THE WEAVER BIRD
Would you like to learn from tempuo bird?
Mamak (mother) Dahniar, 72 years of age, in Nagari Sumpur Kudus, Sijunjung District, West Sumatra, introduced this tempuo bird. “Look at the nest. It is woven neatly. The material is dry weeds.”
The weaving process can take up to a week. Every day in the week, the father and the mother tempuo will build the nest together. “Amazing, these birds are diligent. Hard-working.”
Picturesque Sumpur Kudus is tucked in the tranquil area of Bukit Barisan mountain’s belt. Trees are densely growing, river is clear, tempuo bird’s nests are everywhere. Unfortunately, I only saw the nest and not the birds.
After a week, the nest is ready, and the mother tempuo will start nesting and laying eggs. The bulging part is where the eggs are. Mother tempuo will incubate the eggs in a comfortable and warm nest until all of them hatch.
Listening to Mamak Dahniar’s story, I Google about this tempuo bird. The Latin name for this bird is Ploceus baya, and they are amazing weavers. The weaving is neat and dense. That is why some people call them the weaver bird. In Malaysia, there is even a fable about this tempuo bird that weaves the nest using golden needle. If the nest is unraveled carefully, you would find the golden needle. But if just one woven is cut, the golden needle will never be found. Haha. No wonder no one has ever found that golden needle.
By the way, Mamak Dahniar is still a relative of Buya Syafi’I, the famous Muhammadiyah figure who was also born in Sumpur Kudus. “We were born 12 years apart from each other. When we were kids, we used to play together in the Batang Sumpur River.”
