Burung Merbuk – Delightful Guests in My Garden

One of our fave plant in the garden is the grapevine. At one year old, the vines are climbing up our patio and across the balcony. The plant  bears no fruit yet, but hopefully someday it will.

Early last month, while Azman was trimming the vines in our garden, he spotted a cute little grey bird sitting quietly among the branches. When he looked closely, in fact the bird has built a small nest that barely enough to shelter its whole body.

The bird is almost glued to its nest. She hardly budges even when come close, so we understand that she is a Mommy bird, sitting on her eggs, keeping them warm until they hatch. Azman recognizes her as a Merbuk, a small singing bird that can be trained as a loyal pet and even “sings” in competitions.

I love her immediately!

It warms my heart just watching her and her eggs in her nest of twigs. I feel happy and blessed in a way that I can’t explain, in fact I want to thank the pretty birdie for choosing my garden as her home. It is such an honour!

A week later Azman went up to the balcony, peered down with his camera and get this pic. Isn’t that a baby bird, so freshly hatched from the egg that it hasn’t grown much feather yet?  I think there are two tiny little babies. This is so delightful!

Sometimes when it rains heavily outside I think about Mommy bird and her babies and prays for their safety. Every morning before work and school, Azman, Miki and I would go and visit them just to see if they were still there, our precious tiny guests of the garden.

Miki is quite fascinated with the birds too but he is too short too see them even when he stands on a stool.

Yesterday, from inside my house I saw fluttering movements on the grapevine at the patio. As we watched closer, we saw the babies are so big already! Look at how cute they are! Those black eyes and tiny beaks, those perfect wings…

I guess they will are learning how to fly already…

I guess soon they will leave.

I am so sad! Please birdies don’t leave!

Actually this is not the first time birds make nests in our garden. We have a grove of red palm tree at a corner in the garden and it has been providing a cosy and safe habitat for birds for as long as I can remember. There are times when I can spot up to 3 or 4 bird nests high up among the leaves. Once, a perfect nest shaped like a vessel was found just 3 feet off the ground, but there was no eggs or birds in it, the wind must have blown it down.

My tiny Mommy Merbuk and babies however, is the first to make a nest on our grapevine, approximately 9-10 feet from the ground, low enough for us to take a peek at what’s going on. And having me falling in love with them in the process.

My Chinese friends say my house has “ong”! I just thought that we are lucky to have a house and garden that is cosy and safe enough for the birds to call their home. I hope Mommy Merbuk and her babies will come back to my grapevine again… I miss them already.