A Look Back • Potty-mouthed parrot shocks visitors to St. Louis Zoo in 1930

ST. LOUIS • The St. Louis Zoo opened its new $225,000 bird house on Oct. 5, 1930. It was the last word on avian habitat for urban zoos, allowing visitors to see and hear their exotic feathered friends up close.

The zoo boasted a rare collection of rare birds. Brewer August Busch Sr. had donated a King parakeet, one of only three in the United States.

Another St. Louisan gave the zoo his parrot, which had a flaw that went unnoticed until the crowds arrived.

The red-headed bird cursed a blue streak. The Post-Dispatch reported that its mildest phrase was “Go to hell.” Other oral flourishes couldn’t make print.

Embarrassed zookeepers quickly banished the parrot from public earshot, calling its vocabulary unsuitable for children. Director George Vierheller said the zoo would restrict it to the quarantine room until an indulgent owner was found. He wouldn’t identify the parrot’s former owner, frustrating reporters who wanted to expose the bird’s education.

Newspapers across the country ran headlines about St. Louis’ “profane” or “potty-mouth” parrot. On Nov. 11, 1930, the Post-Dispatch followed up with a photo of the notorious bird and word that the zoo had received more than 500 letters, telephone calls and telegrams from people offering to give it a new home.

Motivations varied. Several offered to reform the bird. A woman in Virginia promised to teach it to pray. A man in St. Petersburg, Fla., suggested letting it live on a 17,000-acre tract where it “can use any language he chooses.”

Members of Pi Kappa Alpha at the Missouri School of Mines in Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) wrote, “There are 88 boys in this fraternity who would be more than pleased to have a pet that is both entertaining and instructive.”

The wife of a St. Louis police officer said the parrot could give her husband’s salty tongue some competition. And from Ottawa Lake, Mich., came this plaintive plea: “I am a lone widow, 65 years old. My husband died two years ago and I am awful lonesome.”

The zoo’s own monthly newsletter joined in the fun, describing the development as a “great scandal” and saying the bird’s language “would make even a hardened sea captain blush.” Encouraged by the fuss, Vierheller announced he would sell the parrot to the highest bidder.

The oddest bid was to trade it for two baby alligators, but in the end, the parrot went to a man in New York for $150, a whopping sum given that new 1930 Ford sport coupes were advertised for $525.

The zoo still uses the Spanish-style bird house. It has 18 parrots there and in the Children’s Zoo. None of them is known to use foul language.

{rule}Read more sto{em}ries from Tim O’Neil’s Look Back series.

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Black market in rare birds suspected in northern district

A BLACK market for rare and expensive birds is operating in the northern district, warns Eastwood resident Ian Sheffield president of the Parrot Society of Australia (NSW).

Ten of his exotic birds were stolen from the aviary in the backyard of his Eastwood home while he slept about a month ago.

A pair of breeding Alexandrines, their three baby Alexandrines, one immature male Alexandrine and two breeding pairs of Plum head parrots went missing,

“I was just devastated when I walked outside and they were missing,” he said. “The value of the birds varied, but to me they were priceless.”

The estimated value could exceed $60,000 in the bird’s breeding lifetime,” he said. “The big thing is the dollar value is there because we can’t import them anymore. So we have got to breed good ones from what we have.”

Police are investigating the theft of birds from residential aviaries or cages over the past six months.

Detective Sergeant, Dave Parmeter at Eastwood LAC said they had recovered 14 birds believed to be stolen.

The birds were retrieved from two pet shops, but none of them were Mr Sheffield’s missing parrots.

“We are seeking other victims may not have reported it, and may have just thought their birds escaped,” he said.

Anyone with information about missing bird should contact Eastwood Police on 9858 9299.

Birds far from angry in Cuban vet’s sanctuary

By Francisco Jara (AFP)
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23 hours ago 

HAVANA — A retired Cuban veterinarian has found a new direction rescuing rare birds, breeding parrots and peacocks, winning enough feathered-world fame to swap fowl with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.

In the 1950s, Maique Lores fought with rebels who brought the Cuban regime to power, before enjoying a long career as a vet.

These days, however, he has his mind on all corners of the avian world, from exotics to fowl to his “endangered birds rescue and care unit,” with hundreds of feathered friends thriving at his home.

“We rescue endangered birds, breed them and then release them in protected areas so they do not end up on someone’s plate,” said Lores, 68.

At dawn, Lores and his wife Marilyn, a fellow veterinarian and bird fan, wake to the cocks crowing in the garden of their home just west of Havana, not far from where revolutionary icon Fidel Castro lives.

