Friend or Foe?: The Blue-Eyed Ground Dove

 Hello, Reader! 

It's been a long time since I've written you, and I must say I did miss you a bit. But life moves on and away, and friends you've had before often fade like so much morning fog fading into the air of a warmer day. I've found my warmer days, reader. Have you?

Regardless, I've come back to my quill and parchment to impart upon you majesty of what I have found whilst unclouded these past years; the existence of the Blue-Eyed Ground Dove.

The Beautiful Blue-Eyed Ground Dove

The blue-eyed ground dove is a subspecies of dove, distinct from its brethren in not only plumage, but habitat and widescale availability. Found only in the Cerrado savanna in Brazil, the blue-eyed ground dove welcomes few outsiders into his domain. Upon seeing my gleeful alacrity for birds and savannas alike, the blue-eyed ground dove set aside his inhibitions and allowed me to share his diverse (and quite encompassing) ecoregion. 

I saw in him many things, dear reader. Generosity. Honor. Wealth and wit befitting a king and his jester. Perhaps, even, a friend. 

But I saw more complexity to him as well, sometimes even darker precepts lining his benevolent-appearing traits. Grudges in which his generous ordinance reaps vengeance upon his subjects as gifts from an old acquaintance. The adherence to his oaths to the point that pain and regret become unavoidable. Money and mockery befitting a tyrant and his gestapo.

His cruelty was never aimed at me, of course, though I fear to admit that I was often temerarious in my approach to the ledge upon which his temper so often nested. 

Not much is known about the blue-eyed ground dove, naturally. He stays far away from those who would dare to document him. Fools they are. As if he does not change with the winds he alights. 

His feeding habits are of little consequence (he eats, and that is enough to know), however I did get to see him feed multiple times when he deigned to dine with me and I believe it to be interesting enough to recount. At least, I cannot remove it from my mind and I hope that in writing this, parts of it will leave me. 

His beak, as you may have seen in the image above, is a textbook straight beak. This is often an indicator of a bird that relies on hunting insects to fuel his meals. The blue-eyed ground dove, however uses it in an effort closer to the act of a small knife finding a gap in a suit of armor.

Indeed, his favorite meal was tortoise. I may only thank the good Lord that his hunts were swift in nature. 

What lies underneath all of this, though, is the emotion and conscience of a bird who cares. Gentle and loving, to those he has allowed himself to love. Not a hypocrite, but an avian whose words and mind have grown and changed just hardly faster than his actions have. 

So the answer, dear reader, to the question? Friend or Foe? It is not so simple as once thought. And in the end, the answer may not matter. For to you, he may be off-putting, stern. Even and adversary. But to me, he has been, and will always be exactly what I needed him to be:

A friend. 

Goodbye, dear reader.