When our island, Fuvahmulah, was lush with flora and peaceful, birds flew freely over the island. The pond heron was one of the most recognizable birds. We refer to it as Raabol. Locally, the bird is called Huvadhoo Raabondhi.
The Maldivian Pond Heron (Ardeola grayii), a subspecies of the Indian Pond Heron, is one of the few birds that are unique to the Maldives. The bills of male Maldivian Pond Herons are longer and deeper, while the tarsi of females are shorter.
We heard that the bird was so friendly that it could live in a home. It would fly to freshwater lakes for food and then return home. In fact, this was true when my dad brought home a very young pond heron.
Hussainbe of the Mathegerangano household and my father were close friends. They went fishing every day on Fuvahmulah’s reef flat and reef front. My father was a skilled spearfisher. Hussainbe was also an excellent angler who threw cast nets with precision.
Wetlands known as Veedhago surround Kilhi, a freshwater lake. People used to visit the lake. As they always do, they went to get some sticks to do some work around my house.
A pond heron flew over them and perched on a screw pine tree, which they noticed. Birds were giggling and chuckling. The sounds were coming from a screw pine tree, so they ran there.
Hussain climbed the tree. He saw a nest with about three chicks. He grabbed one chick and climbed down. My father and Hussainbe went into my house. My father fed the bird daily with mosquito fish (fenamaha). It eventually started eating coconut meat as well.
They kept it on a wooden board outside the house. We kept the wooden board roughly four feet above the ground.
A little roof was built for the bird directly over the wooden board. We also kept a traditional bottle lamp, known as filhibathi, on the board. Every day, around 6 p.m., we would light the bulb in the glass bottle to provide some light for the birds.
The bird slept in the made-for-it wooden house and flew to the freshwater lakes in the morning to hunt fish. After finishing its meal, the bird returned and sat on the wooden board. We used to feed the birds with fish captured from the lakes. In a big tank that our dad made, we kept mosquito fish (fenamaha) and tilapia fish (footumaha).
The bird was gracious enough to sit on the horizontal wooden log of the swinging bed (indhoali) and land on the ground. It would approach the feet of the person sitting on the swinging bed.
“The bird would enter the sitting room and stay near Zaki’s feet. My mother described how the bird interacted with the late Prime Minister Honourable Ahmed Zaki, who lived in my home while in exile in Fuvahmulah.
“It would interact with him, then leave the living area and perch on the log of the swinging bed,” she told me.
Normally, the bird would visit freshwater lakes twice a day. At night, it would seek shelter on the wooden board. For six years, the tame pond heron lived with us. My mother said the bird followed me around the house while I was playing. “It flew around Yasir for a few seconds before landing on the ground and walking behind him,” my mother described the wonderful bird she also remembered.
This is one of the oldest memories I can recall. It was either 1982 or 1983. Around this time, Honorable Zaki was sent back to Mal’e. Later, he was sent to the United States as a Maldivian representative.
Fuvahmulah’s two freshwater lakes are home to an abundance of this bird. Perched, it becomes an indistinguishable part of its environment. It is spotted near the water’s edge, and its bright white wings reveal its exquisite beauty. This bird is a true treasure of Maldivian biodiversity.
