Wallcreeper (Tichodroma muraria)

Like a mouse-bird when, grey and black, it scampers along the oozing rock, clinging on with its long claws. Like a butterfly bird when it unfolds its carmine red wings which are speckled with white. This inhabitant of Europe and Asia’s large rockfaces stays close to its nest, although winter pushes it to seek refuge in the bell towers of the valley. How delightful it is to watch it going back and forth, genuine “flashes of fire which shine out in the greyness of the abyss”.