IX. The Adventure of Pirate the Incorrigible Hummingbird

This is a true story about the hilarious adventure of a misguided, but very adorable hummingbird trying to find its way in the hummingbird world, and its eventual redemption.  This is also a story about a bully, that is, a bully always exhausts all bullying ways until self-realization it is the wrong way, or arrested by bird police, and redemption a result of honor and self-respect.

 I. In the Amazon Rainforest

In the dense Amazon rainforest, a girl hummingbird Ginger fell in love with a hummingbird Oscar from the next forest where the birds are of supersize, and now expecting babies for the first time. The young mama bird laid only one egg, very unusual for hummingbirds and it hatched to one beautiful cute baby named George. Shortly after George’s hatching, Papa Oscar moved to Costa Rica.  As George grew up, Mama found George chubby and bigger than other babies and it also had a crooked beak tip. Mama Ginger worried how life in the rainforest was going to be for George. After leaving nest, George was teased and bullied by other birds. Mama Ginger sent George to school to learn self-defense. School Master Chang, in addition to teaching self-defense, also taught virtues such as “respecting others, self-respect and honor”. Immediately after leaving school, George applied self-defense techniques to fighting and one eye was injured and blinded.  Now, with a crooked beak and only one eye, George was teased even more.  Other birds started to call George Pirate and George actually liked the name.  One day, out of blue, George, now Pirate, told its mama that he wanted to migrate to California because Pirate had heard there were many immigrants in California and Pirate should fit in.  Mama told Pirate to wait for a year maturing a bit before migrating, but agreed migration might give Pirate a better life. When the time came for Pirate to leave, Mama Ginger asked Pirate to be careful and be a good bird.

II. Arriving and Settling Down in Southern California

Upon arrival, Pirate was startled to find there was such a thing as a 24-hour café with abundant food in a red-lid-bowl.  Pirate liked it because it saved time to look for flowers. It also looked like a nice place for Pirate to settle down and establish a home.  After searching, Pirate decided on one redlid bowl (the feeder), one of the two on a balcony next to a small patch of dense vegetation. This feeder had a pink bird on it. Pirate was happy and sent message through satellite to its mama that it had found a home and a pink girlfriend.  Pirate called the pink girlfriend Bella and told its mama that Bella was pretty, easy on the eyes and very quiet, never teased him, not even when Pirate was doing its favorite scratching.  In return, Pirate would look at and admire Bella whole day long, making two very cute peas in a pod.  Pirate also found a nice spot on a shrub under the feeder to perch from time to time. Pirate felt good being surrounded by red leaves matching it red plumage on the chin. Life was looking up for Pirate. The only thing puzzled Pirate was the party on the next feeder, the party seemingly going on every day – so many birds, so many chit-chats, always dancing….always happy….

 

 

 

 

III. Pirate’s Gears to Protect its Feeder in the New Neighborhood

Pirate’s plan had a flaw, that is, this feeder was a café for other birds before Pirate’s arrival.  Pirate was not used to sharing and its big size gave him advantage to get its way.  But Pirate still tried to play nice and see whether it could share food with other birds on “its” feeder. But it did not work.  Pirate could not help itself and got irritated immediately and could not even look at the enemy bird.  Pirate simply did not want other birds on its feeder, particularly eating “its” food.  All poor birds looked fearful to this unreasonable bully.

 

 

 

Pirate decided the solution was to have the right posture fitting for a “king of the feeder”.  That is, the beak pointing to the sky, chest out and belly bloated to the point of near explosion.  In addition, Pirate would extend its thick neck, flap the wings, show an angry face with death stare….all geared to scare away enemies. If Pirate was so brave to stare down at a big bad camera, Pirate could take care of little birds. Pirate was confident its clever tactics was 10 miles ahead of enemy birds, and would assure its happiness in this neighborhood.  Pirate was determined that this feeder was its, and very ready to live a happy life with Bella.

