The Boy and the Secretarybird

Kito, a nine-year-old boy living at the edge of the savanna, carries his sketchbook everywhere and spends his mornings drawing the birds around him. One tall bird with long pinkish-grey legs and a crest of black feathers catches his attention. With his best friend Nia and his grandmother Amara, he learns that it is a secretarybird, and Nia spots the small blue band on its leg that gives the bird its name, Seka.

Inspired by Seka, Kito starts the Savanna Bird Project, determined to study and draw every unusual bird on the grassland. As he and Nia follow Seka, they observe her sharp amber eyes finding a grasshopper and her long legs stomping it into the ground. They also watch a kestrel hovering and dropping like a stone, and a flock of guinea fowl where one bird stands guard while the others eat. Each drawing gains notes and arrows, and Grandmother Amara explains how these different adaptations help each bird live and grow. The tale by Ebru Mina TOMURCUK can be read on Onlinemasal Com.Tr.