Those Birds in Town

Those Birds in Town

...slightly pulling up and diving; and unafraid of any developing traffic jam.

The Way They Are:

Tweet… tweet… tweet, a flock of birds noisily zoomed through the sky, fast as a Stealth Bomber, swerving left or right, slightly pulling up and diving; and unafraid of any developing traffic jam as they flew in a free and scary formation towards their targets – their airports, those big acacia trees just nearby the town hall and the old brick church. These countless birds were in a dash and honking as if telling someone to keep out of their way because they were in great hurry to land and have the nicest place on a tree branch.

While combat squadrons fly consistently in strict order of formation more so in attack battle positions, flock of birds never fly that way, but do it even in much tighter formation, unafraid of mid-air collisions and speeding fearlessly, and where the lead pack would go, the main pack and the tail-end follow, too. Nature has provided them with superb eyesight and keen auditory signals, which they used in communication. As such, while in flight we seldom noticed a flock silently flying. Tweet or any birdie noise made is indeed a way of communication. This is directed either to their own species or to other species. Birds are excellent fliers; some migratory birds would fly thousands of kilometres non-stop to their breeding and nesting grounds. They have efficient navigation and guidance system that surpass modern airplanes, the former relay on natural senses for navigation, while planes do it with the aid of GPS and computer guidance system and without it they fly blindly.

Oftentimes, we hear it from our mothers during their preaching time this old proverb which says, “Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are” or if expressed in an avian way “birds of the same feather flock together.” Well, the idiom does not imply that one should choose the rich and famous as playmates and associates, so he could get something from them materially. Simply it only reminds one to be always in the right tract. When one is not choosy of his “would be” friends and he is within the company of durugistas, expect that in not much longer time he would follow soon because of influence by association.

The above axiom is really true to birds, because as always similar species flock together, even during non-foraging time, or resting time during night if they are not nocturnal like owls. However, the in-depth message of the idiom does not apply to birds, but only to men.

As we observed, black-feathered birds with red-eyes or commonly known as tusing grouped themselves at all permissible time. By nature birds are essentially territorial; they live in small family groups while others formed large flocks. Living in small family groups or in flock is an advantage for it may give them some security against common natural enemies such as other predatory big birds, reptiles – tree snakes or animals, and including men. There is safety in numbers because many eyes could watch everyone and in a flash the alarm could be raised if there is an arising threat. However safety in numbers has one drawback, it may create or lessen their foraging efficiency since many mouths want to eat, and what if there is not enough to forage, nourishment would not be good and it directly affects their health and fertility. So, it could be a reason that at the first opportunity flock of fruit eating birds visit trees which fruits are already ripe and everyone would feast on its abundance.

Our place basically has a vast expanse of plains before one could reach the hills or mountains. The mountains are not so nearby, so one would still travel the most at five kilometres to reach them. These vast expanses of plains have diverse trees; and when there are trees, there would be always birds. Even at the heart of the poblacion, birds are many; nevertheless, species are no longer as diverse as it had been before.

The Passing of Time:

In my younger days when our town has still plenty of centenary big acacia trees in its heartland (near the Roman Catholic Church, municipal hall and plaza) in addition to the fruit trees, which we still have today like macopa, santol, tamarind, mango trees, few lanzones, balimbing, jackfruit, handful of duhat trees and other non-edible for human fruit trees such as kanding-kanding, gemelina, kalo-ot, alum, dol-dol and so on, birds always abound.

As I can recall there were big acacia trees on the west side of the church across the street. These big trees were planted in intervals in the mid-part of the 19th century and stretched out perpendicularly along at one side of the road from where the church is, and farther extended up to the where the seashore or the old mooring place is. The straight and stretch-line of big acacia trees seemingly formed a figure of Letter “L” or “esquala” i.e. because they could be found from the church’s western side and going west along the roadside fronting the municipal hall towards the seashore.

