Every year, the birds carefully build their nests to create a safe home for their offspring. So did the bush thrush, which is the subject of this lovely story.
The unusual curiosity happened in a small Indian village in a district of Tamil Nadu called Shivaganga. Potthakudi, with only 120 houses, was the home of a gentleman called Karuppu Raja, who was in charge of the street lighting. One afternoon, as he was about to switch on the lights, he noticed a thrush fleeing headlong from the vicinity of the light switch. But it didn’t take him long to realise what was going on. Seeing the carefully arranged nest and the bluish-green eggs, it was clear that the tiny bird had chosen the street’s electrical junction box to make its home.
While others would probably have turned a deaf ear to the fate of the bird family, Karuppu shared the story with the locals and set about a joint rescue. Much to their surprise, the people on the street did something that many could emulate. In order to allow the thrush to hatch its eggs in peace, they agreed not to surround the switchboard and to disconnect it from the street lights. So, in the evenings, the street was plunged into total darkness as all 35 lights were left off – for over a month.
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The stumbling around in the dark seems to have been worth the sacrifice, because after 45 days, a beautiful family of thrushes has left the nest.