Parrots and Parakeets

The Barnards, Holly and Hugh, live in The Last Aviary, with the Cranes and Pheasants. They love to take baths in the bird drinking bowl instead of the fountain where they are supposed to bathe. birds are like children. They have their own view of what they want to do and often this is not what you had in mind.

Arwin, our fist Crimson Wing, came from a woman who was dying of cancer. Special arrangements were made to bring Arwin into the sanctuary. Arwin is a sweet and very gentle bird who had never been in the company of her own kind. When she first met Prince, a Crimson Wing who was gifted to the aviary to be her mate, she fell head over heels in love. She pursued him until he finally fell for her. As we see time and time again...at Pandemonium the girl usually gets the guy.

Mico, our first Moustache, love almonds. If he doesn’t get his daily ration, he yells and yells. If we are out of almonds, Mico alone can convince us to run to the supermarket, he can be relentless. Mico would love a human to sponsor his almond addiction.

We allow our Plumheads to raise babies because they are endangered in the wild. We never remove babies from the nest and we let families stay together as long as they would like. This year, we were late in moving teenagers to their own quarters, and by the time we did so, the parents and children were all happy to get their own space!

Our Rainbow Lorikeets, Peeki and his first mate, Harli, had no offspring even though they had been together for 10 years. They seemed very much in love and were always grooming or playing with each other. We were surprised to find out after Harli’s death, that Harli was a male! That explained why the couple had not had children! Harli the Second arrived from a rescue group shortly after the original Harli’s death. At first it appeared that Peeki and Harli the Second did not like each other since they rarely interacted. We were therefore very pleasantly surprised when they produced first two offspring, then later an additional baby. Now we have a family of five lorikeets. Lorikeets are little clowns and this group is no exception. All five hang upside down, hop around their aviary and make a mad dash for the bathing bowl after fresh water has been added.

Abraham, one of the many Rock Pebblers in residence, surprised us one day when he went up to a new bird and said, “It’s okay.” We now use his calming spirit to reassure new arrivals, for he seems to sense when someone needs a friendly welcome.

Our first Rosella, Cabernet, came from a bird rescue group where she had been enclosed in a too-small parrot cage. Rosellas fly great distances in the wild and by nature are hard to tame. This bird went from being angry to seemingly at peace at Pandemonium. It is wonderful to watch our flock of Rosellas make use of every bit of their 20 foot aviary.

Our first Bourkes came from a Human Society where they had not been adopted for many months. Bourkes are very sweet and gentle birds. The way to distinguish the males is by checking the color above their nares. Boys sport blue bands in that area.

The male Scarlet Chested Gross Parakeet are extremely beautiful birds. They have green heads, blue backs, bright red chests and yellow underbellies. The females pale in comparison. Females are green and blue. Egg sitting is almost entirely done by the females...but once the egg hatches, males do bring the females food while she keeps the babies warm.

Turquosines come from Australia. Most of ours are yellow, which is a mutation that is rarely found in nature. Turks (as they are commonly called) are mellow birds until mating season comes. Then they become some what aggressive towards other birds. For some strange reason, all of our male Turks like the same female. There was so much competition for her, we had to remove all of the males except one from the Aussie Aviary. This male must have felt like he hit the jackpot when he realized that all the competing birds were removed from the aviary!