Story Bird: Little Bird
On a balmy summer day in August, I was taking our five parrots (three Amazons
and two Goffins Cockatoos) out to the patio where I had three cages for them to
climb around on.
Four of the birds are very tame, but as Little Bird was a rescue and Karen at
the African Grey (Denver) thought perhaps wild-caught originally, I should have
been particularly vigilant as far as checking his flight feathers. I went
indoors to get food, and when I came out, Little Bird was gone!
It was terrible, and part of the problem was that he stayed in the tops of the
trees, and from 40 feet below, he blended in perfectly. I called to him, though,
and he answered, and with instruction from "The Idiots Guide to Bird Care" got
out a tape that we had made of the birds singing and whistling, and added to it.
I played it constantly when I wasn't calling him myself.
Little Bird flew from tree top to tree top: cottonwoods, ash trees, willows.
On the third day, I realized that he couldn't come down. And that he probably
hadn't eaten or drank, although we have a large pond in the backyard. I put his
cage in the middle of the yard, calling and whistling to him, with food and
water on top. A lady from the Gabriel Foundation returned my call with
encouragement.
Then, I took my number one Amazon, Keikoa out on the forth day. She and the
cockatoos had been out there each day, helping me call to Little Bird. She was
sick of being outside. After a few minutes, she flew to the ground and proceeded
to walk towards the house. The light bulb went on!
I praised her, and picked her up and let her fly down again, with again, much
praise. Little Bird flew down to a lower branch on a tree by me, but still not
low enough to reach. Keikoa flew to the ground again, I showed Little Bird the
cage, and he tried to fly to the swing set-but it was too slick, and he
fluttered to the ground. He then proceeded to walk over to the cage, climbed up
to the top, and while I held my breath, he took the longest drink I've ever
seen! I put Keikoa on the patio cage and approached Little Bird quietly,
thinking I would wait until he climbed into his cage. Talking to him calmly, I
made a split-second decision and grabbed him with both hands, thrust him into
his cage, closed the door and carried his cage inside while declaring my love
for him and Keikoa (now on my shoulder) through hysterical tears.
On Saturday, after Little Bird had recovered from being exhausted, traumatized,
dehydrated and very hungry, we took him to the African Grey to be groomed. We
were amazed to find that he had only two flight feathers on each wing! The
feathers that Karen cut are now taped to my sliding door as a reminder. In fact,
now we usually put the birds IN the cages on the patio!
Little Bird hasn't been outside-yet, mom isn't ready for that.
