TheBanyanTree: A Bird In The Hand

[Dave]

> What a great story!! Thanks for sharing.  You were lucky to get the bird
> back. Here in Florida, there is a big flock (and growing) of wild parrots 
> who
> gathered together after "fleeing the coop" of their owners.
>

That was a pretty good story. We have what has become a flock of our own. 
Cockytoo, two Conures, Two Pionuses, One Amazon, and a Lovebird. A small 
child unaware of the birds behavior scared the Amazon into taking flight one 
day, which in turned spooked our Blue Head Pionus to fly out the door that 
the child was holding open. Bonnie's oldest son runs track at school, he 
shot out the door after her, paced her as she flew, rooftop height, two 
blocks toward town, and caught her like a football when she finally dropped. 
He was the hero of the day!

We recently watched the documentary Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. Which is 
about a growing flock of runaway Cherry Head Conures In San Francisco. It 
was good; interesting. But somehow it disturbed me in a way I can't put my 
finger on. I'd never be able to watch it again or read the book.

 We own a Cherry Head who was wild caught when that was still legal. Which 
puts her age at over twenty-five years old. She came to us from a family who 
were giving up their pets due to family health issues. So that may have 
something to do with it the show making me uncomfortable. Her name is Pepper 
and old age is catching up with her. Her health is failing and the only 
thing that seems to keep her going is her attachment to Cleo the White Eyed 
Conure. Our home is her last stop in a long but rather tragic life. Plucked 
from the wild and brought to the states. Her belly is bare as she plucked 
her feathers long ago. Some birds self mutilate from frustration, or other 
emotional trauma. I hold her often during her seizures. Her heart is bad and 
she doesn't get around well anymore. She still says hello and has fits of 
pure wild joy, other wise we would give up hope for her. Her days are spent 
snuggling with Cleo, whom she will perpetually consider to be a baby even 
though she herself is full grown. Full grown White Eyes resemble Cherry 
Heads when they are immature. One fact that I did learn from the 
documentary, which explained a lot about that relationship that we 
considered very strange for a long time.

It *is* odd when a pet bird remembers it can fly.

Dave
http://www.markbittner.net/parrots_central.html