As a professional performer who happens to work with parrots, I meet thousands of people each week and I get invited to a lot of parrot rescues because of this.  Now I know that most of the rescues I’ve been to sure meant well, but the fact remains that only a few are making a difference like Christy is at Zazu’s House Parrot Sanctuary just north of Seattle.

I was in the middle of loading my illusions into the arena in Everett, when I received a picture message from one of our tour managers.  She had taken a picture of a Hyacinth in a pet shop across the street from us, and told me it was “the most amazing shop and birds are out everywhere!”  She was right about it being an amazing shop.  I walked into Apollo’s Bird Store and struck up a conversation with the owner, Bunni.  You could tell instantly that she was a fan of birds and was willing to do anything to make sure they go to good homes.

Photo by Jamieleigh
Location: Bothell, WA
Pictured: Blue and Gold Macaw

It was then, that I first heard about Zazu’s House.  It was this mysterious rescue that I needed to know more about.  Bunni mentioned how the rescue lives off of donations and that once a year the pet shop holds a silent auction to raise money for Zazu’s House.  Last year they raised almost $10,000 which went towards the construction of a new building.  It was this drive that made me realize I needed to see this amazing place.

Within a couple days we had an appointment with the rescue, and we followed Bunni out while trying to make sure we got back to Everett in time for shows that evening.  When the gates opened up and we drove up to the estate, I was blown away.  This wasn’t just any old rescue, this was a heaven! 

Photo by Dave
Location: Bothell, WA
Macaw Haven Aviary in Zazu’s House

There were two sections.  One was for “special needs” and the other was for macaws only.

Since I choose editing video over writing to relay my message, I scheduled another visit so that I could film this incredible place, and share it with you.  I felt inclined to donate, and hope that if you’re in a position to do the same that you do so without hesitation.  Just watch the video above and you’ll soon know why.

Blue and gold macaw

In my opinion, one of the things that most strongly speaks to the intellect of a parrot is the use and reworking of the words in its vocabulary. Taking two unrelated words and placing them together to form another word or phrase with an entirely different meaning is the “recombining” of words.
Many birds have the ability to put labels to the things around them  Some words are the names of objects, such as a bell. Other words are adjectives such as colors, big or small, hard or soft. Birds have repeatedly shown a remarkable ability to correctly apply an appropriate descriptive label to a given noun.
In her work with the famous african grey, Alex, Dr Irene Pepperberg taught Alex to identify the substance of which an item composed. To simplify this question, she would ask “What matter?”  Alex would respond with: “paper” or “wood”, for example. In one test, one such substance was cork, a bottle stopper.
Alex was smart, and he was also a bird and so was familiar with a variety of nuts. He, by his own choosing, renamed the unshelled almond “cork-nut” and would call it only that. He also referred to an apple as a ban-erry. Dr. Pepperberg makes the assumption that this combination comes from “ban”ana, perhaps because of the similar color inside the fruit, and ch”erry” as both fruits share a similar shape and color on the outside.

This is the ultimate example of the recombination of words. Think, for a moment, about the brain power and creativity that goes into making that connection.

I have a friend whose african grey strung together this sentence on his own: “Wanna go big, red chair”. This was a request for a ride in the car, which is red, big, and actually does contain “chairs”. Someone else told me that their blue and gold macaw referred to meowing as “kitty song”. Pretty adorable, and smart.

Has your bird ever made the connection to put the name of an object together with an adjective, such as “ball” and “blue”, or “water” and “cold”?

If you’re looking for ideas on things you can do with your parrot that he’ll love and enjoy so you don’t make the same mistake I just made, check out my Trick Training Program that will have your parrot performing 7 cute tricks in less then 2 weeks:

Taming, Training & Tricks for Parrots

Greenwing Macaws

Photo by www.tripadvisor.com

Have you ever wondered why parrots, being prey animals, are so brightly colored?  How is a brilliantly colored macaw supposed to blend into the green background of the rainforest canopy?
Have you ever casually looked into your bird’s cage as you were passing by to find him gone? You try to hold down that feeling of panic as you frantically search the cage with your eyes. And then there he is, right where he was when your eyes looked in that direction a minute ago and saw nothing.
Camouflage is a very complex science, and it seems to sometimes dismiss logic. The very feature that makes a parrot stand out in the animal world: its coloring, is the same one that helps keep it hidden from the eyes of a hungry predator.
Parrots, and many other animals, use pattern and color variation as a means of camouflage. The purpose for bold patterns and vivid colors is to disrupt the outline of an animal’s body. As the predator’s eyes follow the contours of the what they believe to be the body of the prey, a color or pattern change will draw the eye sharply to the left or right, disrupting the image. Some brightly colored parrots tend to have green, yellow or blue undersides that blend into the scenery in the dim forest lighting from below, and rely on this pattern and color disruption for safety from above.