Some hens roam freely. One named Cuqui makes itself at home and lays eggs on the staircase of the two-story house.

Exotics dot the grounds, some in corrals and others in cages, like white peacocks from India and a yaco from Africa — Lores says they are among the world’s smartest birds.

His dining room table is stacked with bags of corn feed, and two rooms are crowded with cages of orioles, a nightingale and parrots large and small.

But the favorite of the house is a chatty if occasionally shy parrot called Paquito, whom they consider a member of the family.

“Say hello, Paquito, come on,” his master said affectionately, but the bird had no comment to make to a visiting reporter.

Lores has two Cuban parrots called cateys, locally famous for mating for life. Often, when one of a pair dies, the other will refuse to mate again.

Despite all these efforts and his professed love of animals, Lores nonetheless admits he still loves chicken soup.

Corrals at the facility are a frenzied dance of parrots and macaws, and fowl from quail to hens ordinary and exotic like Polish hens, with bright plumage and outsized crests, and Paduans, an old breed that is bearded without wattles.

Another enclosure holds the unusual sight — at least in these parts — of white peacocks, which originally came from India.

Due to their relative novelty in the West, Lores sent a pair to the leftist firebrand Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Chavez, a key political and economic ally of communist Cuba. often travels to Havana, including recently to treat a cancerous tumor.

“I sent off a male and female to Venezuela for resident Chavez. He sent me back a pair of macaws,” Lores recalled fondly.

He built a large special cage for his gift macaws from Chavez, but the female pulled its own feathers out from stress and no longer can fly. “I have had to separate the male and female because otherwise she will go eat his feathers,” Lores explained.

Though he did not get into the bird business for money, his road to financial success has been paved with feathers.

To fund his facility, he sells fowl and eggs, and even sells feathers that fall off his birds.

Many of the feathers are used in Afro-Cuban Santeria religious rites, and can sell for up to $10 a piece — half of an average Cuban worker’s monthly salary. But Lores insists he would never pluck one, no matter how precious or valuable, before it’s natural molting time.

The birds enjoy fresh fruit — which is also frozen and thawed for times of the year when it is out of season — such as mangoes and tamarinds, mamey sapote and avocados.

“It’s a lot of work, but everything that has to do with nature, I have just loved ever since I was a kid,” Lores recalls with a smile.

Copyright © 2012 AFP. All rights reserved.
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Rare parrots, myna birds seized in Palawan

MANILA, Philippines – Authorities have seized various species of endangered birds in Barangay Puntabaja, Sitio Balite, Rial, Palawan.

According to Palawan Maritime Police, several cages containing 180 Philippine green parrots or “pikoy,” 2 hill mynas and 2 horn bills were recovered in separate locations in the forests of Brgy. Puntabaja.

Some of the cages were also found in a hut believed to be owned by a certain Ghaven San Juan.

San Juan was arrested and may face multiple charges for keeping the endangered species.

He said he will cooperate with police in the arrest of other members of the group.

Authorities estimate the confiscated birds to amount to P220,000.

They suspect that the birds were about to be shipped to Batangas when it was discovered.

The birds were turned over to the care of the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center. — Report from Edinel Magtibay, ABS-CBN News Palawan

Eastern Ecuador’s ecological diversity means marvelous creatures at every turn

Imagine palm trees 10 stories high. Imagine lakes with paiche fish that are 6 feet long. Imagine rivers with stingrays, caimans, catfish, neon tetras and electric eels.

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The lake where La Selva Amazon Ecolodge is located, Lake Garzacocha, looks deceptively like a small lake back in Michigan — but with spider monkeys leaping in the trees, piranhas swimming under the brown silty water and rare birds perching on limbs.

If you go for a walk in the morning, you may see one of the rarest predators in the jungle, a crested eagle (it was the first time our guide had seen one in 11 years). In the woods, you spot fungus that native people use to cure ear infections. You see poison dart frogs, giant millipedes and flitting blue Morpho butterflies, not exactly common sights back home.

And the insects! I saw few mosquitoes, but if you go for a walk at night by flashlight, you can spot tarantulas as big as salad plates and walking sticks as big as your hand. They are not frightening. They are elegant and awe-inspiring.

Someone asked me how this compares to Costa Rica, which many Americans have visited. The Ecuadorian Amazon is magnitudes more diverse.

A bird called the hoatzin, my favorite, looks like a crazy pheasant — multicolored, big, shiny, preening, exaggerated. It lives only in South America.

From a tower and with powerful binoculars, you see the forest’s feathered bonanza — nearly 600 bird species have been seen within just a few acres here. I spotted tanagers and toucans, but also South America’s own orange-winged parrot, blue dacnis and ivory-billed aracari.

