This is the story of Hannah Bourne-Taylor, who cared for a lost bird in her hair for 84 days.
In 2013, Hannah Bourne-Taylor and her boyfriend Robin moved from London, England, to Ghana, a country in West Africa, to start a new life filled with experiences and close encounters with wildlife.
However, some visa issues prevented her from finding a job there. So, the young photographer decided to explore nature and learn about the habits of local bird species during her free time.
Portrait of the kind-hearted Hannah Bourne-Taylor.
It was during this time that her special connection with a lost baby bird began during a major storm in 2018.
She shared with The Guardian about her unusual story: “This bird was abandoned by its flock, and its nest was blown away by the wind. It was still too young to survive in the cold of the stormy day. When I found it, it was shivering with its eyes tightly shut.”
“So, I placed it in a box lined with a towel and stayed up all night researching how to care for this type of bird. I also consulted an expert, who said it would take 12 weeks of care before the bird could return to the wild.”
From that moment on, the responsibility of caring for this little guy fell to Hannah. She fed it termites and watched it sleep soundly in the palm of her hand.
She mentioned: “This little boy thought I was his mother, so he stayed by my side for the next 84 days. He would fly beside me or cling to me as we moved from room to room, and even when I drove, he would often sleep in my hands. When he learned to fly, he would hop from my hand to my shoulder or head, then nestle into my hair to rest. Every day, he would make little nests in my hair or on my collarbone, which was truly amazing.”
“This little one would use his beak to gather strands of hair, weave them into a nest, and stay there. If I removed it in the evening, he would make a new nest the next morning.”
The bird considers Hannah’s hair as its “home.”
Eventually, when the flock returned to the area to begin a new breeding season, Hannah decided that the bird was healthy enough to spread its wings and fly away. As she prepared to return to England for the Christmas holiday, Hannah told Robin to let the bird go.
Even now, after moving to Oxfordshire, Hannah says: “I still look up whenever a flock of sparrows flies by. Occasionally, one bird will return and stare at me, reminding me of the little bird that nested in my hair that year, and it brings tears to my eyes. Raising him taught me how to live in the present and changed me forever.”
Since that event, Hannah has written a book about her time in Ghana titled “Fledgling.” The book will soon be released to the public.
