The Thrushes of my apartment

I see a small agile bird flying around the apartment. It looks like a American robin or what is called Thrush in India. Like almost all days in Hyderabad, it has been an overcast and windy August morning. And the thrush seems to be taking full advantage of the wind flying around and gliding almost effortlessly with the wind.

Its flying pattern makes me curious. It has been flying back and forth from one apartment building block to the other albeit with extreme grace and athleticism. It glides dives, makes sudden stop, changes direction, and a bunch of other moves that would put any fighter plane pilot to shame.

There is one particular move that makes my heart stop. The thrush reaches to a high point in the flying curve and then stalls completely. It retracts its wings to its body and goes into a free fall dive. I follow the free fall dive with awe while the thrush falls like a stone towards the earth at high speed. As the thrush gets closer and closer to the ground, my anxiety increases and the thrush nearly gives me heart attack when it spreads its wing at the last moment and comes of the gravity defying dive in a beautiful arc and soaring again back towards eleventh floor balcony.

The thrush is now accompanied by a couple more of its friends probably as they fly around in synchrony like fighter jets formations in air shows. It’s mesmerizing to follow the bird’s movement and wonder why they do it. The only group of people I have observed with this much energy and carefree enthusiasm are children. This makes me wonder if the thrushes are either children or teenagers. Or it may be just that the thrushes saw the nice and windy day and decided to simply enjoy the feel of the winds beneath their tiny wings

The wind speed becomes gentler now as the thrush glides lazily flying higher up the buildings hoping probably for a stronger breeze of wind. I finally unfollow the bird’s movement and give a bit of rest to my strained neck. A man in the next balcony also massages his neck as he takes a break from his laptop and looks up the sky.