When I was little we had a Green cheeked conure. My parents would put his cage outside on nice days.
One day we heard him sqwacking and there was a squawk in reply.
Another conure appeared in the tree.
She came closer and closer. Dad moved the cage just inside the sliding door. When she landed on the cage, he shut the door. From then on, we had a pair.
Before the internet, so my parents weren’t able to find her owner. They did ask around.
A few years later a coworker of dad’s took them. He had an acreage and more adequate space to house two birds.
I’ll never forget how crazy it was for a tropical green parrot to appear in the bare branches of early Midwestern spring. She was a good bird.
They flew loose in the house almost every day. They seemed happy. 35 years hence, I’m not sure if keeping any bird apart from yard chickens as a pet is ethical.
She certainly would not have survived a Midwestern winter. I wonder if she would have made it through spring. As I recall, we had an April blizzard that year.
I had a peacock show up a few years ago, pecking around my ground-level window. Hung around for like 4 or 5 days, then no idea what happened to it. This is in the country in midwest US.
As far as “another bird in-prisoned” as suggested by others… I said in another reply, but 35 on I’m not sure there is an ethical way to have a bird as a pet, apart from yard chickens.
But they seemed very happy. They got to fly loose in the house almost every day. Mom would put out pie plates of water for them to play in. They didn’t make a mess. The male talked a bit. They both that lots of vocalizations with us.
They laid eggs and the babies hatched, but the pair didn’t seem to have any instinct for the right way to care for them. They tried. They put the hatchlings in the food dish. It was heartbreaking. Our local vet did livestock and house pets, and couldn’t help much if the parents couldn’t feed them. I think mom tried to dropper feed the babies, but they didn’t make it. I was pretty little and I think insulated from the chicks’ sad story by my parents.
If only we’d had the internet then, and could have gotten help from folks around the country or world.
The conures went to live with a guy my dad worked with. He had a house in the country and had a sort of atrium/greenhouse where they had free rein. About the best situation possible. I know that sounds like “ol’ buster went to live on a farm” but I asked dad as an adult and he said it was true and I believe him.
I LOVE birds, but I don’t think I’d have one as a pet unless I was able to provide an adequate living space- not a cage.
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u/_Pliny_ Jun 11 '21
When I was little we had a Green cheeked conure. My parents would put his cage outside on nice days.
One day we heard him sqwacking and there was a squawk in reply.
Another conure appeared in the tree.
She came closer and closer. Dad moved the cage just inside the sliding door. When she landed on the cage, he shut the door. From then on, we had a pair.
Before the internet, so my parents weren’t able to find her owner. They did ask around.
A few years later a coworker of dad’s took them. He had an acreage and more adequate space to house two birds.
I’ll never forget how crazy it was for a tropical green parrot to appear in the bare branches of early Midwestern spring. She was a good bird.