When he came to us, he was a scared little thing, rejected by his owner, along with his gold-laced buddy, because they had turned out to be boys. He had been named "Big Bird," but he was not big. However, he was, indeed, a Bird, so he has always been just "Bird" to us.

Bird has grown into a very handsome Polish rooster. He chooses not to live with the other chickens, in their nice safe pen, at night. Instead, he roosts on our front porch. He can be relied upon to crow nearly exactly at 3:00AM each morning. When we reset the clocks for daylight savings time, Bird somehow reset his clock, also. He was right on time, as always.

The hens do not care for Bird. During the day, they all free-range. Bird has to ambush the hens in order to romance them; then he has to proceed very quickly, before the alpha rooster, BBC, can get there to interfere. Poor Bird! It was only about a month ago that a chick with his telltale dreadlocks hatched, confirming that even he can get lucky sometimes.

Bird, for all his odd qualities, is everyone's favorite. We have been asked to sell him many times, but I can never go through with it. He likes me. That is a hard quality to resist! Also, Bird loves to pose for photos, and he is my favorite subject. It is hard to catch him when he is clean, but he does love a bath, so it is possible, if I have the time. I just adore this hippy-chicken!