But that was before because only one or two acacia trees remain today, the rest were all cut-down since people believed that those were hazards to lives because many used to pass by below these old trees since they stood towering over some of the main town’s thoroughfares. Those trees were cut in the 1970’s and be as it may (the area however was replanted with mahogany, narra, and antipolo-today these trees are likewise giving shades) they had served well as wind-breakers, shades and most importantly as haven of diverse species of birds. Aside from these trees, other trees in the poblacion or town serve also as shelters of the black-feather tusing (Colornis Panayensis); ol-ola; humming-bird or tamsi (Cynniris ruber); it-it or pygmy hawk (Macrohierax herythrogenis); maya pakin (Pada minuta); maya-maya; swift or sayao (Macropteeryx comatus; sungkulangit (Sarcops calvus); and so on.

Other birds like crows or uwak (Corone philippina); dove or tukmo - punay (Osmotreron armatica & Osmotreron vernans); oriole or tiulao (Oriolus chinensis): sparrow-hawk or silo (Baza magnirostris); eagle or banug (Halistur ponticerianus); bee-eater or amuloy-puloy (Merops bicolor); parrot or periko and small green parrot or kulasisi; white heron or talabun; turtledove or limokon (Columba humilis); kurachea; baud (Columba pacifica and Columba littoralis); manatad; kalaw or tungkago (Buceros hydrocorax); owl or mang-ak (Strix candida); and so on live much farther away from the poblacion. There are also flightless birds such as the tikugas, tikling and karao whose habitats are usually in rice fields similarly with the white heron or talabun, while the daily bather of them all, the kingfisher or tambulatok (Chrysocolaptes lucidus) frequented always near brooks, streams and rivers to catch their prey.

Bird’s characteristics since then have not changed; the concept of territoriality is extremely expressive and strict. Thus, a group of tusing or maya-maya flies solidly as tusing or maya-maya group and they grouped together respectively even in foraging and retiring. So it is not unusual that a tree would be occupied only by a single species of bird when the sun sets.

Out of curiosity I happened to observe a family of white herons or talabun in a rice field, about 15 birds were there and busily foraging for worms because an area more or less a hectare-wide was harrowed by a hand tractor. So, earthworms were bountiful.

Not much longer from where I stood of about 20 meters away from the birds, a lone white heron or talabun coming from nowhere glided smartly towards their positions. Before even she could touch down fully, the resident birds reacted vehemently of her presence. So, she flew away and territoriality was best demonstrated by those birds which occupied the foraging area ahead.

Near that area, two pygmy hawks or it-it were cruising just above the standing rice crops whose grains were nearly ripen. The pygmy hawks were flying – diving and lifting up along the columns or lines of the standing crops not to feed on the grains, but certainly were hunting for small ground birds and worms as well, since these are predatory birds. But they prey only on birds smaller than their sizes because they too are small but daring, indeed pygmy hawks, unlike the maya-may and maya pakin, which are grain-eaters that loved rice grains and always welcome strong winds so the standing rice crops would give way, fall or sag (mataba) to the ground.

As it had been before and would follow always as a cycle till time unless otherwise altered by natural phenomenon, these common birds in town would flock together, except those which are solitary hunters, such as the crow, eagle, owl and other predator birds. The rest feed in group, in group the fly, in group they reproduce and raise their young, and in group - in security of numbers they would spend the night in tree branches together, unmindful what the night may bring them.

Trees with thick foliage could be good cover against wind and coolness of the night, but in stormy time followed by seemingly a hurricane force wind, tree tops are no guarantees of survival. Like one storming night in late 1960’s when Tropical Storm Ening hit this place and washed away a densely populated area in Old Kibanban near the Balatukan Range, people and livestock died. Not exempted of the wrath of nature were birds though they rested or had sought refuge at trees near the old-brick church and town hall, yet many dropped dead from their footings on the branches as a consequence of that dreadful storm. It was a pitiful sight; many did not survive the onslaught of the strong winds, heavy rains and coolness of the hypothermic night. The following morning when the storm passed, the hallowed ground was littered greatly with dead red-eyed tusing, maya-maya, tamsi, and ol-ola. However, not everyone died during the storm because similar bird songs echoed late at dusk at the place where the previous massacre took place.

Despite, birds lost their families and mates; they continued to be as joyous as if nothing happened, because birds are birds, and are not capable of lamentation unlike humans.

