A “Doomsday Virus” for Endangered Parrots?
Every time we test blood from new endangered parrot species with small, isolated wild populations, we find Psittacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) virus, a particularly nasty airborne circovirus that destroys the skin and feathers while opening large, painful fissures in the beak that eventually breaks it apart. Cape parrots, black-cheeked lovebirds, Carnaby’s cockatoos, New Caledonian parakeets, Norfolk Island Green Parrot, red-fronted parakeets, swift parrot, orange-bellied parrot, and Echo parakeets are all endangered by catastrophic deforestation and/or widespread capture for the wild-caught bird trade, and ALL have high levels of PBFD virus in the wild population. Is this the “Doomsday Virus” for Endangered parrots?
Our research has demonstrated that PBFd is endemic to the wild Cape parrot population and thus should exist at low levels in the wild. Something has disturbed the balance… This poorly-known virus also attacks the immune system, opening the PBFD-positive parrot to bacterial infections like avian TB, Pseudomonassp., and pneumonia. The first to go are the down feathers, then the crown, breast, rump and eventually all body feathers disintegrate, leaving a naked parrot with just flight feathers. At this advanced stage the parrots are up to 50% under optimal body weight and die of exposure in temperate climates. The virus is airborne and highly-contagious, dispersing into the environment in the excessive feather dust caused by the disintegration of skin and feathers.
Parrots with PBFD have the appearance of being homeless and out of place. Forlorn and dejected by their circumstance more than their condition. It seems that, once a parrot population simply does not fit into their natural habitat anymore and have to abandon preferred food items, nesting trees and even habitat types, this malevolent virus slowly takes over until they cannot survive another day in the wild. The only solution is intervention at all levels with rehabilitation protocols for sick parrots and community-based habitat restoration projects. When beak and feather disease takes over it is time to take action and assist these intelligent birds in finding a new way of living sustainably in the wild again. Parrots are cultural animals that have highly advance vocal chords to support their complex languages of emotion, intention, attraction, information-sharing, kinship and ownership. They share information on food resources, vigilance for predators at feeding sites, safe roosts and breeding sites, as well as the companionship of, for the most part, a highly social bird taxon. African grey parrots have survived in captivity for over 85 years and have demonstrated advanced cognitive abilities by constructing sentences and developing a vocabulary. Most parrots are long-lived and mate for life, maintaining pair bonds through constant allo-preening and mutual affection.
We have been studying an outbreak of PBFD in a wild population of Cape parrots since 2008 and watched infection rates go up to 50% in 2011 and then a staggering 100% in 2011. This was due to a drought that resulted in a very low availability of suitable food resources. It was heart-breaking to follow panicked, sick and starving parrots searching for food. Soon they were turning up dead or unable to fly under trees, in swimming pools, and at clinics. We only managed to save four parrots in 2011 and one in 2012, and hope to do much better next year with more sick parrots expected in the future. We are currently raising funds to build a flight aviary in the Eastern Cape to house parrots during rehabilitation. Our research on PBFD in wild Cape parrots at the Percy FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology (University of Cape Town) is the most in-depth study of the molecular systematics and activity of the PBFD virus ever undertaken. PhD student, Guy Regnard, has worked tirelessly to analyze and re-analyze all the samples as part of PhD thesis. We are now in a position to develop a vaccine specific to Cape parrots that could be used in the proposed re-introduction of a disease-free population in an area where they have gone locally extinct. We are also planting tens of thousands of indigenous trees in large indigenous fruit orchards or forest plots with local communities to provide alternative food resources within the next 10-15 years. Our project team has already erected over 200 Cape parrot nest boxes in Afromontane forest patches where suitable large hardwoods have been removed. Every year the Cape Parrot Project grows with new partnerships, new opportunities to stimulate positive change for Cape parrots in the wild, new members of the Cape Parrot Project Group, and more people involved. Please share this video and these links with your friends and become part of the revolution…
