The Plucking of the Birds

            Imagine if you would a little area where all kinds of birds live.  There are toucans, flamingos, peacocks, golden pheasants, and all kinds of colorful macaws.  They all live in harmony except for one season when villagers who live nearby challenge each other to see which villager can pluck the most feathers from the birds.  It is fun for the villagers and painful for the birds.

            One day, the season came for plucking feathers.  The youngest of the village approached the birds and began chasing birds to grab their feathers.  One group of birds saw the villagers coming and hid.  One bird decided not to hide.  The peacock decided not to hide.  The peacock, instead of hiding, decided to raise its head high, spread out its beautiful feathers, and strut around like he was hot stuff.  Surely the bird would be seen as too beautiful to pluck and the villagers would leave him alone.

            Unfortunately for the peacock, that was not the case.  The villagers found the peacock strutting around and grabbed every single one of the bird’s feathers.  The rest of the birds stayed hidden.  The proud peacock had been stripped of all his feathers.

The proud peacock had been stripped of all his feathers.

            Soon, the villagers all went away because they could find no more birds.  Some of the birds were still hiding.  Once the coast was clear, the toucans, flamingos, other peacocks, golden pheasants, and all kinds of colorful macaws came out of hiding and saw what had happened to the proud peacock.

 It was not long until the laughter began. 

“You look like a chicken,” a toucan said.

“You look ready to be put in an oven,” a flamingo said.

“You look ridiculous,” another peacock said.

“So much for strutting your stuff, now you have no stuff,” said a pheasant.

All of the macaws just pointed and laughed.  The laughter of all the birds filled the air and the whole place.

            Once the coast was clear, the toucans, flamingos, other peacocks, golden pheasants, and all kinds of colorful macaws had come out of hiding and saw what had happened to the proud peacock.  They were poking fun.  They were having quite a laugh fest at the demise of the peacock.

            Little did the birds know that the villagers had not gone that far away.  They heard quite a commotion and decided to investigate.  They saw the peacock they had stripped of feathers surrounded by a whole throng of birds full of feathers!  They got low and crept forward.  The birds were all focusing on making fun of the peacock.  They were all making such a commotion that not one bird knew the villagers were coming close.

            All at once, the villagers leapt from the bushes and began to pick all the feathers off all of the birds.  No bird could fly away.  No bird could get out of the way.  All of the birds making fun of the peacock got their feathers pulled and there was nothing they could do to stop it.  All the birds were left featherless.  Not one feather remained in the whole forest.

TMB