Abstract
[Editor's Note: 77Jis story takes place ill Paraguay iobere there may be no legal restrictions 011 allounng exotic birds to fiyfree. it is an entirely differeiu situation in the United States. There are myriad tail's 011 the Federal. State and local ierels that control tery strictly the handling of exotic birds. r'ou must assume that ii is absctutetyforbtdden ta allow a11 exotic bird its freedom a11y uhei« i11 the U.S.
In addition to tbe legality qf the matter, you. must consider the uell-being of the bird. ft is dangerous for exotic birds to be set free. 77w ms/ majority of those that accidentally escape and are not soon recaptured. die.
Thefoilounng tale is joyful and lifts the spirit. it takes place i11 a fardistant land where tbe conditions are quite dtfferent than those in the United States. Enjoy the tale-hut don 'I do the trick. SD.f
A group of friends were visit~ing in the small living room of the house, with most of the conversation centering on the sleek, fluores-
cent-green Red-sided Eclectus male on William's shoulder. Suddenly, the bird turned toward the screen door, stuck out its long neck and did a quick short flap of his wings, then, looking at his owner, did it again. "It's getting past sundown and he wants to go home," I explained. "Should we drive hack or let him fly home?"
"Oh, fly, fly," the guests babbled. No sooner had we opened the screen door and all walked out onto the porch, when the Eclectus took off in a flash of color, burst through an opening in the tropical foliage, and climbed to 100 feet in the sky. He circled the grounds in a wide arc and with several squawking calls, headed straight for home a half mile away. The characteristic laborious wing-flaps of this species carried him away surprisingly quickly.
My pair of Red-sided Eclectus Parrots was purchased from a breeder three years ago. At that time, the female was one and a half years old, the male six months. The two birds are
from unrelated parents.
Every time one of my friends would come ·over to visit and see my new pets, they would exclaim "Oh' They are so beautiful." And so the name stuck. Mr. and Mrs. Beautiful it was.
Though neither Eclectus was wingcli pped when I got them, they had not heen kept in a very large cage. I built them a 6 ft. x 6 ft. x 8 ft. high cage with play perches and an L-shaped nest box. Mr. Beautiful became the better flyer of the two.
Well, I kept them caged for about eight months. But Mr. Beautiful was so intelligent that he discovered how to open the cage door and get out. The first time he escaped, he stayed in the trees about a hundred feet away from my yard. He would come back to the deck to eat food and get water, but he didn't want me to catch him and return him to the cage. He was out about a week. Most nights he would return to Mrs. Beautiful and sleep on top of the cage. During the days, he would fly all around, sometimes quite far from the house.
When I finally got him back into the cage, Mrs. Beautiful was so mad at him I couldn't believe it. She instantly gave him a beating and bit him. After that, he did not much like being caged. I began the routine of letting one bird out of the cage for a week, then letting the other one out for a week, always keeping one of them in the cage. Mrs. B. would stick quite close to home and always come back to sleep in her box, whereas Mr. B. began gravitating towards a friend's house the next block over. He liked to hang out with my friend's two macaws.
It finally got to a point where Mr. B. would not let me catch him because he knew I was going to put him back into his cage. At this point, I made the decision to just let Mrs. B. out also. She would go away for the day but always come back to her box for the night. Their total range tended to extend no more than three miles or so. Sometimes Mr. B. would fly over the ocean, just a little beyond the shore-
line. Their favorite spot was a huge spreading tree in the backyard of a friend's home. People all over the neighborhood loved to see the two Eclectus fly and delighted to have the birds in their yards.
At this same time, I had a Blue and Gold Macaw, Celeste, escape her cage and spend two days in the top of the huge tree. She was so scared. She did not budge even though the Beautifuls would fly over and, seemingly, try to call her down. I have since given Celeste to my friend with the two other macaws.
You know, it was really hard at first to allow the Beautifuls their freedom. I had to let go of a lot of my attachments. One of the reasons here in Paraguay that people do not let their birds fly is that the parrots go into a tree and are frightened and sit there a long time. Then the owners become scared and think "Oh no! There goes my $2000." They become so worried that when the parrots come back, the owners never let them get away again.
I grew up with my family in Paraguay and have always loved parrots. I remember 25 years ago, as a child, how there were hundreds of Sun Conures in the trees where we played. There were so many Suns that we could not hear each other talk because the parrots were so busy talking. Back then, we would get babies and raise them as pets. Some of the birds, especially the males, learned to speak Spanish like the people.
There was once an escaped Sulphur-crested Cockatoo flying free around the neighborhood here for months, squawking and looking so wonderful in flight. All the people loved it. It learned to eat the pods of the African tulip trees. Then, one day, it chewed up the TY antenna of a man down the way. The man hired a bounty hunter who shot the cockatoo. The whole neighborhood was ang1y at the man. We had planned to buy him a new antenna and bird-proof it so the cockatoo would he safe.
Mr. and Mrs. Beautiful are now staying with the macaws at my friend's house while I fix up the new home I bought (by coincidence, the one with the huge spreading tree). The male, during his daily flights, will often come over here and perch in the tree to watch or visit me.