Monkeys are everywhere — capuchin, spider, squirrel, black-mantled tamarin. The red howlers are more distant, high in the trees, grunting across the miles.

Right outside my hut are black birds with yellow-tipped wings called crested oropendola; their “oh-rop!” call sounds so human you feel like calling a reply.

After a few days here, you realize that everything hides in the Amazon. Either it wants to hide to catch something or it wants to hide so it doesn’t get caught.

There is hyper-diversity here, so the top predators — jaguars, ocelot, eagles, anaconda — are spread far and wide, making it rare to see any of them.

I count myself lucky to have seen ocelot and tapir tracks and a crested eagle.

The monkeys, of course, saw or sensed the crested eagle before we did. One minute they were chattering and swinging and foraging loudly in the forest. The next, they were dropping straight down from the tall trees all around us — parachuting, it’s called — practically falling to the ground. Then silence.

Charlie the Coulsdon parrot is at risk in the freezing cold

Charlie the Coulsdon parrot is at risk in the freezing cold

9:00am Thursday 9th February 2012 in

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A bird-loving pest controller hoping to breed rare African Grey Parrots is appealing for help after the male escaped his aviary.

Lee Jell, of Caterham Drive, Coulsdon, is desperate to find Charlie, his seven year old parrot, after it escaped as he cleaned its cage.

The 30-year-old is not alone, five year-old Amy, Charlie’s breeding partner, has been calling for him since his escape on Tuesday January 31.

He said: “She is distraught she calls for him daily. They have been together for three years – it takes a long time to form a bond but now they are very close.”

Mr Jell, who inherited Charlie from his uncle and picked up Amy when he saw her kept in a tiny cage, is worried Charlie will struggle to survive in the freezing temperatures.

He said: “He could have frozen by now. With all the snow I think he must have got disorientated and doesn’t know how to get home. I have spoken to the Parrot Society and they say they are good at
finding hot spots but the longer he is away the less likely he’ll survive.”

The animal enthusiast admitted when not caring for rare birds he works in pest control erecting nets to capture pigeons and prevent them fouling public areas.

He said: “It is a bit ironic I guess. I hadn’t really thought about it.”

He has been attempting to breed Charlie and Amy, but though the pair have produced 15 eggs, none have hatched.

He said: “Both are still young for breeding so I was hoping they may have success in a few years. I just hope Charlie is returned safe to her. Charlie can talk and is friendly. He talks to my dog
and orders him around.”

If anyone has seen an African Grey Parrot they should contact Lee on 07891372817.

For the past 56 years Paddy has been keeping birds ranging from racing pigeons …

TWEETING IS not a new craze for bird fancier Paddy Murphy as the well-known New Ross man has enjoyed the chirping and twittering of his fantastic selection of rare birds for almost sixty years.

‘Mickey, Molly, Susie…they all know their names,’ said Paddy as he shows off his fabulously colourful selection of parrots and parakeets at his aviary in the Bosheen.

For the past 56 years Paddy has been keeping birds ranging from racing pigeons to canaries and now parrots.

His love for birds developed back in 1955 when Paddy started racing pigeons. His grandfather Paddy Nolan, who reared Paddy, was ‘ always mad’ about birds and as a young boy Paddy often looked on at his grandfather feeding his birds and so his love for these feathered friends grew.

‘It rubbed off on me,’ said Paddy, who started the Pigeon Club in New Ross in 1955 and held the role of the club’s secretary and went on to become President of the Tower Pigeon Club in Waterford.

Paddy enjoyed much success with his pigeons and won a longest race title with a 450 mile win by one of his pigeons. He was the first man in New Ross to win the Loch Garman Cup with Gloster Canaries. Out of 800 entrants he was presented with his coveted award by the then Tánaiste Brendan Corish in Dublin’s Mansion House and what was more memorable for Paddy is that he enjoyed the prestige of featuring on the 6 p.m. news that evening.

‘Keeping these birds is a great pastime and hobby. It always puts me in good humour and I love going to the shows and mixing with Tom, Dick or Harry – it’s a great day out,’ he said.

At eighty years of age, Paddy admits that parrots are ‘much handier’ to keep than pigeons.

‘The pigeons used to kill me but the parrots are great,’ said Paddy, who finished keeping pigeons three years ago.

‘I’m getting old and was not able for the pigeons,’ he added. ‘But the day is too long when you haven’t anything to do when you get older…keeping these birds keeps the brain going’.

