A feather for your thoughts

Befriend some birds and they'll make you smile for free. They'll impress with their incredible feats, and they might even show you a glimpse of the past.

- WORDS TOAST COETZER ILLUSTRATION NICOLENE LOUW

I spend a lot of time watching birds. And they watch me back. I live in Stanford in the Overberg and I often put out seeds in the garden, especially during winter. The bounty attracts all manner of seedeaters like sparrows, weavers, doves and canaries. On some days, if I haven't fed them by 10am, a sparrow will fly onto the stoep, perch on the back of a chair and peer into the house, as if to say: "Hey, what's wrong with you? Can't you see we're waiting?" The companionship of these garden birds has a calming effect on me.

I work from home and spend many solitary hours sitting at my desk staring at a screen. But then, hopping in through the open front door, comes a Cape robin-chat. It knows I'm there, sitting ten metres away, but it's fearless. It picks at crumbs that might have fallen on the floor, then politely sees itself out.

Other times, a pair of southern double-collared sunbirds flit in under the roof of the stoep. They seem to be collecting cobwebs from underneath some antelope horns on the wall, probably for nesting material.

Late afternoon heralds a shift change, when a platoon of speckled mousebirds rock up. They hit the greens in the vegetable patch - the kale and spinach - then retire to a saltbush of some sort, where they sit around looking cool with their punk hairdos. From the other side of the house, I hear common starlings chattering away from their perch on the power line that catches the afternoon sun. They might be inkommers, but I like their cheeriness. They're great mimics - I swear I often hear one impersonating the call of a fiery-necked nightjar.