In 1993, a hunter’s shot pierced Malena’s wing in Slavonski Brod, Croatia. She was never able to fly again. Stjepan Vokic, a retired man from the village, found her injured and built her a nest on the roof of his house, where he has fed her ever since.
What no one expected was that Klepetan, her mate, would keep coming back. Every August he migrates alone to southern Africa, and every March he travels nearly 13,000 kilometers back, with no one forcing him, with nothing to gain except finding her once again waiting on the same roof.
They have spent more than a decade repeating the same ritual, and together they have already raised dozens of chicks even though she was never able to leave that rooftop. Thousands of people follow Klepetan’s return via live camera every spring, waiting to see whether he comes back this time too.
