Parrots & Wild Bird Species Case Histories 2006

Rosie Rescued March 06	We heard about Rosie via a friend. Her neighbours had acquired this 'really annoying bird' who screamed all day. We went to check on it and found Rosie in a small cage on the floor of their yard surrounded by dogs and cats, scared out of her wits. Her tail was filthy and her wings freshly clipped. Apparently Rosie had turned up on their fence one day so they cut off her wing feathers and put her in her little prison. We are not proud of the bully tactics we used to acquire her, but we never regretted it for a moment. Rosie was crazy. She had obviously lived with a family for a while; she could cry, scream, spit, sing, and she adored children. We put her through the usual initial steps; time out in the berry bush, freedom of the house, much-needed rain baths. She flourished - but was still a little crazy. She must have been of breeding age as we had a 'play' nest-box attached to the roof of our house and she was in and out of that constantly. We'll pick up her story with Jim (below) as the two of them eventually became a pair.
Gemma Donated March 06	Gemma came to us from Monkey Bay Wildlife Sanctuary. We had an owl and at this time had no facilities for raptors. Monkey Bay agreed to help, and whilst delivering the owl to them, we spotted Gemma in their 'hospital'. She was probably the most badly clipped, scruffy little white-fronted we have ever seen, and scared stiff of the rather vocal dogs. We agreed a swap and Gemma came home with us. She was a beatiful little creature, and bonded rapidly to us. Her feathers grew in amazingly quickly; it was almost like she was bursting with new growth and just needed the right conditions to bring them out. Gemma followed the now all-too familiar pattern of short flights, nights inside, longer flights, less nights inside... until away she went. She reinforced the importance of that initial bonding process; one particular day she was stuck up in a tree too high to reach with the ladder. We knew she could make the flight, but she wasn't confident enough to leap. It was totally dark when in desperation we shined a torch onto ourselves, calling to Gemma - and she came! A flight in total darkness. Now that's trust. Once she was totally comfortable with her own abilities, Gemma left home for the last time within about four months of her joining us. An amazing recovery.
Jim Rescued April 06	A colleague donated this bird which had come to him via a freind who 'didn't want him anymore'. He was in the usual state; dirty, badly clipped, nervous, aggressive - you must be getting tired of reading these words. Anyhow, he latched on to the happy madhouse, its occupants and particularly Rosie. We would stroll around, each with a bird on our shoulder, showing them their teritory, picking berries and flowers, and generally playing happy families. It was quite idylic for us, just like our first steps with Bonnie and Clyde. Jim was first to start flying and would head for the hills on a regular basis, leaving Rosie screaming like a horror-movie character until his return. As soon as Rosie could fly, the two of them would circle around, Jim proficient and graceful, Rosie cackling and screaming like a banshee and mad-Jonesy running rings around the pair of them. One day, after an inordinately long, ever-increasing circle about, they sailed over the horizon together and we never saw them again.
Fiona Donated April 06	Fiona was an easy release. Named after Princess Fiona of Shrek fame, she had been owned by an American lady who had raised her from a chick. She was in perfect condition. She had never been clipped or caged and her flight skills were as good as any wild bird. After a couple of days in our house, and after around 7 trips to the fly-screen repairers, it dawned on us why her owner had decided to give her up. Fiona was more than ready to leave home. We let her outside, she came back in for the first night, and thereafter refused to have anything to do with us. She hovered around the area for a few days, checking out the local talent, and sampling the available food. And then one day, she took off, and that was that. No problems there - it's the crazies we have trouble with! I had warned her owner that Fiona's departure was imminent so she came up to say a tearful farewell, convinced her bird would be come screeching to her side as she always used to after a day of separation. But Fiona wouldn't even come down out of the tree for a scratch. She remained on her branch, head to one side, gazing down with that disdainful eye-ball pose that parrots do so very well. We've said it a million times: these are wild animals. They only love us humans when they have no choice!
Beaky Rescued June 06	Beaky was an almost fully-fledged white fronted, found around 1 mile from our centre. We don't know if she was the victim of a failed nest-rob attempt or had been attacked by another bird or animal. Whatever happened, she was in a bad way. For the first time ever we contemplated euthenizing a bird. She was in terrible pain and petrified; wouldn't eat, couldn't sleep and screamed all the time. If you've never heard a white-fronted (or any Amazon for that matter) scream in pain and fear, you are a lucky person. It literally tears at your insides. We couldn't bear it. In desperation, we put her in a cardboard box, closed the lid and hoped she would fall asleep in the darkness. She did - sweet relief. The following day she seemed calmer and we tried to feed her again, this time with a little more success. As the days progressed, the pain lessened until eventually she syringe-fed like any normal baby parrot (albeit a little more messily, if that's possible!). We made several trips to the Animal Medical Centre in Belize City, where Dr Crawford removed the most badly damaged portions of her beak. The beak initially re-grew angled off to one side and had to be taken back again to the point of straight growth. Eventually it started to grow more normally. Beaky started to chew sticks and feed herself and coupled with the confident flight skills of a parrot that has never been clipped, she was soon all over the place. One day, two white-fronted adults came around and beaky clattered off after them with a cacophony of screams. We would really like to think she recognised them as her parents...
Basil Rescued September 06	Basil belonged to a friend of a friend. She was headed to the States for a few months and didn't really have much affinity with the bird; expensive to feed, noisy, a worry with the dogs... usual complaints. Basil lived in a wire box hung under a tree about 3 feet off the floor (dog nose-height). He had just about regrown from his last clipping, so in the absence of an aviary at this time, he was confined to barracks. He clung on to the nearest human (Nikki) and refused to budge. Absolutely adorable, as usual; clingy, loving, affectionate. He became an accomplished flier in a very short time and pretty soon the house became too small for him. We had the usual heart-in-the-mouth feelings at first release and the usual clambering around on ladders. But Basil was a model case; he loved to fly, loved to come home and eventually went further and further afield, calling to other parrots, staying out more and more often, until eventually he just stopped coming home. He left home in December, around the time the red loreds are pairing up so we have high hopes he found a mate..
Connie March 2007	Connie is a sad tale, made all the worse because she was such a delightful, mischievous little bird. We considered omitting her from the website as she was a tragic failure and entirely our fault. However - it is because of Connie that we changed our attitude to what we were doing and Belize Bird Rescue was truly born. We found Connie in the smallest cage we have ever seen (now a feature of our house of horrors). She had been in there for 2 years and was a pitiful creature. She was under the eaves of a house so had never had a bath, her tortilla diet was pushed through the bars and her water bowl was a little yellow saucer from a child's tea set - which doubled as her only toy. She was the first bird we had after moving from a house on the hill to our real home 500 yards downhill. Our existing 'free' birds easily found their way to us and their food source (Jonsey and Gemma) and as Connie was still flightless she did not pose a problem. The tried and tested release method worked well up on the hill as we were surrounded by large trees and the birds were unable to venture very far once released. However, the surrounds of the new house included visible open spaces (the trees are growing rapidly now, thank goodness) and this proved fatal for Connie. During the day, we kept her outside in an open cage as we had with all of our clipped and flightless birds, but we underestimated the speed of her recovery. One day, without warning, she simply took off over the open space to the bushline. By the time we had run around the house to see where she had gone, she was nowhere in sight. We searched all day and our workers eventually found four clipped feathers in the undergrowth on the treeline. We can only assume she miscalculated her landing and ended up on the floor to become lunch for a vigilant hawk. After Connie we decided that we would build the aviary. If we were to be of any practical help to these birds, then we needed to do things properly. We will never forget Connie and will always feel terrible about what happened. A salutary lesson indeed.