Cape parrots are only found in South Africa in areas with high mountains and old-growth Afromontane forest dominated by yellowwoods. There are less than 1,000 remaining in the wild. Please watch this important video about the Cape Parrot Project. (Rodnick Biljon)
Absolutely stunning portrait of a proud, wild Cape parrot sitting in a Cape lilac tree (often erroneous called a syringa tree). These yellow fruits are thought to be poison, but the parrots have been recorded eating them for over 50 years. (Rodnick Biljon)
Cape parrot taking off from a high perch. Caught here forever in this amazing photograph by the “Cape Parrot whisperer”, Rodnick Biljon. (Rodnick Biljon)
Young male Cape parrot that tested positive for Pssitacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) virus and more than likely died a few days later from bad cold weather and snow. (Steve Boyes)
Steve Boyes taking a blood sample from a Cape parrot in 2010. This research demonstrated that we were in the grips of a beak and feather disease epidemic that could threaten the local population. (Anja Joubert)
An adult female Cape parrot that was rescued after being found unable to fly in a swimming pool. She spent 3 months in a warm box on anti-biotics and supplements, and another 3 months in rehabilitation before being released back into the wild. She was to become known as “Alice”. (Steve Boyes)
Cape parrot with advanced symptoms of Pssitacine Beak and Feather Disease (PBFD) infection. We tried to catch this poor guy, but failed. Nighttime temperatures went below freezing a few nights after this photograph was taken. There was not much chance of survival. We never found a carcass and never saw this youngster again… (Steve Boyes)
Great links for additional background information on Cape Parrot Project:
http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/specials/in-the-field-specials/boyes-cape-parrot/
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2012/08/16/africas-most-endangered-parrot-revealed/
Please consider donating to the Cape Parrot Project via World Parrot Trust or Wild Bird Trust (Ref: CPP)… 100% of donations go to the Cape Parrot Project!!
Flock of wild parrots brighten up Bethnal Green
Pic: Stockxchange
Wild parrots are nesting in Bethnal Green trees, turning the urban neighborhood into a tropical “jungle.”
Local residents have spotted ten green parrots perched in trees near the Camel pub on Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green.
“It’s a jungle out here,” said Victor Neil, 74, who lives on Bethnal Green road, a couple of minutes away from the new parrot colony. He often goes to Victoria Park to see the parrots there, but isn’t so sure about his new neighbors: “They are pretty to look at, but they don’t make very nice noises.”
Amandine David, 40, of Stepney Green, passes the colony twice a week on her way to swimming at York Hall. She thinks it is quite unbelievable that tropical parrots can survive the British winter. David said: “I think it’s amazing to see this in London.”
A spokesperson for the RSPB told ELL that the parrots are “ring-necked parakeets, a non-native species that are growing in numbers.”
The ring-necked parakeet is characterised by its bright green feathers and a red circle around the neck.
It is London’s fastest growing naturalised parrot, with over 4,300 breeding in the UK.
The species has been around for more than 40 years, after captive parrots were released or escaped in the 1970s.
Although the parrots originate from the tropical countryside of West Africa, India and Brazil, the ring-necked parakeets have learnt to survive the colder British environment on food supplied to them from suburban parks and gardens.
The birds typically consume fruit, berries, nuts, seeds and grains. During the winter months when food is scarce, they depend on bird tables and garden feeders.
In Old Ford Road the parakeets are preparing for winter by settling down in a tree hung with garden feeders. Securing the food now only boils down to fighting the squirrels for the best pieces.
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“Wild parrot colony” spotted in Bethnal Green
This Indian ring-necked parakeet was spotted in a tree in Richmond Park, London. Photo: Fiona Hanson, Press Association.
Chloe Mayer, Senior Reporter
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
11:12 AM
Bemused residents are getting their feathers in a flap over a “wild parrot colony” that’s set up home in a Bethnal Green tree
Self-employed artist Michelle Sinnott, 55, told the Advertiser: “There is wild parrot colony near the London Buddhist centre on Globe Road. There’s a pub nearby and I should imagine people stand outside smoking and notice the birds.
“I’ve seen them a few times, but they are particularly visible at roosting time, just before sundown. I’ve seen at least 10 or 15 – you can’t quite believe there are all these birds! I looked on the internet and apparently there are several parakeet colonies in London.”