Female Eclectus Parrot

Photo by www.paws4pets.co.uk

In fact, everything about a parrot’s coloring is completely deceiving. Many vibrantly colored feathers do not actually contain what appears to be their predominant color at all, but are instead the product of a trick of lighting. Some colors absorb light, others reflect it, and by making use of the Tyndall effect, which is an illusion created using light, the same illusion that makes the sky appear blue when it is not, parrots have evolved to host the coloring that makes it safest in it’s natural habitat.
Given that most are tree dwellers, it makes sense that the majority of parrots are green, or mostly green. Or are they?  In the book Parrots: A Natural History, authors John Sparks and Tony Soper say: “‘Parrot green’ is produced with the help of a yellow pigment. This is laid down in the surface layers of the feathers and interacts with Tyndall blue to produce the illusion of green. If the yellow pigment is artificially removed, …the feathers turn blue.”
If you were to take one of the back feathers of your blue and gold macaw and hold it up to different angles of direct lighting, you will notice that at certain angles, it is distinctly brown, not blue. Green, blue and purple feathers actually contain none of these colors at all.

Rainbow Lorikeet

Photo by www.birdphotos.com

For anyone interested in the origins and nature of parrots, the above mentioned book is a great read, and much of the the information in this post came from within its pages.

Rose Breasted Cockatoo

Your best chance at a healthy and successful diet for your parrot is in the variety of foods you put in her bowl. By rotating the different foods available in the different food groups such as vegetables, fruits and grains, you increase the chances of hitting upon just the right combination, at the right time, for your individual bird.
In the wild, some birds will dine on the same food source for weeks until it is used up, or gone out of season. They then move on to another food. In our homes, birds don’t have the luxury of choice. They get what we serve, and may not always be what they need at that time.

Every species has different requirements for their diet. A macaw needs a diet that is lower in protein and higher in fat than a cockatoo who requires the opposite. Amazons need abundant vitamin A, african greys need calcium, and so on. Even this is a generalization. Within the macaw family, for instance, the hyacinth needs an even higher fat percentage than the average blue and gold. To further complicate things, each individual bird has nutritional needs unique only to them.
This creates a lot of challenges for parrot owners. Since we aren’t able to determine the exact set of needs in a particular bird, and since you will never hear your bird say “Polly want a vitamin D3 supplement”, there’s a lot of guess work involved. The best way to cover all the bases is to offer a bit of everything. Your bird knows what she needs. When she goes through a picky phase, she may be telling you that she needs a change in her diet.

Try stepping outside your comfort zone by trying veggies that you are unfamiliar with. I had no idea what bok choy or kohlrabi was before I had parrots. Throw in the left over parsley. Serve whole carrots and beets with the tops attached. Give a piece of whole grain toast for breakfast, or with peanut butter later in the day for a snack. Has your bird ever tried a parsnip? Mine love them. Try to change the menu as often as possible and include as many foods from as many groups as you can.Your bird will have a healthier diet and be more willing to try new foods in the future.

Parrots

Photo by Alan Lee

In the early morning hours, as the sun is rising and weather permitting, wild parrots all over the world visit clay licks on tall riverbanks to eat dirt.  This practice has long confounded bird watchers, conservationists and scientists alike, and while all of the benefits of this activity are still a mystery, more and more is being discovered and understood.

Wild parrots forage on plants, their fruits and their seeds as part of  their natural diet.  However, plants naturally produce chemicals, poisons, that protect themselves, their unripened fruits and seeds from violators.  As parrots consume these plants, they can become laden with toxins that can overwhelm their system and interfere with nutrient and mineral absorption.  They get tummy aches.  Their diet is less complete.

Scarlet Macaws

Photo by InkaNatura.com

Enter the clay lick.  Not only are the cliffs at the riverbank rich with the minerals that are missing from the parrot’s natural diet, but the clay content in the soil contains some of the same ingredients found in our over-the-counter stomach and digestion ailment products.  Clay coats the intestinal tract and binds to the toxins that have been eaten and passes them through the digestive system so that they are not able to be absorbed into the blood stream.

There are still many questions about the clay licks that go unanswered: for instance, it’s unknown how often a single parrot visits his local clay lick.  It isn’t understood why that, while parrots benefit from a high clay content in riverbank soil, they don’t also ingest other soils that have been tested and shown to have a higher nutritional content.

There certainly isn’t enough knowledge about this behavior for us to be adding clay to OUR parrot’s diets, although some products now include clay in their list of ingredients.  We simply don’t know how much is being safely consumed in the wild.  It makes me wonder what other resources wild parrots and animals are using for medicinal purposes and health benefits that we don’t yet know about.  We owe a huge debt to these pioneers who have taught the human race so much.

Blue and gold macaw, parrots

Photo by Alan Lee

Field researchers logged in about 1,000 parrots visiting the clay lick in Tambopata, Peru early one morning.  Can you imagine the noise? Most people seem to associate the macaw with clay licks, but, in actuality, there are many species that benefits from them.  Parakeets, amazons, pionus, caiques, african greys, conures, lorikeets and parrotlets are some of the others parrot species that frequent the clay licks as well as many mammals.

Clay licks have become a huge attraction for eco-tourists. There are many eco-tours that make the clay licks a focal point in the tour and lodges have been built locally to house the tourists.  This brings a lot of money into the local economy and helps to support the conservational efforts for these magnificent parrots.