The unknown

Today I was walking to class, and I thought I saw a bird on the ground. I walked slowly up to it and began to doubt. Perhaps it was really a leaf. But no, it was indeed a bird, a Brown Thrasher.

He wasn’t afraid of me, and I came quite close. He pecked at a worm for a while and then waddled closer to me. His feathers were ruffled and patched. His beak opened and shut, as if he were singing, but no sound came out. He never stopped doing this, and he never flew away.

I wonder what he was doing. I wonder why.