A small and plain brown bird — of unknown pedigree and in between the stature of a finch and a sparrow — flew up to my car window and looked at me after I backed into my home driveway. Without batting a birdy eyelash, it landed on the small sill of my outside rearview mirror and looked at itself.

The critter was interesting to watch, and my opening the door would have ruined the moment, so I sat tight and watched while the critter had its moment with the mirror. It began gently pecking at its reflection.

I had added a convex round mirror on part of the flat mirror service, as a navigation aid (it helps me see in the blind spot and helps me see lines in the parking lots). The bird apparently looked very unnatural to itself in the convex mirror, so it moved sideways to look into the flat portion of the mirror where its reflection looked normal.

The gentle pecking resumed.

A light bulb went on in my head because I had been seeing small quantities of bird poop on the side of the car below the mirror for days, but nowhere else. Now it all suddenly made sense.

I realized the bird was doing this again and again. When it flew off to find something to eat or drink, or maybe because its beak was sore from pecking a mirror, I got out and went inside. Now I was watchful, and the bird kept coming back at least a couple of times a day to do the same thing.

Surprisingly, the activity suddenly ceased, and after a couple more days went by, I was becoming worried for my new little friend. It didn’t seem to mind me, and since I wasn’t threatening, maybe it saw me as welcome companionship.

The next morning when I went out to the car, two small plain brown birds flew right by me, without stopping at the mirror. This time the light bulb in my head said the little bird found a mate and didn’t need the mirror anymore because it was no longer lonely.

Critters do communicate, and I have a feeling the bird was showing me it now had a mate and was saying farewell.

I’m thinking there will be fledgling plain brown birds flitting about later in the year. I hope they don’t fight over my rearview mirror.
 

Capt. David Bacon is a boating safety consultant and expert witness, with a background in high-tech industries and charter boat ownership and operation. He teaches classes for Santa Barbara City College and, with a lifelong interest in wildlife, writes outdoors columns for Noozhawk and other publications. The opinions expressed are his own.