Rodgers Oloo Magutha, who’s lived much of his life on the streets, has big dreams of one day opening a bird shelter.

Nairobi, Kenya – Shouts of “Birdman! Birdman!” trail 27-year-old Rodgers Oloo Magutha down a street in the centre of Kenya’s capital, Nairobi.

Vendors pause mid-sale, police glance away from traffic, and pedestrians abruptly stop to watch the man crowned with raptors on his head and shoulders. Children burst into giggles or shrink back in fear as crowds gather, phones raised like paparazzi.

Magutha has lived on Nairobi’s streets for years, one among the many children and youth asking for coins from hurried passersby. He blends in with this marginalised community in every way but one: the wild birds surrounding him.

“Many people feel unsafe when approached by us, they will even hide their phones,” Magutha says about the general public’s reaction to his street family.

“But when they see the birds, everything changes … They come over to pet them, take photos. Someone who looked angry a moment ago is suddenly smiling.”

Magutha has been rescuing and caring for birds since childhood, and for years on Nairobi’s streets. Yet he remained a largely obscure figure until last year, when thousands of young people flooded the central business district to protest against rising costs and government corruption.

Images of Magutha went viral, lifting him to local celebrity status as the “Nairobi Birdman”.

Still, few know the story behind the images – one of a life shaped by loss, adversity and an uncanny companionship with the birds he rescues, a connection that has sustained him through more than a decade living on the streets.

‘Bird enthusiast’

“I never go looking for the birds – they just come to me,” says Magutha, his beanie tilted under the weight of a kite perched on his head, another clinging to his shoulder.

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He sits on a roadside