Happiness is a Pair of Sunbirds

For the past four years we have experienced great happiness and joy because a pair of sunbirds began to raise their families in our backyard here in Cairns in Tropical North Queensland. Over the years we have offered them a variety of locations to nest; putting up pieces of rope just for that purpose in places that we thought were protected. Eventually they chose an internal corner of our verandah, very protected and in full view of our family from many angles. There they raised several sets of babies.

That was until one night, just before Christmas, when we were entertaining and the mother bird suddenly became very disoriented and distressed. We rushed to her assistance to find that her nest had fallen and was held very tenuously by threads at the bottom. Her babies were still safe but at great risk of falling from the nest. We decided to assist mother nature and tied the nest; top and bottom back to the strings on which it was built. The next morning, mother and father were back taking care of their family and getting them out of the nest as quickly as they possibly could.

Our joy remained as they continued to raise their subsequent families in our garden. They regularly came to inspect the broken nest and showed constant interest in nesting there again as well in each of the other locations that we provided for them.

This weekend, they began to build a new nest on our front verandah, on a new piece of rope that they specifically asked us for. I kid you not!

We were relaxing on the front verandah recently with a friend when the sunbird pair came to look over the tree that we have in a pot in the corner. They carefully examined every branch that was hanging down and the fluttered endlessly over the top of the tree and over us. I got the idea that they were asking us for a nesting site in that corner.

We jumped up there and then and shifted the potted tree to the front of the veranda for protection and tied a rope in the corner. The sunbirds visited the veranda daily, looking the offering over and comparing it with the one on the back veranda. Then they got to work and we get to sit in our lounge chairs and watch over our precious sunbird pair. Or should that be, they get to sit in their nest and watch over their human pair? Whatever, we have this delicious opportunity to chill out and watch mother nature at work and reflect over the many wonderful messages that come our way through this interaction.

The actions of a pair of sunbirds speak louder than words, their communication was most effective and reminds me to continue to offer the same in my own communications. I think that they must have been around Ralph Waldo Emerson when he said “What you do speaks do loudly that I can’t hear what you say!” Their leadership was just fabulous. With minimum fuss they prevailed upon us to get on and do exactly what they wanted.

Want to know more about sunbirds?