Wings for Trudy.

Trudy lifted her leg carefully onto her bed. It was wrapped in white bandages from knee to foot, with a fringe of toes just visible at the end.

Mom," she wailed, how can I miss a whole week of school lying here like a baby?"

"Doctor's orders," her mother said firmly. "That broken bone needs to start healing, so you've got to keep it propped up."

Trudy sighed and sank into her pillows. Peering out at the snow-covered yard, she spotted where she had fallen and broken her ankle. A tiny bird flew down and landed there.

"He looks hungry." A voice came from the foot of her bed.

"Uncle Robby!" Trudy cried, surprised to see her uncle standing there. "Did you know I can't walk for a week or go to school or.... Who looks hungry?"

"He does," he said, pointing to the bird in the yard. "So I brought him something."

Trudy noticed that her uncle was holding a bunch of lumpy bundles.

"Really?" she asked. "Is all that for the bird?"

"Yep," Uncle Robby said. "For that little guy out there and for you, too. Can't have your brain shriveling up."

The first package contained two bags, one labeled "Sunflower Seeds," and the other, "Wild Bird Seed." There was also feeding tray for birds. Trudy found a suet cake made of fat mixed with all sorts of seeds, and a book full of colored pictures of birds.

"Thanks, Uncle Robby," she said politely.

He laughed. "I can tell you aren't thrilled. But I'll tell you what; I'm going to put up your feeders and fill them and then you can see who shows up for free meals. You won't have time to be grumpy and bored, Miss Bigfoot." He tickled the toes poking out of Trudy's cast.

Uncle Robby mounted the tray feeder outside Trudy's window. The suet cake, bumpy with seeds, was hanging in plain view.

Trudy's ankle hurt, and she was tired. Soon after dinner, she fell asleep.

A noisy hammering awakened her. Early morning light shone into her bedroom, and sleepily, Trudy peeped out her window. She realized that the racket came from a small gray bird out on the tray feeder. He was pounding furiously at the husk of a sunflower seed, trying to get at the kernel inside.

He's cute, Trudy thought, reaching for her bird book. Of the several gray birds pictured, only one had her visitor's little crest--the tufted titmouse.

Suddenly, a vivid red bird sailed to the ground from a nearby hemlock tree. Aha! Trudy quickly found a cardinal in the book. He was joined by a pretty female cardinal with feathers of pale reddish-brown.

"I thought I heard stirring in here," said Trudy's mother as she came into the room with a worried look. "Is your ankle hurting?"

"Mom, I need a lot more seed," she said. "I've got a tufted titmouse and cardinals. Look!"

As they watched, a new little bird that seemed to be pointed at both ends arrived. He made them laugh as he clung--upside down--to the suet. Trudy found his likeness in her book. "That's a nuthatch," she announced.

After breakfast, Trudy's mother brought in a notebook and pencil. "Let's keep a record of your birds," she said.

Every day, Trudy watched at the window, observing and writing about each newcomer: the beautiful black-and-white-striped downy woodpecker, the brave, bright-eyed chickadees, the bullying blue jays who chased the other birds away, and the tiny pine siskins who showed the pretty yellow undersides of their wings as they flew. On the ground beneath the feeder, a flock of snowbirds--juncos, dark gray on the top with white undersides--busily pecked at scattered seeds.

Uncle Robby stopped in a week later. "How's Miss Bigfoot?" he asked.

Trudy giggled. "I forgot to be bored." She showed him her diary, now bulging with notes about birds.

"Well," her uncle said, "seems your bird restaurant was a success. Heading back to school soon?"

Her smile faded. "Tomorrow," she said, looking worried. "I've been home for a week, and I haven't learned a single thing the whole time."

Chickadee-dee-dee, laughed a sprightly black-capped bird in the hemlock tree.

"Is that so?" chuckled Uncle Robby, pointing to a page of Trudy's notebook.

Trudy laughed. "Guess not," she said.

It's fun to Feed birds, but what about a flock of 345-pound, hungry ostriches and their young? Could you handle that at your hose? A chickadee, on the other hand, weighs about as much as two nickles!

The red-billed quelea (KWEE-lee-uh), an African finch, sometimes flocks, in such huge number's that they break limbs off trees!

The extinct New Zealand moa stood ten feet tall. Got enough sunflower seeds?