the mirror-bird is the bird most often seen and most rarely described. it is invisible except as the reflection that meets you in a mirror — usually small, often in profile, watching with the patience of a finch.
it has no plumage of its own. it adopts the colours of whatever is behind you when you face the mirror. some observers report a beak the colour of their own collar. others, none of these things, but a definite eye.
it has been seen flying behind the eye, in shop windows after closing, and on the inside of a window at dusk when the lamp is on. it migrates through dusk.
— i kept looking. the bird kept looking. eventually i let it look first. — h.