IV. Pirate Fighting Enemies from Dawn to Dusk

Despite the impressive and intimidating posture, Pirate soon found out other birds still came to its feeder and ate. In the rainforest, it was always one bird and one flower. But why would other birds come to Pirate’s feeder, particularly they had their own feeder?  Pirate figured if it did not go to the other feeder, other birds should not come to its – even Stephen.  Pirate was determined to fight intruders and very diligently carrying out the tasks. Pirate had its posture and intimidating skills down pad and sometimes could intimidate enemy birds away without Pirate even getting off the feeder.  With such diligence, Pirate had good success.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At that time, Pirate noticed that a bird with a beautiful red chin would fly around Pirate, but never landed. Pirate thought its intimidating tactics had worked. It turned out it was Dr. Halley, the neighborhood bird doctor. The bird doctor observed, from perching on the other feeder, and thought Pirate was too chubby and should fly around and exercise, and not sitting on the feeder whole day long.  Soon Dr. Halley noticed that Pirate had other issues and that she wanted to help.  But Dr. Halley could only fly around Pirate and could not get any closer.

 

 

 

Pirate also noticed that enemy birds did not seem interested in fighting.  They did not even fight back after being attacked, they just wanted to sit and eat.  This was puzzling, but still no excuse to come to Pirate’s feeder.  Pirate continued to be a bit envious of the partying and dancing going on the next feeder every day. But Pirate was too busy fighting and did not have time to worry about it.  Nor did Pirate know how to join them.  When growing up, Mama and Master Chang only taught Pirate how to protect itself, but not social skills. Pirate started to feel this neighborhood was not quite like the rainforest neighborhood.

During the non-stop fighting every day, there was one bright spot. That is, Pirate made friend with Tommy, the bee, who would visit Pirate often. Tommy worshiped Pirate because Pirate was so much bigger and Pirated liked Tommy because it was not eating off its feeder. They would look at each other and say hello. Despite setbacks and inconvenience, Pirate still wanted to make a new life in Southern California.

V. Pirate’ New Idea for Too Many Enemies

Fighting from dawn to dusk was exhausting, Pirate decided if Pirate ate with enemies in a peaceful posture, talked to them and reasoned with them, enemies would listen and go away.  But it turned out enemies ignored Pirate and all went ahead and ate, very rude to Pirate as the owner of the feeder. That made Pirate very mad, Pirate had to find another solution.

July turned into August, more birds came.  Pirate found fighting harder and harder. It was no longer one or two enemies at a time, now enemies came in droves.  Pirate had no choice but to fight one and fight all. The enemy birds seemed impressed with Pirate’s big belly, and Pirate made sure its belly was always out there for all to see.  Pirate tried pricking with its beak, it did not work either.

They still came, they still stayed, they still ATE…..

Pirate was becoming desperate, depressed and angry.  Nothing was going according to its wishes. Pirate wore emotions on its sleeve, i.e. its body would shrink into very small, the big belly disappeared, chin plumage retracted and face looking sad. Pirate knew, from the self-defense classes that, hummingbirds have the most flexible body, just like fish.

Pirate started to think Master Chang’s teaching of “respecting others, self-respect and honor”.  Pirate thought it had “honor” because it did not attack birds on the other feeder and “self-respect” because it was working hard to protect its feeder.  But what does “respecting others” mean?  No matter what, these words were not helpful for Pirate to have a good life.  Pirate sent a message to Mama that life had changed and too many birds wanted its feeder.  Mama asked Pirate to come back and they would talk about it.  Pirate told mama that it would like to try a bit more and would be in touch.

VI. Pirate Trying Very Hard to Hold on to ITS Feeder

Pirate believed this problem would require another solution. Pirate thought if it just “sat inside the feeder”, instead of attacking enemy birds,  it should count as a “respectful way” to claim the feeder. In addition, Pirate also tried to look at other birds directly in the eyes making sure the message “this feeder is mine” was clearly conveyed. Pirate diligently practiced the new “respectful” approach for a few days. But it did not work.  Initially, other birds would look at Pirate in disbelief, but kept coming and kept eating.  Again, this made Pirate furious that its peace-offering was not appreciated.