Michelle, of Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, is a keen photographer and plans to try to snap the birds, although the colony wasn’t there when she and the Advertiser’s photographer visited the tree this week.
A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) said the parrots are likely to be ring-necked parakeets, which are bright green with a red “collar” marking around their neck.
He said he has noticed them himself around the capital and added: “The ring-necks are native to areas around India and the Himalayas, so can easily cope with our changeable climate.
“Over the past fifteen or twenty years, their numbers have exploded and they now number some 30,000 to 50,000, living mostly around suburban west and south London.”
There are various urban myths about how the birds arrived. One story claims singer Jimi Hendrix released a pair of parrots in Carnaby Street in the 1960s, while others claim the birds escaped from a damaged shipping container at Heathrow airport. Another legend says the birds escaped from the African Queen film set, but some people believe a London couple argued and one released the other’s treasured pets into the wild.
• Have you seen the parakeets in Bethnal Green? Send your pictures to iwitness24.com or email chloe.mayer@archant.co.uk.
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Parrots imitate others just so they know who they’re talking to
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As humans, we can start a conversation with someone else and be pretty confident they will know we’re talking to them. This is one of those things that’s so basic we forget to even take it for granted. But this is much, much trickier for parrots — and it might explain their gift for mimicry.
After all, even if we find ourselves in a crowded room, we can always single out a particular person for conversation by walking over to them, saying their name, or — and this is really the “if all else fails option”, but I’ve found it to be effective — shouting and gesturing like a lunatic until the other person finally gets the hint and comes over. But parrots and their relatives — including the the orange-fronted conures, a kind of parakeet found throughout much of Central America — have to get a little more creative if they want to start a conversation with a specific bird in the flock.
Parakeets live in what’s known as a “network environment,” which means lots of different flocks constantly meshing together. While some parrot species seem to have developed “names” for other individuals, in which they use very specific bird calls to indicate they’re talking to one parrot in particular, that isn’t an option for the orange-fronted conures, who interact with hundreds of birds each week.
If you’re a parrot — in which case, congratulations on being able to read and operate the internet — then the smart thing to do in this situation would be to come up with one particular call for yourself, rather than hundreds of different address calls for every other parrot in your flock. That’s exactly what the orange-fronted conures do, and this is where the parrot’s preternatural gift for imitation comes into play.
In order to start a conversation with a specific bird, a parrot simply mimics that bird’s own personal contact call. According to Danish researchers, orange-fronted conures responded significantly quicker in both lab and wild environments when addressed with an imitation of their own call. It’s a rather remarkable idea that each parrot has to mimic someone else if they want to talk to them, particularly if you translated the notion to humans.
As amusing as it is to imagine humans constantly doing bad impressions of each other — and let’s be honest, this is humans we’re talking about, the impressions will be bad — that actually might not be the best comparison. After all, the alternative, in which each bird comes up with hundreds of address calls, is more like the human equivalent of start conversations with other people with descriptive addresses like “You there with the baseball cap and the blue eyes and the bad acne!”, whereas the conures’ contact calls might be more like each person giving themselves a nickname, then expecting to be addressed by that nickname.
The point, I think, is that we should model human interaction on parrots, because it would be hilarious, and possibly lead to fistfights. For another, slightly more scientific takeaway, let’s go to researcher Dr. Thorsten Balsby of the University of Aarhus:
“Many species of parrots live part of the year in flocks. Living in flocks may be challenging and require a flexible vocalization system. The vocal imitation of orange-fronted conures is probably tightly linked to the fission-fusion flock dynamics that results in frequent encounters and interactions with many different individuals. In natural interactions, orange-fronted conures continue to imitate each other after they have established contact. The function of these prolonged imitative interactions is not known yet but may be related to some kind of negotiation regarding the decision to make a flock fuse with another flock.”
AK: Parrots
Amber O’Neill, president of the Alaska Bird Club, and Twiggie, an African Grey parrot. Photo by Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage
Although the sale of wild caught exotic birds has been banned in the US for decades, commercial breeders in the country make a variety of parrots and parakeets available for pet lovers. But they are challenging pets. And there are more parrots in Alaska than there are homes for them. KSKA’s Ellen Lockyer profiles two women working to solve the problem.
