King Bird
Gallus domesticus, feral rooster

The last survivor of an urban flock, shipped poultry class when no one could tell that he wasn’t a mother-to-be. Would be city limits farmers moved away, abandoning their birds to a world full of hawks in the sky and foxes that yowl in the woods. One by one the hens were taken, but long spurs and caution have left him alone, the wary king of the woods. Like jungle ancestors in the Indian under-canopy, he scratches out a living, and his crowing is a triumph of survival. The other birds pay him deference, for he is the largest, he is the escapee, he is the survivor.

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