Prompt: a strange animal in your backyard

Theme: unexpected

Words: 145

(Any guesses as to what the animal is? X)

Millie was just rinsing off the last of her dishes when she heard an unfamiliar bird outside. As she considered herself something of an expert on bird-calls, she was justifiably curious.

Hurrying to the door, she poked her head out and there — oh, there was a glossy, soot-black bird with a gracefully curving beak and a wattle burning orange at its throat. Millie could only stare, amazed, as it hopped across her lawn to the felled kauri that had been downed in a storm last spring; she had been intending to ask her grandson, Jake, if he could chop it up for firewood. But now she knew for a fact that she never would.

The bird hopped up onto the log, where her shorter-beaked mate greeted her with a courteous bow, and Millie retreated smilingly to dry her dishes. This would be her secret.