Basket seller makes home for myna couple
Any resident of Dhaka knows how difficult it can be to find suitable accommodation. Elsewhere in the country the situation might not be quite as unfavourable but locating a home is never easy, and not only for humans.
Mohammad Liton, a basket seller from Baneswar Bazar of Rajshahi unwittingly witnessed one such accommodation crisis faced by a couple of common myna birds, and he decided to do something about it.
Every day Liton takes up his spot in the bazaar surrounded by the cane baskets he sells. Since late April from his spot in the market, Liton observed the myna couple desperately trying to build a nest under the open shutters of nearby Latif Electronics. But every night as shutters came down their nest was destroyed.
“The myna couple were crying,” recalls Liton, “During the day they were noisy and busily rebuilding the nest that had been damaged the night before. I was shocked to watch them and wondered what to do.”
Fortunately, Biswanath Sarker, a homeopath in the market, had an idea.
Biswanath donated a Tk 20 pitcher, suggesting it could be used as a nest for the mynas. But Liton thought they could use something a little roomier, so he bought another pitcher for Tk 30 and in the first week of May he spent a further Tk 20 to have a day labourer hang it under the eaves of a nearby building.
Fortunately, the myna couple found the new accommodation option to their liking.
The female myna has since laid eggs and now they are raising three chicks at the pitcher-home. Local traders commended Liton on his initiative and enjoy watching as the mother bird feeds the chicks after collecting different food items, while the male keeps a vigilant watch from nearby.
“It's breeding season for the common myna,” says Professor Aminuzzaman M Saleh Reza of Rajshahi University's zoology department. “Like many birds it's their habit to maintain a healthy family life while chicks are raised.”
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