Ndege Aliyedhaniwa Kupotea Mara Mbili

Ndani kabisa mashariki mwa kisiwa, Polly alifuata mstari wa miti hadi kwenye msitu tofauti kabisa na chochote cha pwani, miti mikongwe ya laurel iliyosongamana na kufunikwa na kuvu, matawi yake yakiwa mazito hivi kwamba mwanga mdogo tu wa jua ulifika ardhini. Msitu huu wenye baridi na unyevu kuzunguka Pico da Vara ndio ngome ya mwisho ya ndege mdogo wa kijivu na waridi asiyepatikana mahali pengine popote duniani, priolo, na Polly alikuwa amekuja kuona kama angeweza kumpata mmoja.

Deep in the east of the island, Polly followed the tree line up into a forest unlike anything on the coast, tangled old laurel trees draped in moss, their canopy so thick that little sunlight reached the ground. This cool, damp forest around Pico da Vara is the last stronghold of a small grey and pink bird found nowhere else on the planet, the priolo, and Polly had come to see if she could find one.

Ndege huyu alikaribia kutoweka mara mbili. Kuonekana kwake kulikoma kabisa mwaka wa elfu moja mia tisa thelathini na mbili, na kwa zaidi ya miaka thelathini watu wengi walidhani ameisha kabisa, hadi kundi dogo lilipogunduliwa upya mwaka wa elfu moja mia tisa sitini na saba, likijificha katika msitu wa aina hii hasa. Hata baada ya hapo, kilimo na miti ya kigeni inayokua haraka viliendelea kupunguza makazi yake hadi kubaki jozi chini ya mia moja zinazozaliana, hali iliyomfanya kuwa, kwa hesabu nyingi, ndege wa pili adimu zaidi mwenye wimbo katika Ulaya nzima.

The bird very nearly disappeared twice. Sightings stopped completely in nineteen thirty-two, and for more than thirty years most people assumed it was gone for good, until a small population was rediscovered in nineteen sixty-seven, hiding in exactly this kind of forest. Even after that, farming and fast-growing foreign trees kept shrinking its home until fewer than one hundred breeding pairs remained, making it, by most counts, the second rarest songbird anywhere in Europe.

Kilichomwokoa priolo ni kazi ya subira isiyo na mvuto. Wajitolea na wanasayansi walitumia miongo kadhaa kung'oa miti ya kigeni na kupanda upya laurel ya asili inayokua polepole ambayo ndege huyu anaitegemea kwa chakula na hifadhi. Polly aliwatazama wawili kati yao wakiruka kutoka tawi la chini, mweko laini wa kifua cha waridi dhidi ya kijani kizito, wakiitana kwa sauti fupi na za chini kabla ya kutoweka tena ndani ya matawi.

What saved the priolo was patient, unglamorous work. Volunteers and scientists spent decades pulling out foreign trees and replanting the slow native laurel the bird actually depends on for food and shelter. Polly watched two of them lift off from a low branch, a soft flash of pink breast against the dark green, calling back and forth in short, low notes before disappearing back into the canopy.

Alisubiri kwa muda mrefu katika ukimya, akitumaini kumwona mmoja tena, lakini msitu ulijifunga juu ya ndege hao kana kwamba hawakuwahi kuwepo. Ilihisi kama biashara ya haki, Polly alifikiri: ukimya kidogo, badala ya spishi ambayo bado inashikilia uhai.

She waited a long while in the quiet, hoping for one more look, but the forest closed back over the birds as completely as if they had never been there. It felt like a fair trade, Polly thought: a small silence, in exchange for a species still holding on.