The Pug with Wings

I’ve known the jabiru since fourth grade. At our State Fair, each class was assigned a different Brazilian state, and mine got Amazonas. The bird was printed huge on our project shirt, so I thought I already knew what a jabiru looked like.

I had no idea how big it was.

Seeing one in the Pantanal is another matter. It’s almost as tall as a person. And when it starts getting ready to fly, it seems to grow right in front of you. The wings open, the neck stretches, the feathers spread, and suddenly this enormous bird looks wonderfully awkward.

That’s when I thought of a Pug.

That flat black face, almost comically ugly, with an expression that somehow makes the whole thing adorable. The jabiru has something of that same quality. It’s such an unusual-looking bird that you can’t help but keep looking at it.

Whoever loves the ugly finds beauty in it.

Long live the jabiru.