’ll catch it.

The sparrow also watched the man eat. She trilled sweetly. When my song makes him look away, I’ll fly down and nip a bit of that bread.

The Palaver heard the sparrow. He saw her hopping down through the branches. She perched on a twig over the man’s head. The Palaver flew to the ground and hid behind the tree’s trunk.

The man ate all his sausage and bread. He shook the sack’s crumbs onto the ground, then tied the sack around his waist. Leaning against the beech’s trunk, he stretched his legs and fell asleep.

As the man snored, the two birds flew to his side. Between them lay a pile of bread crumbs. The Palaver eyed the sparrow; the sparrow eyed the Palaver. “Oh, no you don’t,” squawked the Palaver. “Those are my crumbs. I saw them first.”

“Wrong,” buzzed the sparrow. “I saw them first.”

The birds circled the crumbs, but neither one dared take the first bite. The man snorted and groaned. Startled, the birds froze.

“We’d better share this bounty before he wakes up and chases us away,” said the sparrow. They ate quickly. When not one crumb remained, the sparrow said, “I must thank him,” and she hopped onto the man’s knee. The Palaver stared into the man’s face. The sparrow’s buzz-buzz-trill and tweet-tweet-tweet woke the man. He opened his eyes and gasped at the Palaver’s dazzling plumage next to his nose. Then he spotted the sparrow on his knee, and a smile softened his face. “Hello, little fellow. How are you?” The sparrow thanked him with more song and flew off.

Next, the man nodded to the Palaver. “Never have I seen such a fine bird. I’ll bring you some bread when I return.” He brushed leaf debris from his breeches and continued his journey. The Palaver flew to a tree top and watched the man weave his way through the trees. He croaked his own song of thanks and thought,  I hope he comes back soon.

Illustrations and text ©2024 Susan Bass Marcus