PROTHONOTARY

Prothonotary Warbler

Upstate South Carolina

The Prothonotary Warber,

as described in The Gravity of Birds,

by Tracy Guzeman:

A breeze stirred the branches, and she saw the brilliant yellow head and underparts standing out like petals of a sunflower against the backdrop of leaves; the under tail, a stark white. His beak was long, pointed and black; his shoulders a mossy green, a blend of the citron yellow of his head and the flat slate of his feathers.  He had a black dot of an eye, a bead of jet set in a field of sun.  Never had there ever been anything so perfect.  When she blinked he disappeared, the only evidence of his presence a gentle sway of the branch.  It was a sort of magic, unveiled to her.  He had been hers, even if only for a few seconds