Amber O’Neill is for the birds. She’s the president of the Alaska Bird Club, and any conversation that takes place in her Nunaka Valley home will definitely include comments from her parrots.
Amber lives with three parrots. Twiggie is the loquacious African Grey,
Sassy, a Senegal parrot, nestles against Elise Patkotak. Photo by Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage
Junior, a bronze winged pionus, and Janey, a small conure found outdoors, are relatively quiet compared to Twiggie. Talkative Twiggie is adopted. Her first owner had her 13 years, and gave her away for personal reasons.
“Hello,” Twiggie squawked.
But who could not love a talking parrot? Well, it seems lots of people.
That’s one of the big problems with owning a parrot. Life changes – marriages, deaths, relocations happen to us all, and a parrot pet, in most cases, is a pet for life and beyond
“Sometimes people will pass the bird down to the next generation, but sometimes the kids don’t want the birds. Very often, if someone moves or has a child, the person couple will decide maybe the bird shouldn’t be in their life anymore,” O’Neill said.
Finding homes for lost or unwanted birds is one of the Bird Club’s big challenges. Amber calls it re-homeing
“The big birds are a huge commitment. It takes somebody who knows what he or she is doing. And you’ll have cockatoos, macaws, Amazons – we have a lot of those in our adoption program, because you kind of have to be fluent in bird before you get one of those,” O’Neill said.
Janie’s owner was located, but didn’t want her back. And two dozen bright parakeets now housed in big cages in Ambers’ home, were found flying free outdoors in Alaska.
Some people, like writer Elise Patkotak, put their parrots in their will.
“These critters live to be 80,90, 100 years old. So their possibility of being thrown away increases by the amount of years they live,” Patkotak said.
Elise’s living room is dominated by two huge parrot cages, in which Captain, Seebee and Abdullah reside.
All three birds have intriguing stories as to how they came to Elise. Captain is the only bird that started out as her pet.
“Captain and I are going on close to 35 years together, which is more than most marriages I know,” Elise said.
Captain’s cage mate, the dazzling, all white Australian bare eyed cockatoo named Seebee was sold on the streets
“And normally you would never put two different species like this in the same cage. But I got her in ’83 in Barrow and there was no place else for her to go. And I only had one cage, so, and I didn’t know any better back then and now, they’re like the odd couple. They’re the bonded pair. I can’t separate them,” Elise said.
Seebee had found a good home and a good companion. But the African Grey Abdullah still misses his first owner. Parrots have the emotions of a three year old child, she says, and get attached to their owners.
Downstairs, Elise shows me four more birds. Two are foundlings, two are rejects from a parrot breeder
“Baby and Kenya came out of the home of a breeder. Who, I guess the nicest way to put it that I can think of, is to say fell on hard times and got sick and towards the end they were very, very neglected for many years. So they had it very difficult. Sassy, the one Senegal on the end there and Wilson, the conure, were both found outside,” Elise said.
All four perk up with the attention. Elise takes Sassy out of his cage and he immediately nestles into her shirt.
“I mean, I’m holding him, I can hold him upside down, I can put my face in his belly, I can love him. He won’t hurt me, he won’t bite me. There are wonderful birds like this and Sassy is just one of my favorites. I mean, he just wants a home where someone will let him love them,” Elise said.
She’s adopting the two birds from the breeder, because of their special needs. Sassy and Wilson will be fostered until suitable homes can be found. Elise says it takes a certain person to keep a parrot pet.
“They make a lot of noise. And one of the things we try and talk to people about if you are thinking of adopting a parrot, is to research. It’s kind of like a dog, you know, you have little dogs that are yappy little ones, and then you have bigger dogs that are kind of laid back and friendly, and then you have other dogs that are guard dogs. Birds are the same way. People think a bird is a bird. It’s not,” Elise said.
Alaska Bird Club has helped to educate pet stores to not sell the longest- lived larger birds, like macaws or Amazon parrots.
