Star Fruit Tree

Sophia and I sat on the front porch waiting for the bus.  The school bus picks up our girls right at our house, and always pulls into the driveway for them.  In between the driveway and the front porch stands a tall star fruit tree.  Yesterday morning, as Sophia and I sat on the front porch waiting for the bus, we were watching this star fruit tree.  The star fruit tree seemed full of action, although it was difficult to tell what the action was.  Especially difficult for me, because I did not yet have my contacts in. 

We could hear leaves rustling.  We could see branches swaying.  And we could not miss the star fruits being pelted at the driveway.  Our first assumption was that monkeys sat in the branches of the trees, and feeling mischievous, were pulling fruits off the branches and throwing them down.  I'll admit - we were afraid to stand under the tree, lest we be attacked with bad fruit.  But we have not seen any monkeys in Jakarta, or even heard about wild monkeys roaming the trees. 

So we continued watching the tree, and brainstorming.  The fruits continued to fall.  This lasted a good five minutes, and had clearly been going on for quite some time before because the driveway was covered in fruits.  When rather abruptly, five macaws flew out of the tree.  They flew so suddenly and quickly that I could not catch them with my camera.  But after their departure, no more fruits fell.

We walked over to the driveway, and put together our final theory.  A crew of five macaws spent the morning eating star fruits in our tree.  Without hands, they could not hold the fruit and could only eat it until it became unhinged from the tree and fell, with some force, to the driveway.  Each fruit was covered with bites, some more than others.  Such fun on a Thursday morning!