The Laughing Dove/Bird

When I saw this bird for the first time, I just stood there gazing at it for a long time and didn’t want to move away at all. More than the soft colors painting its body, it was the peace in its eyes that had me rooted to the ground. 

It has a beautiful face and the way it looked back at me made me almost feel as though it was thinking about me. You can instantly feel the friendly vibes radiating from this bird, because it doesn’t immediately fly away as soon as a slight noise is raised. 

I see this bird only occasionally. There was this specific happening one morning when I was taking a walk. This bird was perched so beautifully on a lamp post almost at my eye level. 

Again, it was looking back at me. It didn’t move even as I went really close to it ! It kept sitting there making me feel as if these were events unfolding in a beautiful dream! 

I smiled at the bird and continued standing there while the bird was still sitting there. We stayed like this for quite a while!  Finally I broke away and continued on my walk wondering why I didn’t carry my camera that morning! 

After that day, I kept thinking why I wasn’t being granted more sights of this bird while I had been photographing so many other birds in the neighborhood. I always had this thought in the back of my mind that, I had that one-on-one moment with the bird which I lost, and I deeply regretted the loss of that amazing shot. 

And then, it happened one day… That was yesterday when the real story began..

I was on Google+ drooling over some nice photographs which some real photographers had taken, when all of a sudden I saw something coming towards my backyard walk-out door. I opened the wire mesh with great caution, gently walked out and there it was! The Laughing Dove that probably was perched on my Mulberry tree, flew a bit and comfortably placed itself on my garden fence. 

I could hardly believe that the bird could read my thoughts and it came looking for me!

I came running in and got my camera and got a couple of pictures and like all those other times, it stayed there! 

I managed to get a few pictures when it flew away to my neighbor’s window and perched there for a few minutes. I kept clicking it, each and every time going one step closer to it. Finally it flew away but I was still inexplicably happy that I got to photograph this bird! But then, I realized that the grill didn’t match with the serenity of the bird’s face, making me wonder if I should post the photos online. 

It was sometime back today just about noon time that I saw something on my Mulberry tree from inside the house! Lo and behold, my bird was back! 

Look at the way it is saying hello to me!!

I gently opened the wire mesh door again and pointed my camera at whatever angle the bird was sitting … It slowly turned and looked at me (or my camera) while I shot it for a while. 

 

And then it turned little by little towards me and completed a 315⁰ angle to give me beautiful pictures of itself ! ! This Beauty made my day today and I am still in a trance like state; it feels like I was/am in a beautiful dream; I feel light headed now.. He he he… It feels so nice to be in this state. 

Elegance Birdsonified!

I hope to hear this bird laugh some time (it’s call sounds like a human’s laughter which is why the bird is called so) ; it was so funny to hear it’s laughter on clips over the internet and to read the discussion about what people had to say about their domesticated doves. I must say that God sometimes works in weird ways; this bird was given such an elegant face but with a funny call (unlike the Hyena)! 

Just for your information, the scientific name of the laughing dove is “Spilopelia senegalensis”. It has beautiful mauve-pink, state blue brownish red colors on its body as you can see from the photographs. The most interesting aspect is its beautiful collar of black and golden feathers on the sides of its neck which my younger one found scary!