India’s Bird Man Feeds 4,000 Wild Parakeets Every Day

A 62-year-old man in Chennai, India, feeds up to 4,000 wild parakeets a day on the roof of his home.

Sekar, who’s known locally as the “Birdman,” began a feeding a couple of displaced parakeets after a tsunami struck the area a decade ago. The green birds were perched on his porch so he fed them some rice and they ended up nesting nearby.

But soon more and more parakeets began to show up, and then there were thousands of them.

Now, Sekar wakes up around 4 a.m. to cook large pots of rice, which he serves to the birds twice a day on boards that stretch across the roof of his home.

Sekar works as a camera technician, which earns him a daily $13 paycheck, and he spends nearly 40 percent of his income on food for his parakeets.

“When I see the birds flying joyously, my eyes well up,” he said.

By Laura Moss, MNN