You don’t see many animals in the city. You’re more likely to see cars, motorbikes, scooters, lots of people and children playing. But occasionally, you can find a wild animal in the city. For example, you can sometimes see birds’ nests in the trees. They’ll find a tall tree with forked branches. They carefully place branch after branch and leaf after leaf until they have a comfortable and solid nest. One such tree, where the birds lived, stood right in front of Edith’s house.
She was a little girl who loved animals. She loved to watch them and learn about them. Every morning, Edith would walk to school past that big tree and look up into its canopy to see if she could see a squirrel or a bird.
One day when she was walking home from school, a strange sound stopped her. She looked up and saw two birds flying nervously around the tree above her, making a terrible sound. As if something was happening, as if they were trying to tell her something. Edith looked around to see why the birds were so insistent. And then she figured it out.
A small, slightly feathered bird was hopping clumsily under a tree. It was a chick. The birds flying over Edith’s head must have been its parents. The little one couldn’t fly. It must have fallen out of the nest. He was barely able to stand. Edith knew there was a lot of danger for the little bird here on the ground in the city. She wanted to help him, but she had to hurry because something could happen to him at any second.
Edith had read in books that if the bird was already feathered, she could touch it. That the parents will accept it then. She also knew that the safest place for it to be was in a tree. “I need to get it on a wide branch. I’ll make it a nest so it won’t fall off it again. His parents can bring him food there and then as he gets stronger he’ll fly away with them,” Edith thought it over and got to work.
She quickly found some twigs. She twisted them into a little ball with a hole in it for the bird to settle in. She looked around the tree to decide where to settle the nest with the little feathered creature. She found a spot where the branches forked. “That’s best place, that’s where I’ll put it,” she decided.
Then came the hard part. With the nest and the little bird, she climbed up. She tied a pocket on her belly with the t-shirt. She wedged the nest in there and then carefully grabbed the bird and placed it inside. She tightened the T-shirt so it wouldn’t fall out. And she started to climb. She deftly worked her way up the branches. All the while keeping an eye on her little charge in the T-shirt. When she got to the forked branches, she carefully placed the bird nest there, making sure it wouldn’t fall. No sooner had she climbed down than she saw his parents swooping down and bringing him food. The rescue mission was a success. Edith was happy that she could help the bird and that she had done it. Every day she went to see the little bird and watched it grow stronger and bigger.
Of course, it wasn’t until Edith heard that strange sound again on her way home from school. But it was a little different from the first one. She looked up and the parents of a small bird were coming down from the tree towards her. In their little beaks, they were carrying a wreath made of branches. They slowly placed it on Edith’s head and circled it a few more times.
Then something pecked gently in her ear. Edith laughed so hard she cried with joy. The bird she had saved was sitting on her shoulder. It let her pet it, then it hopped a few more times and flew away with its parents. Everyone came to say goodbye and thank her.
Edith never stopped being interested in animals. She still reads about them and learns new things all the time. She believes that thanks to this she can save someone’s life again.
