A Bird in the Hand

Colorful dimond-shaped paper kites are a common sight in the sky in and around Old Delhi. Children fly them from rooftops and parking lots, showing amazing skill in avoiding buildings and trees. But kites are fragile things with short life spans, and stray strings from deceased kites can be found dangling from trees and buildings, threatening to snare unsuspecting passerbyes. During our recent trip to old Delhi (see last post) we got tangled up with a kite of a different sort.

Near the fishnet salesman we ran into some lose nylon threads hanging off a roof-top. While untangling the stray strings from my hair, we noticed that the other end was attached to something above - something large and alive and unhappy - a huge black bird perched on the gutter of the overhead building! As we watched, the bird opened its wings and took off, only to tumble across the road and crash behind a row of autorickshaws.



Our wildlife biologist instincts kicked in, and upon investigation, we found the bird wiped out on the ground entangled in fishing line wrapped around its wings. It was a black kite (Milvus migrans), a ubiquitous bird of prey in the Delhi area. After throwing a shirt over its head to guard against the sharp beak, we cut the restrictive fishing line and placed the bird up on a wall out of the way. "It's dead" insisted the local chai-walla. But almost immediatly the black kite took off and flew away, returning to the sky to join the colorful paper kites dancing over the city.