Amber O’Neill says that may help reduce the number of parrots she needs to re-home.
“There are birds all over the state of Alaska that need homes. There is a conure in Anchor Point, I have an Amazon in Sterling, I have some macaws in Seward, I have some Amazons in Fairbanks,” she said.
The Bird Club and a sister group, the Parrot Education and Adoption Center, PEAC, are working to match unwanted or lost parrots with committed, and bird-educated owners.
PEAC is hosting a parrot care seminar at BP Energy center on Tuesday, Nov. 20. Pre-registration is required and there is a fee for non members see akpeac.org for details.
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Is wild parrot population on the rise?
HARD TO MISS—A black-hooded parakeetflies around a Newbury Park neighborhood last month, where a largeflock of the exotic birds held court over the summer.
Photos by RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers Some mornings, Scott Bailey wakes up to the sound of birds chirping—other days, it’s the screech of parrots.
“It sounds like you’re in the Amazon jungle,” Bailey said. “They’re big and they’re loud. You can’t miss them.”
But Bailey doesn’t live next door to a zoo. He’s one of a handful of Newbury Park and Thousand Oaks residents whose trees are regularly inhabited by exotic birds for several months out of the year, usually during the summer.
While the sightings are not new to the area, residents like Bailey are reporting that the number of nonnative birds flying the skies above the Conejo Valley was up this summer.
“I remember seeing a small group last year, but this year they are in droves,” said Bailey, who lives in a neighborhood of tract homes called California Classics.
NOT-SO-STRANGE SIGHT—A couple of blackhooded parakeets feed in a tree in Newbury Park. Wild exotic birds of all kinds have been spotted in Southern California over the years, but some local residents said they saw more this summer. The tropical birds, which are not native to the state, can be spotted throughout Southern California.
“People have been asking about them for a while,” said Spencer Recor, an employee of the Thousand Oaks pet shop For Pets’ Sake. “They’re all over Pasadena, they’re all over Los Angeles, they’re all over Hollywood . . . they’re everywhere.”
Kimball Garrett, manager of the birds collection at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, said Southern California’s wild parrot populations took flight starting in the 1950s, as lost pets and other fly-aways started mating.
Let’s Talk About Birds: Parrots as pets
This is one of a series presented by the National Aviary, which works to inspire respect for nature through an appreciation of birds.
Parrots are among the most beautiful, intelligent and comical birds in the world. Both in the wild and in captivity, parrots are long-lived social animals that mimic sounds. Pet parrots can be lifelong companions that are incredibly devoted. But they require a great amount of care and commitment.
Parrots include more than 350 species of parakeets, cockatiels, cockatoos, Amazon parrots, conures, macaws and lorikeets. Many species live in tropical forests around the world, but some live in grasslands, temperate forests and mountains. They can be small, like the 4-inch pygmy parrot. They can be large, like the 3-foot hyacinth macaw. They even can be heavy and obscure — the kakapo, a New Zealand parrot, is flightless, nocturnal and weighs nearly 9 pounds.
Their stunning beauty and endearing reputation make parrots desirable pets. However, the traits we love can be a challenge to manage at home.
Pet parrots have a great tendency to exhibit natural behaviors. For example, parrots naturally call loudly to stay in touch with members of their flock. In a home, pet parrots scream and call to keep in touch with their owners. Parrots have a strong natural urge to chew. Pet parrots will seek out household items to chew and may destroy furniture and other belongings. Parrots use their incredibly strong beaks to crack open seeds and nuts. Pet parrots can bite very hard if they feel threatened, scared or even excited.
Parrots are smart, but not all pet parrots are as talented as Snowball, the dancing sulphur-crested cockatoo, made famous on YouTube, or the National Aviary’s Max, a yellow-naped Amazon who sings “Happy Birthday.” And while all parrots mimic, pet parrots may copy sounds you don’t want to hear every day. Our African grey parrots can mimic a fire alarm.
Pet parrots require a longer time commitment than other pets. Small parakeets can live more than 15 years. Amazons and cockatoos can live into their 40s or 50s, and the largest macaws can live 70 years or more. A blue and gold macaw rumored to be kept by Winston Churchill lived to be 107!
