House sparrows like to live within the vicinity of people and yet they are not on the list of pet birds. These feathery neighbours may remind one of Lalan Sai's immortal song,'Tomar ghare basat kare koi jana' (how many people do live in your house?). Hardly are people aware of these tiny birds that keep company with people whether the former like it or not. They maintain mostly a low profile except when they become quite rowdy during their breeding seasons which are at least twice a year. Right now they are passing one of the breeding seasons. Very busy with collecting materials ---usually straws, dried grass, twigs, strings, papers and feathers ---they also continue to chirp unceasingly particularly in the morning and dusk.
Although they use every niche space on building cornice, holes or thatched cottage, huts or houses for nesting and breeding, sparrows are used to communally roosting in trees and shrubs. Highly gregarious, they chirp together before and after setting in the roost in the evening. On this count, they have their counterparts in shalik or martin. But they also chirp communally before leaving the roost in the morning. In the same fashion they engage in dust or water bathing. But they spend the day all around human settlements or houses. A house bird is, therefore, not entirely a house bird.
Although it has been living close to humans since 10,000 years, as early evidence suggests, the bird has never developed a friendly relations with people. Nor is there an enmity between the two species. They have just lived so as normally as possible. In North America the story is different, though. Humans have tolerated them and sparrows are happy with the accommodation.
In contrast, martin also used to living around human settlements has at times surprised people by bonding extraordinary relations with at least a few people. Dwijendranath Thakur, Rabindranath's eldest brother, was one such man who used to sit on the verandah of his Shantiniketan cottage in the morning and a shalik used to come to him. The feathery friend would climb on his neck, hand and head. There was an unspoken communion between the two. After spending sometime the bird would fly away on its own.
On social media sites, there are heart-warming videos of wild birds pecking away food from the hand of a person. In one such video, a woman living by a forest once saw a bird sitting on the terrace. She offered bird feed there and the bird first hesitantly came to eat it. Then it left and the next day at the same time arrived with another bird. Thus the number continued to grow. After a few days the birds were no longer afraid of her. She offered their feed on her palm and the birds took their turn one by one to nibble at the food on offer.
There are more such videos in which such bonding has been vividly captured. If these are not digital manipulation, there are reasons to believe that there is something ---some inexplicable force that binds all living animals together where the divides vanish between species. Well, near at home, there is a house in old Dhaka which has now earned the nickname "Chil Bari" (Kite House). Thanks to a young man who has made it a mission of his life to rescue and treat injured kites. His roof has been turned into a kite clinic where injured kites are brought for treatment and rehabilitation.
When the kites recover fully he releases them in the sky. But wonder of wonders, he has by now hundreds of such kites including those in the wild which now come for their daily meal from his provision. Every day the young man has to spend a good sum to feed his aerial guests. Some of these kites are so familiar that they come to him when he beckons. The kites know for sure that their host has a golden heart. They respond to his call. In Dhaka sky kites soar high and hover above in search of food. Their food is becoming scarce and the young man is doing a great service by way of feeding the kites.
In the process, he has proved that human love can transcend beyond his kind and it happens when there is no expectation for any return. But happily the other species too know in the heart of hearts who is a genuine friend and who is not and respond accordingly. This explains why such transcendental bonding takes place, not always but at least in some rare cases.
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