1/11th Bird Life

Today we shipped 400 kg. of life to our new overseas address, in preparation for the imminent move. One of the eleven boxes was filled entirely of birdness, to sum up: small "sunning" bird cage, half a manzanita tree, special organic pellets, toys, chewables, a ton of cuttlebone, and a parrot training DVD that I will never use. What this really means is that our life consists of 1/11th of bird. This is a gross under-estimation.

Soaking water, then sun

Doing my bird-laundry (he is not very happy right now)

Bird Radio

Are you tired of the sounds of the city? Do you find yourself reminiscing about that time you were one with nature, whether it ever happened or not? Then look no further than the Ambient section of your iTunes radio, streaming "Birdsong Radio". With the soothing slogan "I found a new way to spend more time with me"(or something like that) you are on your way to bird paradise, or a potential migraine. Recommended by our parrot friends:

"Hi, I am Parrolito, a licensed Forpus (LEED AP). When I want to meditate, preen, bathe or eat in absolute bird insanity solitude, I choose Birdsong Radio. I highly recommend it for that feeling of myselfness, or rather, me and 13.786 of my closest chirping friends. Enjoy."

To my bird - an apology

Watching you try to fly and instead land on the carpet is the most soul-crushing thing I have ever seen. I had to clip your wings, since I am leaving the country for a bit,and you are staying in a luxury spa. You also have to catch an international flight in a few months. So, for your own safety, I decided that you cannot be fully flighted. I could not ask you what you wanted, or make you understand that you should not fly away. There are falcons out there, dude.

Update: I decided there is a special hell for people who clip the wings of birds, which is just a step up from unadjusted children who pull the wings off bugs. And people who talk in the theater (Firefly rocks, amirite?)

#1 Fan

No SPUR, YOU are awesome.

Parrot 1 - Human 0

It is almost Parrolito´s 8-month hatchday so I thought we could take stock of life so far, let´s see:

We eat mostly parrot food. We sleep parrot hours. We hang out with parrot-friendly faces. Rather than him learning human words, I am learning the different chirps and what the "flight face" looks like (useful for catching the thing before it takes off in moth-like flight). We don´t like hands. We don´t like baths. We don´t like the color of the old dinner table, so we sold it on Craigslist. I would say taming is going really well.

Let me rephrase that: Parrot 17 - Human 0. You win.

Having an Angry Bird

Way back in high school in some other country, we were learning the verb "to fling" in English. In our adolescent amusement over nothing at all, we decided we could say "I fling a bird" every time we were asked to use it in a sentence. The teacher, exasperated by our attempts to derail her (fake) serenity, eventually let it be. Crazy always wins.

Little did we know that flinging birds would one day become an option: I rock at Angry Birds. I like birds; I know what the verb "to fling" means; I like flinging virtual things. It´s a winning combination. Angry Birds became an integral part of the mental preparation to get a parrotlet, although I spend most of my mornings trying to catch the thing instead. And the thing is generally angry. There will be wing re-clipping happening very soon.