Pet parrot owners need to know and provide the proper activities to occupy busy parrot brains and beaks. If you have a pet parrot or are considering one, join the National Aviary on Nov. 10 for its Positive Parroting Workshop. Supported by Kaytee Avian Foundation and The Banfield Charitable Trust, the 6-hour course includes training demonstrations with the National Aviary’s parrots, nutrition and health information, tips on housing, and a session on making inexpensive parrot toys at home. Call 412-258-9439 for fees and registration.
Of course, you can enjoy these gorgeous birds throughout the year by visiting the National Aviary. Make sure to get your tickets for “Parrots of the Caribbean,” our live parrot theater show, and discover all of our parrot species on exhibit.
‘God’s little ambassadors’: Birds and the people who love them
Let’s get a parrot, Sherryl Cox told her husband.
Ernie Cox had bought a parrot before, for his daughter during his first marriage.
It was a Quaker, a medium-sized green parrot that never won over his ex-wife or son.
But Ernie kind of liked that bird.
So yeah, let’s get a parrot, he replied to Sherryl.
This is their second marriage, after all. Their kids from the previous marriages are grown, so they do what they want this go-round: travel, dress up for Renaissance fairs, buy parrots.
Except the first one died. Then they saw an ad for a parrot in need of a good home: a 4-year-old green-cheeked conure they named Jasper. They drove across several states to pick up the bird and bring it home.
Now Jasper snuggles in Ernie’s shirt at night. She dances. She squeezes Ernie’s hand when she needs to use the bathroom (in the toilet). She rules the roost.
But she’s not the only one.
After Jasper came Kasha, a sassy cinnamon-cheeked conure who will snuggle anyone (even giggling, nervous newspaper reporters).
“Two is our limit,” they said.
It wasn’t.
Then came Sweet P, a Quaker parrot. And Juno, a parakeet. (Bird people call them budgies.)
Their birds’ massive cages consume much of the space in Ernie and Sherryl’s tidy apartment living room. The parrots have perches high in the living room, on the front porch, in the shower.
Sherryl Cox’s daughter-in-law called her “a bird lady” in a Facebook post.
“I said, ‘It’s OK you called me that. It’s better than an old cat lady.’ ”
Bird bonding
There are dog people, there are cat people – and then there are bird people.
Twice a year, Tulsa’s bird people gather for the Oklahoma Avicultural Society’s exotic bird fair.
License plates in the parking lot revealed folks came from as far as Colorado for this fall’s show, to peek at the pink parakeets, hunt for bargains on banana chips and possibly splurge on a $600 cage.
In the corner of the former Church of Christ-turned event center hosting this year’s fair, an alpha cockatoo shrieked. He was mad. Some gawkers had gotten a little too close for comfort with their iPhones.
Across the room, a calmer cockatoo canoodled with a prospective buyer while the breeder shared this selling point: You can shower with it.
“Would you like a shower?” She asks the bird as it nuzzled her.
In an adjacent room where merchants sold gourmet treats, homemade toys and denim applique shirts featuring prints of feathered friends, a lady dressed in leggings and a purple T-shirt cut right to the chase. Her shirt read: “crazy bird lady.”
A progression
Maureen Horton and Joyce Legere had a table of conures perched at the Avicultural Society fair, but it was nothing compared to the booth they run Friday through Sunday at the Great American Flea Market on Admiral Boulevard.
There, the two women support their Gifted Wings Ministry pet-assisted therapy and bird rescue by selling bird supplies and finding proper homes for birds in need.
People are typically drawn in by the sight of Callie, their “spokesbird.” Callie is a calico macaw, a hybrid, who does tricks and has an impressive vocabulary. She is not for sale.
“We don’t allow impulse buys,” Horton said. “We’re not going to sell a cockatoo to somebody if it’s their first bird.”
The bigger the bird, generally, the more expensive, time-consuming and challenging it is to care for, Horton said.
A good first bird for someone, depending on the age of the caretaker and time they can devote, might be a cockatiel or a budgie.
You do not start with a Callie.
