The bird has become a part of our family.
Despite having his wings clipped he can and does fly. The girls are very very good about him for the most part.
Caeli does not hesitate to bark and to try and push the bird about with her head.
Carmeh rushes to the cage every morning to try and uncover the bird on her own. She does think she is the birds' Mom.
It has taken a good deal of effort and patience on our part to be sure Chiquito is eating properly. He was quite happy to eat corn and sunflower seeds for the rest of his life. We are pushing a more healthy diet of fruit and veggies. Note his cute little tongue.
Since this photo was taken the green in front of the eye is now grey and the chest and top of head are more white. It is obvious that the bird was dyed yellow for sales. My friend Nancy here in Mazatlan sent me some information on the illegal capture of birds. Nancy very firmly tried to explain things to me in an email…..here is a copy /paste.
If it has a band on it with a number it is legal, if not, it isn't. I learned a lot when we fostered those 50 babies of the 400 that were captured in 2008.. and since. When we were given the two that couldn't be released from that bunch they were banded before we got them.
They beat the bushes and make them fly into nets and take those that are too little to fly from the nests. Yours may have been hand raised – caught as a tiny tot, or it may have even been born in captivity, but its ancestors were likely wild caught.
You might call Martha Armenta, the head of Conrehabit but it is pretty much impossible to get a bird legalized unless you have its history and can prove it. Agricultural inspection points are probably your biggest worry when you travel.
I really believe that we should stop the trade in wild caught birds, it is really awful and so so many die. I know how lovely they are, I am a bird person myself you know, but after seeing those 400 birds, most not even 2 inches tall and have to eat from a syringe… you know it's wrong. Did you read my posts from back then?
In our defense we only bought the bird in order to give it a better life than it already had and we knew we could provide it with a future here in Mazatlan or in Culiacan. We never intended to take it out of Mexico. We did suspect it was illegally caught but the fellow did tell us it was hand raised. Chiquito does not bite and is rather gentle for a wild bird so we don't really know. Compared to the parrot we rescued in Acapulco this one seems very tame. Not sure If I mentioned it before but Colin has raised birds from eggs before we got together 27 years ago so he does know what he is doing. Still we do acknowledge Nancy's local expertise and will not buy another again. Well I won't, I can't speak for Colin.
If you click on this
link you can read about Nancy and Paul's efforts to help save some parrot babies a few years back. There are 4 other links to click on within that link for more details. A very interesting story. Wow you guys really stepped up to the plate.
Meanwhile it looks like our 'rescue' bird may be a monk parrot.
Monk Parrot aka Quaker Parrot. We think this is what Chiquito will look like.
We can see these beautiful teal feathers in Chiquito!!
The Monk Parrot is a great talker they say so we had better get busy teaching it some words. It's constant squawks are driving me nutso.!!
Happy birthday Mom!!! Just think how far you have come from last year at this time! Enjoy your day.
Tags: celebrations, Chiquito, Mexico, pets
