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Jellybean the magpie \u2013 Courtesy of Sandie Gillard<\/p>\n Jellybean the magpie \u2013 Courtesy of Sandie Gillard<\/p>\n
When Sandie Gillard fell from a two-story window, the impact knocked the senior citizen unconscious, a state that may have become permanent if not for the intervention of a very small, very unlikely hero.<\/p>\n
Lightly tapping on her head, a bird named Jellybean roused its former caregiver enough that she could call her husband, who arrived in time to telephone emergency services and save her life.<\/p>\n
The story makes it clear why the English culture honors magpies.<\/p>\n
The fall happened in 2020 in the town of Esperance, in Western Australia\u2019s remote southeastern corner where Gillard, then 68 years old, had cared for sick, wounded, or abandoned animals all her life.<\/p>\n
3 years before her accident, a miniscule magpie was brought to her home by someone who found it on the ground unable to fly after it had fallen out of a tree.<\/p>\n
Already possessing a rich experience in nursing birds back to health, Gillard took in the nestling and named her Jellybean. For months, she grew up alongside Gillard and her family, a single flock of nest mates.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe played with my grandson,\u201d Gillard told ABC News AU<\/a>, explaining that the magpie remained in the neighborhood after learning to fly and find food for herself. \u201cShe would sit on the verandah or whatever and knock on the door until I would come out and say hello.\u201d<\/p>\n Gillard said she has no memory of the 2020 fall. Landing on a cement driveway, she cracked her skull and dislocated her right arm violently.<\/p>\n \u201cI woke up to this little sound of purring\u2026 and something tapping me on the forehead,\u201d Gillard said.<\/p>\n