Wild B&G in Caracas

[Pajarita]

Check this out! How wonderful is that?!

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/car ... ss-BBg2MFa

[Wolf]

What a wonderful story.

[liz]

That would be a glorious sight. If I lived in a parrot area I probably would not have captive parrots. I would be caring for the wild ones and hopefully doing rescue, rehab and release. They would stay where they are fed.

The little Starling (Friskies) that I rescued from the cat and hand fed has returned to me for 2 summers now.

[Pajarita]

Yes, that would be the right way of loving parrots, Liz. I agree with you 100%. But what I found most wonderful about this story is the fact that they have adapted so well to living in a city - granted that it's done thanks to the people who help feed them and protect their nests but that the fact that there is people willing to do that without trapping them for their own is also a most wonderful fact! One of the few and far behind things that make me feel there might still be some hope for people on this earth....

[shiraartain]

This is so amazing! My mom used to tell me the story of a young Myna which she and her siblings took care of until it was ready to go back to the wild. It would return to them every so often. Then it didn't show up for longer then usual and by the time it finally came back it had some sort of rope wrapped around its leg- it had escaped from someone who had forcefully captured it . It kept returning to them until once again it stopped showing up and then they never saw it again. Could have fallen victim to the cycle of life or been captured by someone again.

Wild animals trusting humans is still risky, but it definitely is a much better balance than keeping them caged.

[liz]

I have feeders set up in the front yard. (We have 20 feet Red Tip bushes in the back yard.) This is a quarter of an acre in the city limits. Every kind of bird in this area finds us. They come according to species as a flock at a specific time of day. They then move on and another species comes in. If the feeders run out they come to the window to tell me. Instead of putting hanging plants on my porch I have bird houses for the little species. (One year a little sparrow lost it's mate and had to do all the feeding itself. Then one day I saw a lady cardinal stick it's head in the sparrow's house. The only thing I could think of was that something happened to her nest but her maternal instincts had her helping the sparrow. The little sparrow accepted the help.)

Birds will return to any place that has food and safety. When the starlings returned to eat I would put Friskies out to socialize with them. Of course he came back to me when they moved on. (There was one time that instead of coming back he went to my chicken who showed him what to scratch for.)

Friskies returns in the summer with the other starlings but always comes to the window to let me know he is back.

Sorry, I am rambling again.

[Pajarita]

No, not rambling but a wonderful story. I also feed the 'street' birds. Every morning, I fill up a plastic container I use for the purpose, get some water in a SS dog bowl and, opening the front door to the house, go "PURRRUU PURRRUU PURRRUU" (my attempt at cooing like pigeons do ) and, even before I finish the first purrrruuu, I can hear their wings flapping as they come down from my roof and my two next door neighbors' where they all perch waiting for their breakfast. I started with a little flock of 9 pigeons but now my 'customers' (as my husband calls them) are about 25 pigeons, 15 to 20 sparrows, 4 starlings and 2 mourning doves. My grandchildren beg me to come and stay overnight so they can see how I 'call' the birds in the morning and my 10 year old grand-daughter calls it 'The all you can eat birdie buffet'

And I had a quaker my grandmother and I had raised to release that flew away to join a wild flock, came back, stayed for two years, flew away again (she was never caged or restricted to the indoor at any point in time) and, although she did not come back, she stayed in the area because we could hear her talking in the trees on the street.

[Harpmaker]

We have flocks of feral parrots here in southern California. At least one "rescue" group is dedicated to catching injured or sick parrots, nursing them back to health, and releasing them. I seldom see the flocks, though. We also have feral peacocks that have escaped from the Arboretum. I find it interesting to watch the traffic try to maneuver around a peacock with tail feathers spread that has decided to block a road.

[liz]

The road I have to travel to High Point as a pond on each side. A big flock of geese reside there.
They walk their babies across the road in single file to get to the other pond and stop all traffic.
I always looked for them as I went through but one time the flock came down from behind and set down in front of me barely missing my windshield. I am glad I was driving slow looking for them.

For a couple days I noticed that one was staying in one area and not following the flock. The more I watched the more concerned I became. Early one morning, I took my mom with me so she could watch, I went on a wild goose chase with a big laundry basket. I did not take time to look at it but took it to NC Zoo Wildlife Rehab. When I took her out of the basket the rehabber found the fishing line imbedded in both legs. They had to keep her a month.

I have already gone on to long. I'll tell you about her release some other time.

[Pajarita]

Awww, so good of you, Liz. It reminds of the time when I found what I thought was a wounded female Canadian goose in the supermarket parking lot with her male trying very hard to keep everybody away from her. I parked my car on one side, made a corral of all the garbage cans in the parking lot and herded them inside, blocking the lane with my body so the cars had to wait for them to go in, ran inside to get seeds, bread and a container with water which I put down near them and kept watch for about 4 hours, directing traffic and people so they would not be bothered. She drank A LOT of water, ate and took a good nap and, when she woke up, she flew away with her husband following her... the poor thing wasn't wounded, she must have been ran down from migrating and was too tired to continue but the water, food and rest did the trick. By the way, this was in Pennsylvania where everybody and their grandmothers hunt, keep dogs outside, etc and the entire town (Brodheadsville) thought I was completely deranged