Diane Hine - Opportunist lyrics

An alliance seeking bird should present a quiet and respectful demeanour. The Drongo eschews gaudy ornament and resembles a clerk or court convener when perched in a high branch above, perhaps a lively a**embly of Pied Babblers nesting in lower branches or a rapt convention of anxious Meerkat scrabblers. The Drongo's upright stance and plain black tail-coat promote an impression of trustworthiness so that honest warnings loosed from her throat (gratis) are heeded by her new-found friends. In hard times she may falsely cry snake! eagle! hyena! (rarely wolf! - we're in Africa) swooping in the panic to pilfer a meal. If that doesn't work, she must be cannier and mimic their own unique alarm calls. A dazed and disarmed scorpion is fair payment for her work as a sentinel since the ingrates are unwilling to share, yet they seem aggrieved rather than flattered. Never mind, she spies smoke on the savannah and flies to where the grounded things scatter, chased by nature's swiftest bloodiest fangs. Beak agape, she joins j**elled show-stopping Rollers and Bee-eaters streaking through the fire's wavering haze, where fat frantic gra**-hoppers jump out of the flames and into the fliers.