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African Tales #14

on Aug 16, 2016

Tink-Tinkji

To this day there is no king of the birds, none who is really the outright ruler of the avian realms. Lion is the king of the animals but there is no king of the birds.

This is a tale of how the birds tried to find their king and how it ended.

All the birds had assembled together one day and had decided that because the animals had a king, they should have one as well! They proceeded to nominate birds at will.

01Sheldon Hooper Bird Meeting

The Hornbill! No! His beak is too big!

02Sheldon Hooper Hornbill On The Ground

The Roller! No! His feet are ugly and so is his voice!

03Sheldon Hooper Purple Roller

The Owl! No! He is ashamed of the light!

04Sheldon Hooper African Scops Owl

The Oriol! No! He looks like a bandit!

05Sheldon Hooper Black Headed Oriol

After all of this, they decided that the bird who could fly the highest would be called king and so they all took off. Vulture flew for three days straight without stopping and when he saw the last of his competitors fall away.

When he saw this, Vulture stopped and exclaimed in joy that he was the new king! But to his surprise, he heard a Tink-Tink above him and saw Tink-Tinkji there tinking away and claiming the kingship.

Vulture proceeded to fly for another day and finally stopped again and once again exclaimed that he was king! But to his great annoyance, there again was Tink-Tinkji tinking above him!

Vulture had not felt little Tink-Tinkji clinging to his great wing feathers as he flew because Tink-Tinkji was so small and now he realised how he had been fooled, he dived straight back down to earth and informed all the others. They waited for Tink-Tinkji to come down and chased him, straight into a mouse hole.

12Sheldon Hooper Hooded Vulture

They all debated as to how they should get him out and decided to rather wait for him to come out on his own. They asked Owl to stand guard because he has the biggest eyes and would not miss the little Tink-Tinkji when he came out.

13Sheldon Hooper Veroux Eagle Owl

Before long the warm sun had lulled poor Owl to sleep and Tink-Tinkji saw this. He flew off as fast as he could and when the others returned they found Owl asleep and Tink-Tinkji tinking away in a tree close by. All the birds then had a massive fight and some flew far away, the rest decided not to ever nominate a king and they all rule themselves now. In the fight, Hornbill managed to lose his tail! How embarrassing.

14Sheldon Hooper Tailles Hornbill
  • Blog by Sheldon Hooper (Bush Lodge Ranger)
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