“They go on YouTube and see these phenomenal birds, and then they come in and expect to get a bird to walk, talk and buy groceries,” Horton said. “There’s training involved.”
Horton and Legere started with two English budgies, and the passion for feathered friends grew from there.
Their flock now includes 80 birds and a $3,000 food bill.
“Once somebody becomes a bird person, there’s a natural progression,” Horton said. Which usually leads to more birds, bigger cages, and bigger bills for food and veterinary care.
Through Gifted Wings, they take their friendliest birds to visit seniors at assisted living centers, disabled people in group homes and women living at domestic violence shelters.
“We consider the birds to be God’s little ambassadors,” Horton said. “We wanted to reach those marginalized people. The birds, they’ve drawn people out of themselves.”
Even those who may not have known they were bird people.
Avicultural meetings
The Oklahoma Avicultural Society meets the fourth Sunday of each month at the Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St., from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The group hosts bird fairs every spring and fall. Learn more at tulsaworld.com/OAS
Original Print Headline: Bird people
Cary Aspinwall 918-581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
Bird people follow annual fairs
Let’s get a parrot, Sherryl Cox told her husband.
Ernie Cox had bought a parrot before, for his daughter during his first marriage.
It was a Quaker, a medium-sized green parrot that never won over his ex-wife or son.
But Ernie kind of liked that bird.
So yeah, let’s get a parrot, he replied to Sherryl.
This is their second marriage, after all. Their kids from the previous marriages are grown, so they do what they want this go-round: travel, dress up for Renaissance fairs, buy parrots.
Except the first one died. Then they saw an ad for a parrot in need of a good home: a 4-year-old green-cheeked conure they named Jasper. They drove across several states to pick up the bird and bring it home.
Now Jasper snuggles in Ernie’s shirt at night. She dances. She squeezes Ernie’s hand when she needs to use the bathroom (in the toilet). She rules the roost.
But she’s not the only one.
After Jasper came Kasha, a sassy cinnamon-cheeked conure who will snuggle anyone (even giggling, nervous newspaper reporters).
“Two is our limit,” they said.
It wasn’t.
Then came Sweet P, a Quaker parrot. And Juno, a parakeet. (Bird people call them budgies.)
Their birds’ massive cages consume much of the space in Ernie and Sherryl’s tidy apartment living room. The parrots have perches high in the living room, on the front porch, in the shower.
Sherryl Cox’s daughter-in-law called her “a bird lady” in a Facebook post.
“I said, ‘It’s OK you called me that. It’s better than an old cat lady.’ ”
Bird bonding
There are dog people, there are cat people – and then there are bird people.
Twice a year, Tulsa’s bird people gather for the Oklahoma Avicultural Society’s exotic bird fair.
License plates in the parking lot revealed folks came from as far as Colorado for this fall’s show, to peek at the pink parakeets, hunt for bargains on banana chips and possibly splurge on a $600 cage.
In the corner of the former Church of Christ-turned event center hosting this year’s fair, an alpha cockatoo shrieked. He was mad. Some gawkers had gotten a little too close for comfort with their iPhones.
Across the room, a calmer cockatoo canoodled with a prospective buyer while the breeder shared this selling point: You can shower with it.
“Would you like a shower?” She asks the bird as it nuzzled her.
In an adjacent room where merchants sold gourmet treats, homemade toys and denim applique shirts featuring prints of feathered friends, a lady dressed in leggings and a purple T-shirt cut right to the chase. Her shirt read: “crazy bird lady.”
A progression
Maureen Horton and Joyce Legere had a table of conures perched at the Avicultural Society fair, but it was nothing compared to the booth they run Friday through Sunday at the Great American Flea Market on Admiral Boulevard.
There, the two women support their Gifted Wings Ministry pet-assisted therapy and bird rescue by selling bird supplies and finding proper homes for birds in need.
People are typically drawn in by the sight of Callie, their “spokesbird.” Callie is a calico macaw, a hybrid, who does tricks and has an impressive vocabulary. She is not for sale.
“We don’t allow impulse buys,” Horton said. “We’re not going to sell a cockatoo to somebody if it’s their first bird.”