Having bought his first parrot five years ago Paddy now enjoys breeding various parrots at his specially made aviaries at the back of his home in the Bosheen.

‘These parrots are like crows in their native land they are so common,’ said Paddy, whose birds are originally from South and East Africa and are brought to Belgium before arriving in Monaghan, where Paddy buys them.

As part of the breeding process, Paddy pays meticulous attention to detail and is slow to divulge some of his best kept and most importantly his successful breeding secrets.

According to Paddy it takes between 19 and 21 days for the birds to hatch, however as he explains if there was a day without sun or a very cold day, it can take an extra day for them to hatch. Paddy jots down such detail into a diary he keeps on his birds in order for him to gain a more accurate time frame as to when his beloved birds will hatch. Four to seven days after they lay Paddy will then check the eggs for baby parrots.

‘When they are born they are grey and then they develop their colour. One day at a time their pin feathers (developing feathers on a bird) come and by 21 days they are feathered and coloured all different colours,’ he explained.

Proudly looking around his aviary, Paddy admits he has never seen such beautifully coloured parrots before.

‘I love cross breeding the parrots and seeing the different colours develop in their feathers,’ he said.

Like Paddy, his love for these feathered creatures has also rubbed off on his son Pascal who also keeps a fine selection of African Grey parrots at his home in Hewittsland.

Inside his kitchen his observant parrot Tyson takes everything in and according to Pascal is liable to say ‘anything’.

‘He takes it all in – that fella has brains to behold,’ said Pascal, who pointed out that his parrot can even talk on the mobile phone to his daughter. ‘You wouldn’t believe what he can do unless you see it’.

‘They have some brains to remember everything – what you are saying now he will be muttering about in two days time,’ added Paddy, who talks to his birds every day.

‘They don’t forget what you say and they love when I put on the radio and put on a musical programme for them to listen to. They pick up the sounds of the programme and will be chirping the tunes they pick up,’ he explained.

For Paddy keeping birds has to be a passion that people truly enjoy as it requires much time and devotion. It is this love for his birds that reaps such rewards for Paddy, who delights in their company, seeing how each new breed develops and how radiant their feathers shine.

‘If you don’t devote time to birds you cannot have birds,’ said Paddy, who spends one hour each morning and another hour in the evening looking after his birds.

‘Experience with birds doesn’t come in one week or one fortnight you have to find it out your own way,’ added Paddy.

Canary in a Coal Mine? A Day to Save the Birds….

This Thursday (January 5, 2012) marks the 10th anniversary of National Bird Day, a day to recognize the threats birds face — both in captivity and in the wild. This day, launched by Born Free USA in coordination with the Avian Welfare Coalition, is a somber reminder of our winged friends’ perilous plight — a plight of which many people across America remain unaware.

The international trade in “pet” parrots (or the domestic trade within countries of origin) remains a major threat to global parrot populations and causes immense suffering to thousands of individual birds.

Poor to no enforcement of international treaties and local laws continues to be a major conservation challenge, especially where illegal practices are viewed as socially acceptable at the local level. In Latin America, illegal wildlife trade is second only to the narcotics trade, and parrots are one of the most victimized animals. Their beauty and charisma have become their curse. Magnificent scarlet macaws once flew in abundance over much of Latin America. Today their numbers have drastically fallen as the striking birds are under constant and sustained threat from deforestation and poaching.

Is captive breeding a panacea to the further decline of imperiled bird species? Threatened and endangered species are some of the most sought-after birds, and those people who are most eager to acquire rare birds are some of the disreputable breeders looking to add new genetic stock to their collection and to cash in on progeny that they produce. Moreover, the trade in captive bred birds provides a smokescreen for trade in wild-caught birds.

For example, in 2011, South African breeders imported more than 5,000 wild caught African grey parrots from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and exported nearly 25,000 African greys to markets around the world. These birds include captive-bred birds produced from wild-caught parents as well as wild-caught birds laundered through South African breeders and exported as “captive-bred.” And on Christmas Eve 2010, 730 wild-caught African greys died on a commercial flight in South Africa. The parrots were part of an order of 1, 650 adult parrots who’d been caught in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to be sold to South African breeders.

Captive breeding is not the answer — protection in the wild is.

A focus on captive breeding also ignores the welfare of the individual animals. Even in the most modern breeding facilities in the United States, birds typically are housed in conditions that fail to meet their physical and behavioral needs. The welfare of birds held in captive breeding facilities in developing countries is most assuredly similar or worse.

Whether birds are wild-caught or captive bred, their welfare in captivity is frequently poor. It is very difficult to meet the needs of these intelligent, highly social, flight-adapted animals in a home environment. The only real solution is to replace demand for parrots as pets with demand for keeping parrots (and all wildlife) in the wild.

