Chapter 1

Everyone knew that Hector was a different sort of bird from the moment he first hatched from his egg. It’s not that Hector looked any different than the other chicks, but instead of hatching out the top of the egg, or through the side as most chicks do, Hector pecked his way through the bottom. It was a miracle that his mother saw him and managed to roll his egg over before he pecked his way through the bottom of the nest possibly falling to the ground from high in the oak tree where their nest was located. Now that would have been a tragedy.

Not only did Hector hatch differently, but he did lots of other things differently as well. For example: while the other chicks sang, “Cheep, cheep, cheep,” when they were hungry, Hector sang, “Beep, beep, beep.” Hector also preferred to look at his food, studying it for a while, before he ate it. This caused a number of problems as the usual food for baby robins is worms and sometimes Hector would watch the worms crawl away without eating them. Other times, his brothers and sisters would eat his food before he got around to it. It only took a few days before Hector figured out that it would be best if he simply ate his food without studying it first.

When Hector’s brothers and sisters began learning to fly, Hector preferred to walk. Hector figured he could study things closer if he were on the ground where most things were. His mother and father often scolded him about how important is was to learn how to fly, but it wasn’t until a big old tom cat almost caught him that Hector decided he could do most of his studying from the air. You should have seen Hector hopping across the ground to get away from that cat. It was a sight the other birds will never forget, neither will Hector. Once he started flying he loved it so much his parents had to chase him down to get him back in the nest before dark.

Hector didn’t mean to be a problem for his parents, and he most certainly didn’t want to worry them, but Hector couldn’t help but cause them concern as he insisted on studying and learning about everything he saw. “Are you sure Hector is our son?” his father was once heard to ask. “Maybe Hector is a cowbird.”

“No Dear,” his mother replied. “His egg wasn’t speckled at all. It was blue just like all his brothers’ and sisters’ eggs were.”

“Daddy, what’s a cowbird?” Hector asked wanting to know about everything there ever was to know.

“Never mind,” His mother replied lovingly. “You’re not a cowbird, Son.” It sometimes takes a mother to love a child as different as Hector.

Hector didn’t mean to be different. As a matter of fact, Hector didn’t want to be different, he just wanted to know all about everything he thought there was to know. He was always asking his parents questions like, why is the sky blue, or why do cats eat birds? “Because,” his father would reply, “just because.”

“But why because?” Hector would always ask.

“Because they can, I guess,” his father would often reply. Hector didn’t mean to annoy anyone, but it always seemed like he did. “Why do you ask so many questions, Hector? Your brothers and sisters don’t ask questions all the time like you do.”

“Because I want to know,” Hector replied. “Why don’t my brothers and sisters want to know too?”

“I don’t know,” was his father’s obviously annoyed reply. “I just don’t know.”

“Do you know anything?” Hector asked not realizing that his question might not be taken well by his father.

“Go ask your mother,” was his father’s angry reply. Hector knew that when his father told him to go ask his mother that his father was beginning to get very upset with him. Hector decided it would be best if he didn’t ask his father any more questions for a day or so. Maybe he’ll know tomorrow, Hector thought to himself.

Hector, his brothers and sisters, and a whole community of birds just like him spent the spring and summer growing, eating, playing, and getting used to using their young wings for longer and longer periods of time as they built up the muscles they would need when their flock left to fly south for the winter. As the autumn leaves began to fall, Hector and his siblings were almost fully grown, and ready for the migration to the south that was about to take place.

Just as soon as Hector and his siblings learned to fly, their parents began to teach them to hunt their own food. One morning as Hector was hunting for his breakfast, he spied a really fat worm crawling on the ground. Wow, thought Hector, that’s the biggest worm I’ve ever seen. Why that worm is a meal all by itself. If I catch that worm I won’t have to hunt anymore until tomorrow. Hector flew to within a few feet of the unsuspecting worm and landed quietly behind is as so not to alarm the worm. Worms always tunnel back underground when they see a bird so Hector was very careful to stay quietly hidden from view.

Hector walked ever so slowly towards the worm, wanting to get as close as he could before he darted headlong to grab his breakfast from the ground. What Hector didn’t realize was that someone was watching him too. Just as Hector darted to grab the worm, a Crow flew out of nowhere and snatched the worm from Hector’s beak! “Hey!” Hector shouted, “give me back my worm!”

“Your worm,” the Crow squawked, “It’s in my beak you silly Robin!” And with that the much bigger Crow flew away taking the plump worm with him.

“Give me back my worm!” Hector shouted as he chased after the Crow. “Give it back to me now!” There was no doubt Hector was really mad.

“Hector stop!” his mother shouted. “That’s a Crow, he’s much too big for you to fight with! You could get hurt!”

But Hector refused to stop. Instead, he flew as fast as he could in an effort to catch the bigger and faster Crow who had stolen his breakfast. It really looked as if the Crow were going to get away, but apparently the Crow became over-confident and didn’t realize Hector was still chasing him because the Crow slowed down. In a last ditch effort to prevent the Crow from eating his ill-found gain, Hector flew right up behind the young Crow, grabbed a tail feather, and gave a hard yank pulling out the Crow’s tail feather and causing the Crow to drop the big worm as he shouted, “Ouch, that’s my tail!”

Hector quickly swooped down, caught the worm in mid-air, and flew towards the safety of a pink azalea bush still in full bloom. The many limbs on the azalea bush were so tightly spaced that the bigger Crow could not fly into the bush, but Hector was able to just squeeze in where the Crow couldn’t reach him. “I’ll get you for that!” the angry Crow shouted as Hector quietly filled his belly with the juicy worm. “You just wait, I’ll get you back!”

While it was true that the Crow was really mad at Hector, he didn’t stay around very long as it was getting late for breakfast and everyone knows the early bird gets the worm. As the Crow flew away, Hector’s older brother, Octavo, flew into the bush where Hector was hiding. “It’s okay now,” Octavo said. “You can come out now, the Crow is gone.”

“I’m not scared of Crows,” Hector said. “Crows aren’t so smart.”

“No,” Octavo agreed, “but they are really big.”

“He didn’t look all that big to me,” Hector said. “And I’m still not scared of Crows.”

“Hector dear, are you okay?” It was his mother flying into the azalea bush to check on him.

“I’m fine, Mother,” Hector replied.

“You scared me to death,” his mother said. “Why didn’t you stop when I called to you? That big Crow might have killed you.”

“I’m not scared of any ol’ Crow,” Hector assured her. “Besides, he wasn’t that big.”

“I’m just glad that you’re okay, Dear,” she replied. “You sure are brave to fight with a Crow.”

Hector’s triumph over the young Crow spread far and wide. Soon, all the Robins, Finches, Sparrows, and Cardinals in the neighborhood were talking about the young Robin who took on a Crow and beat it. While most of the older birds considered him foolish to fight with a much bigger Crow, the younger birds were beginning to call Hector a hero. That is, all except for the young Crows who weren’t at all happy about the outcome of Hector’s first fight.