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Bird keeps vigil for dead partner

(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-23 09:01

A yellow-billed grosbeak slammed into a shop window and died in Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province.

A second bird settled on the ground near the dead animal, appearing to keep vigil.

A woman passing by surnamed Liu tried to explain to the lingering live bird - which of course could not understand her flurry of excited hand signals - that she would give the dead grosbeak a proper burial.

"Such birds usually fly in pairs," an experienced bird watcher later explained. "Once one died, the other would stay beside it for at least one a day without eating or drinking."

(Shanxi Evening News)