Conversations with a bird

I call him Orange Eyes, and I'm sure he doesn't care what I call him. He would come to me when I called him in his language, which is a very soft...almost inaudible... slow whistle. The only reason I know the sound is he made the sound last year when I first met him on Powell Cay in the Bahamas. It was the last day I was there in 2023.

I remembered and practiced it every now and then while thinking about him.

This past April of 2024 while at Powell again, I made the sound while walking the same trail from last year. In the exact same spot where we said "goodbye", he flew to a branch a few feet away.

Over the next several days, he and I spent hours together. He would disappear from time to time and all I had to do was call him in his language.

So yeah, I felt a conversation. The soft whistle was only one sound of many. He is quite the talker and one of the friendliest wild birds I've ever met.

And if you're wondering maybe he was someone's pet, most likely not since Powell Cay in the Abacos of the Bahamas is, and has been, a completely uninhabited island. Nothing but wildlife. No humans. No buildings of any kind. And that is one of the reasons why I love that island so much. Between the White-tailed Tropicbirds (Longtails), Orange Eyes, and the silence of an uninhabited island, the place was beyond my imagination until I arrived there by chance last year.

Officially, this is a Red-legged Thrush. To me, he will always be Orange Eyes.

I said goodbye to him again this year in mid-April. Perhaps again someday, I'll see him once again.

~ Photography by me with my Canon R5.