08-01-2012
I would like to introduce Lilah to you, a female greenwing macaw. With her my mini flock of six greenwings is complete. Lilah is Lizzie’s sister, albeit a few years older (from 2005). Her breeder arranged for me to adopt her. As you can see on the photo, Lilah has a crippled leg. It must have happened when she was raised by her parents. Maybe it is also a birth deformity. We do not know. Unfortunately, it could not be fixed.
Lilah’s move into the parrot paradise has taken two years. On the one hand, she had started to pluck her feathers, on the other hand her owner was very attached to her. But last Wednesday the day had finally arrived. The breeder’s niece had been home for Christmas and took Lilah with her on her way back to Frankfurt where I picked her up. That in itself was quite a show. There was absolutely no parking in the little street so I had to stay with the car for fear of being towed. They brought Lilah down to me in the breeders carrier and we needed to switch carriers. So I stuffed both carriers door-to-door onto the back seat of my car. Unfortunately, Lilah was scared and would not budge. So I unfastened the top of her carrier with the goal to stick my hand in between from the back and nudge her into the other carrier. Juggling around I lost the tight contact between the two carriers and Lilah escaped. But as she was climbing onto my carrier, I was able to quickly grab her and stuff her into the carrier. Phew.;-)
Once home, I put her with Lizzie, Sam and Mr. Darcy so she could get used to things and also to give me a chance to observe her. She was greeted with great curiosity. The other birds were very excited. Lilah is terribly afraid of me and it is a bit difficult with her. Due to her handicap she has a hard time getting about. For some reason she has selected a wooden box as her favorite perch. There really are better locations in the room. She also refused to got to the feed bowl or even eat from the bowl. Luckily, she did take food from the hand. On the third day she finally started to eat from the bowl held in front of her and as of yesterday evening she will go tot he food tray that I placed on a chair right besides “her” wooden box.
Last night was also the first time that she started to “party” with me. With flashing eyes, she was babbling up a storm with me and bopping on the spot. I, of course, joined right in, behaving like a mad woman. 🙂 I am willing to join her on any communication effort she is willing to make to me. Even if it means that I behave like a complete bozo. I could care less and besides … there were no cameras present. 😀 As a thank you for my efforts she let me touch the feather brush above her nares for the first time.
Even if it will take some time, it is always such a wonderful experience to gain such a bird’s trust. Lizzie, by the way, was no different when she moved in. And now she is ridiculously tame. She will lie on her back in one of my hands while I strubble up her entire belly. If I turn her right side up, she immediately rolls over again. I really ought to make a video of it, it’s soooo cute! Maybe next time I have visitors I will give one of them my camcorder.
Here is a photo of Lilah in which you can see her bad foot quite well. But you can also see her alert and curious gaze. I took it this morning.