An incredible story has emerged of a baby bird who nested in a woman’s hair for nearly three months.
A delightful story has emerged of a woman who had a baby bird nesting in her hair for nearly three months. The adventure of a lifetime began in 2013, when Hannah Bourne-Taylor and her boyfriend Robin moved out of their London home and started a new life in Ghana.
A photographer by trade, she was unable to work in the African country due to her visa and used the unexpected free time she had to study the local birds. Little did she know at the time that this would change her life completely.
The bird nesting in her hair
In 2018, the weather was particularly stormy; this was the year Hannah Bourne-Taylor met the baby finch that eventually moved into her hair.
“He was abandoned by his flock, his nest blown from the mango tree,” Hannah told The Guardian magazine. “I placed him in a cardboard box with tea towels, mimicking a nest, and stayed up all night, researching how to care for him.”
She even spoke to an avian expert who told her that the little bird needed 12 weeks to get strong enough to be released. Hannah set about the task, feeding the baby bird with termites and putting it to sleep in her own hands. For 84 days she was practically its mother, and during this time they developed quite a close bond.
“He would fly alongside me, or cling to me as I went from room to room in the house, while we walked the grasslands or when I drove. He’d rest in my hand,” she recalled.
In time, the little bird started trying its wings, flying shorter distances from Hannah’s head to her shoulder, or into her hair falling over her shoulders. What’s more, the finch built a little nest in her hair every day and snuggled down to sleep. Diligently, day after day, she rebuilt her nest of hair.
One day Hannah noticed that the finch had returned to the field, and after it had become quite strong, she decided it was time to reunite it with the other finches. Eventually, she and her boyfriend released the bird.
Hannah now lives in Oxfordshire, England, and still thinks fondly of the tiny bird who she took into her care. She said that the experience taught her to focus on the present and changed her attitude to the world forever. Her experiences in Ghana left such a deep impression on her that she even wrote a book about it entitled Fledgling.