 

 

 

Pirate was furious and started the “on-your-face-interrogation”, shouting to the face of the enemy.  Pirate was clearly upset and desperate. Eventually, “sitting inside the feeder” did not work either.  The birds just kept coming and kept eating.

At that time, Pirate was not the same bird as it first arrived.  With a constantly bloated belly and an extended tail,  Pirate was ready to fight at any moment. Pirate was puzzled why other birds ignored it and its idea did not work.  Pirate was very unhappy.

After “sitting inside the feeder” failed, Pirate still had Plan B.  Pirate deserved a medal for being persistent because it had countless “Plan B’s”.  This Plan B involved “draining the feeder”. The idea was simple.  If the feeder was empty, no birds would come. To make the feeder empty, Pirate would have to drink it all. To achieve that goal, Pirate developed new skills to eat. That is, by burying its entire face, and the body to the extent possible, into the spigot, even flipping the whole body backwards (see video on Pirate flipping over in Section VIII “The Videos and Slideshows, the third video in Section VIII– E-2: The United Nations of Birds).  Pirate deserved a medal for its diligence and acrobatic skills, only if not so misguided.  Pirate tried Plan B very hard for a few days, but enemy birds kept coming. Plan B did not work either.

 

VII. Pirate, Help on the Way and Redemption

At this time, Pirate was clearly not the same bird when it first arrived nearly 2 months ago.  Some birds thought Pirate had gone mad and wanted to take him to a hospital. At this time, a strange thing happened….. Pirate started to notice the enemy birds not only never fought, never fought back, they were friendly, wanted to be Pirate’s friends, and were concerned about Pirate. At this time, the cute lady bird Dr. Halley came to stay with Pirate and would not leave Pirate when Pirate was in distress.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, there was plenty nectar, Pirate should know because it was unable to drink it all despite all the acrobatic stunts.  Only at that time, Pirate realized that the whole idea of “king of the feeder” may just be a bad idea and would never work, and “respecting others” may simply mean “sharing food” and not treating other birds as enemies. Pirate also started to question whether “self-respect” meant “protecting” its feeder, or simply meant “respecting others”, and should “self-defense” even be used for fighting?  Pirate recalled Master Chang said something about “self-defense” not the same as “fighting” when Pirate injured its eye in a fight.  Could fighting to protect feeder be wrong?  Pirate would need to ask Mama and Master Chang all these questions.  Of course, only Mama could kiss and heal Pirate’s bruised ego.

Pirate was very touched by how other birds were friendly to it despite it had spent months fighting and chasing them off its feeder and despite its very bad behaviors towards them. Pirate was particularly touched by Dr. Halley. The concerns on Dr. Halley’s face were so real as if Pirate was back in the nest and nursed by Mama. Pirate was deeply moved.

Pirate felt embarrassed and wanted to go back to Mama and Master Chang. Pirate realized there was much it did not know and wanted to learn more.  Particularly, Pirate wanted to learn how to be part of the “happy bunch” – it seemed like more fun.  Pirate decided the only honorable and self-respectful way was to leave this neighborhood now. Pirate was never seen again after that.

Epilogue

 Happy Dance at the Amazon Rainforest, Meet again Next Year…..

Mama and Pirate had a joyful reunion. For the occasion, Papa Oscar returned from Costa Rica, and together with Master Chang, all celebrated with a family style happy dance.  In the meantime, the birds on the California balcony had an emergency meeting with Bella when finding out Pirate was missing.  Bella assured them Pirate was OK in the rainforest and would meet everyone again soon. At the rainforest, Pirate decided to go back to Master Chang to learn  other skills so that Pirate can enjoy and have fun playing, eating and dancing together with other birds when returning to the California community, and to its beloved Bella.

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