A beautiful tota came to my garden the other day. He was a rose-ringed parakeet, a male (because females don't have the black ring on the neck). By and large, most male animals are better looking than female animals, but let us not start a debate ;-). He was also at least a year old (before that the black ring does not form).
He was sitting on the guava tree, on which the guavas had just started coming out. He looked rather dignified, sitting there with the grand black ring around his collar and the red beak. Incidentally, if you see a parakeet who's beak is yellow instead of red, it is most likely the blossom-headed (or plum-headed) parakeet.
So there he was, sitting quietly, looking here and there with his beady eyes.
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I was directly beneath him. Of course, he knew I was there, he would have known even if I wasn't loudly clickety-clack-ing with the camera (birds can hear such unusual sounds from a long way off!).
So he looked at me, to make
sure I was the normal harmless IIT type bloke, and not some
dangerous thug type that throws rocks and puts totas in cages.
Then he looked to his right, to make sure there was no danger coming
from that side. Birds are forever looking every which way. Did you know
that most
birds can swivel their necks all the way and look right back?
And then, hello!!! What are you doing with this unripe guava? Leggo, I tell you!!!
But he must have been an
immature tota too, for he was biting my unripe fruit!! Thief!! Thief!! But then,
maybe totA's think that we humans are the thieves in their gardens!
Hah! Serve you right! This is the month of October, my friend, and these guavas won't ripen at least for another month!!! Hah!! Dumbo!! Serve you right!
See, how the guava got stuck to your beak now!!! Pah!!!
Now totAs are very social animals, very conscious of theis status. Although I
was not a member of his tribe, he knew that I was there, watching him.
Embarrassed at this faux pas while being observed by me,
he flew off immediately to a neighbouring tree ...
... where he dislodged the the guava in peace. It clattered down. I checked it out, it was very very hard. And yes, there was a small, fine crack, where it got stuck on his beak, but a really tiny slash - their beaks are rather sharp, and it's best to stay away from them!
What a foolish tota!