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Wonderful Parroty Distractions

Sam Williams, PhD | Jul 10, 2014

 

Living in a hotspot for wild parrots is amazing. I see parrots daily from my office and I can hear them pretty much all the time. There are always parrots in the area and if a bird of prey passes over the parrots, parakeets and other birds go “mental”! As a result I also get to see Crested Caracaras regularly and Peregrine and Merlin Falcons in the winter months too. Falcons, you have to admit, are pretty cool.

I’ve got a feeding table in the garden too. Bird tables work best when one puts food out at the same time each day, religiously. That doesn’t quite work for me with so many other interesting things going on but nether the less the parrots pop in and visit most days, when there’s food. It was pretty thrilling to creep up to within a few meters of wild parrots and I even pulled out my SLR camera to get some pictures through my now fungus filled lens (the other side of living in the tropics).

I’ve even got a parrot in the house right now too. Typically there was a lot going on when we received the call that someone had found a parrot. There’s never a good moment to receive a broken parrot. He’s sat in a hospital cage out of sight but in my office and I hear him moving around and feeding from time to time.

You can imagine it’s hard to get any work done with all these parroty distractions. And I haven’t even mentioned the Grove-billed Ani that’s sneaking through the grass as I write or the rampant White-tipped doves bow-cooing and “at it” beneath my window, or the endemic Yellow Oriole with his golden feathers and lovely whistle. (You really should check out the Ani and the Oriole they are gorgeous but don’t bother with, the dove!)

Yet, unfathomably, the challenge of ever getting any work done is even greater than that. I’m not talking about the little flies that have just appeared who will spend their short lives desperately trying to climb into my eyes or the afternoon sun that beats down and threatens to warp my nice desk. I mean the parrot chicks!!!

Within a mile of my house there are many, though still not nearly enough, parrot nests. Deep inside these delightful cliff and tree cavities there are pink, prickly pin feather filled or cute green baby parrots going about their business and growing. Their business also includes rather a lot of eating, digesting and popping too. It’s just amazing how every time I sneak out of the office and run to the hills for a distraction they’ve grown. In two short months white eggs turn into green fledglings. The transformation is simply incredible and it’s a small wonder I get any work done when I could be out there cooing over them!