The Beautiful Bird
by Marianne Jewett
Illustrations by Julianna Rose
DobieBoy lives in San Francisco with his Mommy and Daddy.
DobieBoy likes to have fun with his friends. Today, DobieBoy is going to fly his new dragon kite with his friends Flora, Ellie May, Pauly, and the twins Jason and Maribelle.
“Weee, this is fun” exclaimed Dobie Boy as his red and black dragon kite flew high in the air. Dobie Boy was excited that it was finally windy enough to fly his kite in the park.
Flora was happy too as her purple butterfly kite zoomed into the air. Maribelle and Jason were still trying to get their kite to fly. Pauly went over to help them when suddenly they heard DobieBoy yell “Oh no!”
Everyone turned around as Dobie Boy’s kite took a nose dive into the woods on the outside of the park. Everybody dropped their kites and went running with Dobie Boy into the woods.
“I found it!” yelled Flora. Dobie Boy stopped and turned towards Flora. As he turned, he thought he heard something.
It sounded like the tweet of a bird!
He heard it again. Dobie Boy stopped and looked down towards the sound. As he parted the bushes, Dobie Boy heard yet another tweet, this time much closer.
He looked down and saw the cutest little bird. It looked like a baby bird.
DobieBoy looked up at the large tree near the bushes. There he saw a nest.
“This baby bird must have fallen out of that nest,” DobieBoy thought. DobieBoy called out for his friends, “Hey, come quick!”
Everyone ran towards DobieBoy’s voice. “Look what I found!” said DobieBoy.
Flora gasped, “That is the cutest baby bird I have ever seen! What should we do with it?”
“We can’t leave the bird here because he might get eaten by a cat”, said Jason.
DobieBoy said “I am going to take him home.”
“But will your Mommy let you keep it?” asked Ellie May.
“I don’t know for sure, but we can’t leave it here” said DobieBoy. He picked up the bird and gently put it in his pocket.
“Let’s go to my house to build it a home,” said DobieBoy.
Everyone ran to DobieBoy’s house and into his bedroom. DobieBoy opened his closet and found an old shoe box.
“This will do” he said. “Let’s go outside and get some grass and sticks and build a little nest!”
After the nest was built, DobieBoy put in a small dish of water and placed the baby bird in the nest.
The baby bird just said “tweet” and stared at everyone. “What about food?” said Flora.
“I know, I have some birdseed at home that I feed my parakeet. I will go and get some now,” exclaimed Ellie May.
As Ellie May ran home, Pauly asked “What shall we call the bird?”
“Yes,” said Flora, “it needs a name”.
“Why don’t we call it ‘Oatmeal’,” said Jason.
“Ahhhhh, no” said DobieBoy. “I think I am going to call this bird ChaCha“.
“Where did you come up with that name DobieBoy?” asked Pauly.
“I don’t know,” said DobieBoy “it just came to me. Just like ChaCha did today. It’s the best name for a beautiful bird.”
There was a knock on the door, and Ellie May came in with the birdseed. After filling another small dish with birdseed and placing it in the nest, everyone stared at ChaCha to see if he would eat. ChaCha just sat there, and did nothing.
DobieBoy was worried. He knew that the bird had to eat in order to grow up big and strong. His Mommy told him that all of the time.
But ChaCha did not eat. DobieBoy was puzzled. What should he do now?
Just then, DobieBoy’s Mommy came into the room.
“What’s is going on everyone?” she said as she walked over to the shoe box and saw ChaCha.
“Mommy, we rescued this bird from the woods today. We made a nest and everything, but the bird won’t eat the birdseed,” said DobieBoy sadly.
“Well, that is because this bird is a Robin Redbreast” said DobieBoy’s Mommy.
“A Robin what?” said DobieBoy.
“A Robin Redbreast is a type of bird. Robin’s don’t eat birdseed, they eat worms!” said DobieBoy’s Mommy.
“Where are we going to get worms?” gasped Flora.
“We can get them at the pet shop, near the fishing supplies” replied DobieBoy’s Mommy.
“Can we go now?” asked DobieBoy.
“Yes, let’s all go down to the pet store before it closes” said DobieBoy’s Mommy. Everyone piled into the car.
At the pet store, DobieBoy spotted a large box full of worms! There was a big sign that read, ‘Nightcrawlers’.
“Look, everyone!” exclaimed DobieBoy. DobieBoy’s Mommy bought a carton of nightcrawlers, and DobieBoy held the carton in the car.
DobieBoy’s Mommy said, “Whatever you do DobieBoy, please don’t drop that carton!” Everyone laughed.
When they got home, DobieBoy carefully held up a worm in front of ChaCha’s beak. ChaCha ate the worm! After that, he ate another one, and another one!
“Hip hip hooray!” yelled DobieBoy.
Every day, ChaCha ate his worms and drank water. He got bigger and bigger until one day he started to fly around DobieBoy’s bedroom.
That is when DobieBoy’s Mommy said that it was time for ChaCha to go outside and live with the other birds.
DobieBoy did not like this idea.
“Mommy, I love ChaCha. I do not want him to go away”.
“ChaCha will still be with us DobieBoy. He loves you too, but he is wild and will only be truly happy is he is free” said DobieBoy’s Mommy. “Come see” she said.
“OK Mommy” DobieBoy said sadly as he went inside to get ChaCha.
DobieBoy and his Mommy went out to the backyard with ChaCha in the shoebox nest. DobieBoy lifted the nest and ChaCha flew out and up and landed on a branch.
Then, something wonderful happened. “Look Mommy!” said DobieBoy as he pointed up. As DobieBoy pointed towards ChaCha, the bird flew back down and landed right on DobieBoy’s finger!
Every day that Summer, ChaCha stayed in DobieBoy’s backyard. In the Fall, ChaCha left to fly south. DobieBoy’s Mommy told him that ChaCha would come back the following Summer.
And for many Summers, ChaCha returned. When ChaCha came back, he built his very own nest.
One Summer DobieBoy found blue eggs in the nest, and later saw baby birds that looked just like ChaCha did when DobieBoy first found him.
ChaCha was free and happy, and DobieBoy was happy to have known such a beautiful bird.