Taube, my bird friend

A few weeks ago, I was having a Cinderella moment -- just minding my own business -- singing and twirling alone in my apartment while cleaning and tidying up. The windows were open because, you know, that's what you do in German -- air out with screen-less windows no matter the temperature or bug situation.

Next thing I know, my Cinderella moment became a little more meta. As I was heading to close the teeny tiny slit of a bathroom window, I paused as I spotted a bird. A big, black, blob of feathers perched on my windowsill. We had a quick stare down and I realized I only had one chance to shut the window and make sure he stayed on the outside.

Naturally, I achieved this, but not before imagining what would happen if he came inside (do normal people also constantly imagine the absolute worst-case scenario in any given situation?).

He flew off as I tried to bring my heart-beat to a normal pace. As much as he scared the crap out of me, I'm sure I came of as the big bad human.

I thought it was a one-off.

But no.

Every day for a week HE WAS STILL THERE.

Morning and night. Light and dark.

At this point, I still wasn't sure it was a pigeon. After giving his description to some friends though, everyone confirmed it was a pigeon. Fine, it's a pigeon.

I planned on giving him a name, but no names inspired me. Instead, I just call him (a him I decided) "Taube". Taube is the German word for pigeon. And also dove. Plus, a deaf person. It's a versatile word.

I then mentioned it in passing to my landlady, who comes around quite often. She said, "Well, let's look at it from my room." (Sidenote: remember, I only rent 2 of 4 rooms; the others are occupied by boxes of "collectibles".) We hung out heads out of the window and what did we see? A ton of feathers and poop. She was not happy. I'm concerned she will get one of the spikes and then my friend might lose a foot or something.

I'm still surprised every single time I see him. I now kind of sneak toward the window to check first. Usually, he sits with his butt facing me (as pictured) but sometimes it's his giant eye I spy when all I want to do it shower. I lightly tap for him to head on his way when I do need to open the window.

The system is working.

But I still don't understand how this bird decided to make my windowsill home. This didn't happen once in the past three years and suddenly it's his personal hideaway.

I wonder if he'll stay the winter?