There is hope.

Recently, government authorities in Cameroon, Africa confiscated 700 African grey parrots captured in the wild, stuffed into crates and destined for the pet trade. Thankfully these birds were still alive. Cameroon chose to turn the parrots over to our friends at the Limbe Wildlife Center to be rehabilitated and released back into the wild instead of cashing in and laundering the birds back into the trade.

And in Latin America, a project that Born Free supports to protect scarlet macaws in Honduras has been a resounding success. As a direct result, “parrot patrols” organized by local communities in the region, 11 scarlet macaw chicks who were confiscated directly from poachers were provided care until they were old enough to fly and rejoin their flocks and families, instead of spending the rest of their lives in small cages.

January 5 — National Bird Day — is a time to redouble our commitment to the plight of birds everywhere and to recognize that the fight for their survival and freedom is not over. We must persist.

Many seem to think that the problem of bird trade and conservation was solved with the passage of the U.S. Wild Bird Conservation Act in 1992, which effectively reduced the United States from being the largest importer of wild-caught birds to one of the smallest. The passage of the act was a triumphant battle — but we have not yet won the war.

Let us take one day out of the year — January 5 — to consider the birds in our backyards and their cousins flying free from Anguilla (whose national bird, by the way, is the Turtle Dove) to Zimbabwe (whose national bird is the African Fish Eagle).

They need our support.

Leeds man in £5000 parrots con

By Toby Higgins

Published on Monday 19 December 2011 07:45

A fraudster has avoided jail after he conned a parrot expert out of £5,000.

Kevin Alexander, of Ramshead Heights in Seacroft, Leeds, advertised on a trading website two Hyacinth Macaw parrots he claimed to own for £16,000.

The supposed rare birds were seen online by Calderdale parrot fanatic Jack Hutchinson who contacted Alexander, who was using the alias Peter Forbes, about buying them.

He agreed to pay a £5,000 bill for the parrots as deposits, but became suspicious after transferring the cash to a bank account belonging to a Mr Tyreman.

Mr Hutchinson then contacted the police, who tracked Alexander down. Alexander denied the charge until the day of trial at Calderdale Magistrates’ Court, when he finally admitted the charge.

It is the second time Alexander has been convicted of fraud, having admitted selling an imaginary Rolex watch for £1,176.40 at Leeds Crown Court in November last year.

Prosecutor Andrew Dunning said: “Mr Hutchinson is extremely upset by this. He has lost a great deal of faith in human nature and in his hobby. It has affected the way he views the world.”

Phil Axon, defending Alexander, said: “There is a degree of remorse and it’s time he put things into perspective.

“He tried to commit suicide last year and he wishes to address the issues in his life.”

Chairman of the bench Sam Shibil told Alexander: “It seems to me you have not learned your lesson from last year.”

Alexander was given 16-weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months.

He will also be under supervision for 12 months and must pay back £5 per week for the next two years in compensation.

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Website conman tried to hoodwink parrot expert

Published on Monday 19 December 2011 10:00

A fraudster has avoided jail after he conned a parrot expert out of £5,000.

Kevin Alexander advertised two hyacinth macaws he claimed to own on a website for £16,000.

The rare birds, which he never had, were seen by Calderdale parrot fanatic Jack Hutchinson who contacted Alexander, who was using the alias Peter Forbes, about buying them. He agreed to pay £5,000 deposit on the parrots, but became suspicious after transferring the cash to a bank account belonging to a Mr Tyreman.

Mr Hutchinson then contacted the police, who tracked Alexander down. Mr Tyreman was not prosecuted.

Alexander denied the charge until the day of trial, when he finally admitted the charge.

It’s the second time Alexander has been convicted of fraud, having admitted at Leeds Crown Court selling an imaginary Rolex watch for £1,176.40 in November last year.

Prosecutor Andrew Dunning said: “Mr Hutchinson is extremely upset by this. He has lost a great deal of faith in human nature and in his hobby. It has affected the way he views the world.”

Phil Axon, defending Alexander, said: “There is a degree of remorse and it’s time he put things into perspective. He tried to commit suicide last year and he wishes to address the issues in his life.” Chairman of the bench Sam Shibil told Alexander: “This court believes this case should have been sent to the crown court because of the seriousness of it.

“It seems to me you have not learned your lesson from last year.”

Alexander, of Seacroft, Leeds, was given 16 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months. He will also be under supervision for 12 months and must pay £5 a week for the next two years in compensation.

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