Mejiro Bird

I recently took care of a Mejiro bird (Japanese White-eye) that had hit a building and stunned itself. I found the tiny bundle of feather fluff lying on the cold winter concrete in the middle of a campus path, and at first my husband and I thought it was dead until I saw its feet twitching. I gently righted the bird, but soon realized that one of its wings wasn't working properly. As there are a lot of stray cats on campus, a friend gave us a cardboard box so that the bird could warm up safely. A little later that afternoon, the bird started fluttering and finally flew away. Maybe it just needed to work out strained wing muscles. Our friend named it "Midori," the Japanese word for green. When I looked up the history of the Mejiro bird in Japan, I found out that it was often featured in Japanese artwork, and was also kept as a caged bird. I'm glad Midori is free, and hopefully flying high!