Bird Language

My office is on the first floor. Just outside stands a guava tree. It is old and proportionately big. Sparing a moment to watch the squirrels and birds on that tree is a powerful stress buster. It is great fun too. Usually the birds are small and pretty. That day there were visiting birds. Three large birds of prey descended on the tree. In my opinion they were eagles. But I came across a newspaper photograph that showed a similar bird and called it a screaming kite. These kites looked fierce. They had pointed beaks and red eyes. Though they just perched on the branches of the tree doing nothing in particular, one small black bird got upset. It was probably his home and he did not like the intrusion. So he sat on a branch four feet above one of the kites and kept chattering in what sounded like an angry tone. The kite ignored it and continued to sit there elegantly. That seemed to infuriate the small bird and he chattered even more angrily. Finally the kite turned his head and looked at the small bird with his red eye. The chatter stopped instantly. The kite straightened his head and went back to sitting there elegantly. There was total silence for five minutes, until they saw me training my camera in their direction. Then they all flew away.