The cycle of life shall always move, old birds die, new ones come, old trees fallen and young trees are planted or grown; and birds would happily occupy whatever available tree, which probably their predecessors once had dangled acrobatically and romantically sung their lullabies. Aside from the narra trees near the old brick church and town hall, which in the month of February each year defoliate naturally, there are mahogany, antipolo, and acacia trees, just all adjacent to the old brick church and town hall. These trees may have been used also by their ancestors to pass the night and greeted the new day with the noises of tweets in unison, or just one after the other.

Moreover, at the park the trees, which we planted during our Boy Scouting days in 1964 while in Grade School have long been fully grown, and flock of birds are likewise retiring on these trees. They would either spend the night here, or at nearby trees the one fronting the old-brick church and town hall. Despite, the park is a public place and many people are there, yet birds continue to retire at night time thereat though these trees are not so thickly clothe with foliage because agoho tree leaves are like fine tree leaves. Nevertheless, it seems that the birds are unmindful whether their covers are of thick foliage or not as long as they could spend the night safely against slingshot and air guns. This area has nothing of that sort.

Personally the way I see things are, these town birds or common birds would continue to live in these environs - the trees in the poblacion and nearby areas, because they may have felt and proven that they are safe here. They are secured and away from harm of naughty children, who like to target shot birds with their slingshots just for fun and not much for meat.

But for other species like the crow, eagle, owl, sikop, baud, or the pato del monte or wild duck, it is regretted to note that we seldom see them here now. Although I know they are not extinct, we could not find them as often as before even in the rural areas such as in sitio Sulo in Barangay Samay. What would be the cause of their scarcity or disappearance? Could it be valid to say that wildlife diminishes because men tried to cross the threshold of their domain? Untouched or uncultivated areas before are now being farmed, so logically wildlife has been affected. Perhaps, this is one of the considerations; why we seldom see these species nowadays because they moved to the hinterlands or maybe now within the territory of the Philippine Eagle in Mt. Balatukan Range Natural Park near our place, which has an area of 9,645 hectares and proclaimed as forest reserved per Proclamation No. 1249. Like the pato del monte or wild ducks, these migratory birds in certain months or season of the year could not be seen here because maybe they are somewhere in the marshland of Agusan Sur, or probably in places where breeding is so conducive for them.

The presence of birds in town denote several things, it may mean that they like to live here because food is plentiful – Balingasag rice the endemic variety called Red 18 are much in the rice fields, and fruit trees too are there; people are friendly; and most of all, the atmosphere is not too polluted yet. We believe that our place has less accumulation of toxic gases in the atmosphere – there is less emission of carbon dioxide, despite more vehicles and motorcycles cross and roar the streets today than it was ten years ago. There might be less methane, nitrous oxides and halocarbons in the atmosphere because there are no factories that may contribute to the increase of accumulation of these gases, which could alter the echo system. But if the greenhouse gas theory would be altered and it could no longer effectively absorb, filter or regulate the heat coming from the ground towards the atmosphere, problems may inevitably come.

We likewise believe that so long as there would be plenty of trees, and no pollutant factories or industries in town, at least a nice ecosystem could be preserved. Let us remember that there would always be a corresponding prize for any development through industrialization. The prize could be good at the start as it would generate employment; therefore, money comes in and circulates. While clearly it is not our view or intention whatsoever to oppose or deter any honest effort for the town’s or community’s development, but at least our officials and technical planners shall be able to design some safety nets or measures to safeguard and protect the town’s ecology against deterioration or abuse because of the entry industrial development if ever there would be. If ecology is compromised, it would not mean misery only to birds, but to people and all living things as well, who are living nearby any factory, which could be an environmental hazard.

Let there be factories and industries here, but of course, the town must be vigilant that they must be environmental friendly.

If the townspeople would ever neglect their responsibility and involvement to the preservation of ecology or environment, perhaps it would not be remote that our children’s children would not be able anymore to identify what a tusing, maya, tamsi, uwak, and an ol-ola is.

We hope that day would never come as the skies would certainly be too silent without Those Birds in Town singing as they passed by.

                                                                   ooo