Friendly birds

Friendly birds or maybe I am friendly to the birds. 'Gembala kerbau' is the name of a species of a bird in the malay language. My apologies for not knowing the name of that bird in the english language. These birds are mostly found near rice paddy fields. The buffalo is their favourite hound. 'Gembala kerbau' literally means buffalo shepherd. Their size is between that of a sparrow and a pigeon. Dark greyish feathers with a small black strip on their head.....During my college days, every morning the birds would come to feed on my room window ledge. I would keep leftovers for them. After sometime I noticed from the group of birds, one particular bird would stay behind. To my surprise it too would the first to emerge on the ledge every morning chirping as if it was greeting me. This went on for quite sometime and we soon became friends. I fed the bird any leftovers but if I have none I would give it biscuits or cornflakes or oats, my cereals. As I prepared to go to class the bird, hopping on the ledge would chirp merrily, and I talked to it. One morning my next room neighbour came to my room. She was curious and asked me who was I talking to in the mornings. I told her to look outside and I introduced her to my little bird friend. She was so amused.......After graduating I went back to stay with my parents. There I made friends with 'Togel' a name I gave to a bird. Togel means hairless, this bird had no feathers on its head. Togel would not join the other birds maybe because it is the odd one and felt different. Togel never went far from the window ledge of my kitchen. Togel was tame that it ate from my hand. I told Togel, 'you can stay on the ledge provided you do not dirty it with your shit.'.Believe me if I say that cute little bird understood. Togel slept on the ledge. For Togel's comfort I placed a small basket with  cloth remnants. .....Now I still feed the birds. Bread, rice, biscuits leftovers from the kitchen. In the morning, from the balcony scattering the leftovers onto the rooftop, I would call out to the birds, 'breakfast, breakfast, breakfast, come on breakfast breakfast.' Pigeons, sparrows, very few crows, a couple of small yellow birds and the 'gembala kerbau' nesting in the trees in the vicinity flies down to feed. I told them what I told Togel, 'I feed all of you birds, do not dirty my place.' My balcony is clean of their shit!.........I still talk to the birds.