Mr. Darcy plays host

wherein Mr. Darcy greets a visitor …

Video | More scritches

… under the wing …

Video | First scritches

First cautious scritches at back of head and neck. This is the parrot who was said to be so aggressive that one could not give him a treat by hand. Right. 🙁

The arrival

Late last night Mr. Darcy arrived in his new home …

… he is awfully skinny.

today I’ll take him to my trusted avian vet. At the moment, Mr. Darcy is still in his carrier in my bed room. The cage was not brought to me … and he cannot . . . more

Video | mirroring | tapping games

When first establishing contact with a scared bird, mirroring can help make the connection. This video shows how I take cues from Mr. Darcy’s tapping with his beak and copy it. It is remarkable how quickly he catches on and starts to communicate with me. This bird who supposedly was . . . more

Video | Quarantine

At a friend’s place in quarantine, Mr. Darcy could have used the whole aviary. But after all these years of being locked up, he refused to exit his tiny cage, in spite of the entire front having been removed.

At the vets

At the vets with better lighting, the cage dimensions can be seen better.

The cage

Mr. Darcy’s cage – constructed from two shopping carts welded together – just fit into the car.

Feed change with a spoon

As the previous owner was not able to open the cage, she flicked the old food with a spoon out of Mr. Darcy’s feed bowl, before pouring new one on top.

Unfortunately, this video, too, has rather poor lighting.

Water from the watering can

On January 14th, 2010, Mr. Darcy was picked up from the previous owner. In this video she demonstrates how Mr. Darcy was kept. The video is visually not so great on a account of the low lighting in the home. But for completion’s sake, I have included it here.

The . . . more