When I arrived at the office this morning, I heard a bird singing, and looked out on my balcony to see a small brown bird with a coppery head and throat, singing and looking in at me. After a while, his girlfriend or wife arrived, I don't know what to call her. Mate. His mate arrived, and I saw that she was building a nest under my awning, in a pocket created where the canvas wraps around the horizontal support pole. The female bird would fly away, but the male would come back and sit just on the railing, staring at me and singing. I think he's asking me out. I think he's trying to tell me he's in an "open marriage," and you know, do I want to hook up? He is extremely dedicated. It's nearly 3:00, and he's been there since I arrived at 7:30. (OK, 7:36.)

A little online research provided the information that he is a house finch. I decided to name him "Singy," because he sings. (I have a rare talent for naming animals, demonstrated in my previous naming of Mittens, a white-footed grey cat, at age 5.)

I have never dated a house finch, but I was once hit on by some sort of parrot. It may have been a conure, actually, now that I think about it. It was a couple of years ago, when I went with my friend Christa to visit her father. The bird cage was immediately inside the front door, and when the bird saw me, he began whistling and staring. Everyone was amused by it, and Christa's dad let him out of the cage, whereupon the bird began showing off his tail feathers and spinning slowly around, wolf-whistling the whole time. He climbed up and down my arms, and sat on my shoulder, biting my hair and emitting ear-piercing twittings of love. "I've never seen him do that," said Christa's dad, eyeing me nervously, as if I was wearing some sort of bird-attracting perfume. It was unsettling, but funny. And, you know, disturbing, highly disturbing. And in the end, it didn't work out.

P.S.

Here is a picture of Singy, like, his Glamour Shots portrait suitable for all the ladies...

And here is what happens to bad Singies who cheat on their mates...

Star of the day. . .Slinger Francisco