The bigger the bird, generally, the more expensive, time-consuming and challenging it is to care for, Horton said.
A good first bird for someone, depending on the age of the caretaker and time they can devote, might be a cockatiel or a budgie.
You do not start with a Callie.
“They go on YouTube and see these phenomenal birds, and then they come in and expect to get a bird to walk, talk and buy groceries,” Horton said. “There’s training involved.”
Horton and Legere started with two English budgies, and the passion for feathered friends grew from there.
Their flock now includes 80 birds and a $3,000 food bill.
“Once somebody becomes a bird person, there’s a natural progression,” Horton said. Which usually leads to more birds, bigger cages, and bigger bills for food and veterinary care.
Through Gifted Wings, they take their friendliest birds to visit seniors at assisted living centers, disabled people in group homes and women living at domestic violence shelters.
“We consider the birds to be God’s little ambassadors,” Horton said. “We wanted to reach those marginalized people. The birds, they’ve drawn people out of themselves.”
Even those who may not have known they were bird people.
Avicultural meetings
The Oklahoma Avicultural Society meets the fourth Sunday of each month at the Hardesty Regional Library, 8316 E. 93rd St., from 1:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. The group hosts bird fairs every spring and fall. Learn more at tulsaworld.com/OAS
Original Print Headline: Bird people
Cary Aspinwall 918-581-8477
cary.aspinwall@tulsaworld.com
Why parrots aren’t likely visitors
Save for the rare escapee, we have no parrots or parakeets here. These mostly are vacation-climate species. Chicago has parrots, though, as do New York City and cities in Connecticut and New Jersey. So, why not us — why don’t beautiful, noisy green birds brighten our neighborhoods?
Well, it’s climate; we’re not Australia, a country thick with members of the parrot family. A species of small parakeet, officially a budgerigar, is the most likely escapee here. It’s native to Australia.
Sometimes called budgies, they’re common cage birds. You can buy them at Petsmart in a variety of colors for $21.99 each. If they escape your kitchen, they will die outside, victims of temperature or predators.
Other parts of the country do have thriving wild parrots, none native. The new edition of the “National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America” offers information on 11 species of parakeets, six of parrots and one lovebird (yes, there really are lovebirds).
Most of them are found in Florida, Texas or California.
Once the United States had two native parrot species. We killed all of the Carolina parakeets early in the past century. Those birds had a southeastern base, ranging as far west as the Mississippi River and getting as close to Minnesota as northwestern Iowa. The thick-billed parrot that once lived in Arizona in habitat shared with Mexico was extirpated on this side of the border years ago.
So, we make do with escapees. A particularly hardy and well established species, the monk, or Quaker, parakeet, actually could live here. It’s a large green bird that would be a dandy addition to your feeder flock. But feelings about this bird are mixed.
Monks thrive in Brooklyn, where they are so beloved there is a club devoted to them, plus a website, http:// brooklynparrots.com.
Twice as large as budgies, monks build huge stick nests, often living in colonies. They like to build around transformers on power poles. They do this for the warmth, not for the fires they sometimes start. Power companies do not like these birds.
Monk parakeets don’t wander, so it’s unlikely any will leave Chicago to move here. No one is going to buy a pair and release them as seed stock, either. Since 1992 it has been illegal to import them to the United States. Adaptive nonnative species like monk parakeets are never good for native species. They also can become crop pests.
Budgerigars live wild and breed in Florida. If you are a lister, this species is considered established and list-worthy.
My wife and I some years ago abandoned a birding tour to fly from Houston to Fort Myers, Fla. There, we rented a car, and drove to St. Petersburg. We did this to add the budgie to our North American life lists.
We found our prey roosting in a palm tree next to a fast-food restaurant along a very busy urban street, not unusual habitat for these birds.
With our life list checkoff in place, we returned to Houston the same day. We were younger then, and birder crazy. All that for a bird Granny had caged in her kitchen.
Lifelong birder Jim Williams can be reached at woodduck38@gmail.com. Join his conversation about birds at www.startribune.com/wingnut.
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