Fur and Feathers: Birds

For the second in my series on our animals here at Sacha Yacu, I will describe my personal favorite class of animals we take care of, the birds. We have everything here from turkeys to scarlet macaws, however the large majority are various types of amazonian parrots. Amazonians are a type of parrot that comes in all sizes and color patterns, but they all have the same basic look. All have a small beak and many are mostly green with patches of color to distinguish subspecies. They are beautiful birds, but are alas, outclassed by some of the stunning beauties they stand beside. Our scarlet macaws are the big attention grabbers, and it's hard to deny that they are pretty amazing. They are very large, about the size of a house cat, and covered with brilliant feathers that span the rainbow from red to violet.

Red Macaws are really awesome.

They use their beaks like a third leg to climb stuff, since they can't fly.

Most of our birds are here because they have been injured in a way that prevents them from functioning in the wild. One is blind, some are quite sick, but about half of them have had their wings clipped so that they cannot fly. All of our macaws and many of the amazonians have clipped wings, this does not mean that their wings are gone or cannot be opened, merely that they no longer have the strength in their wings to support their own weight for sustained flight. Pictures don't do complete justice to the birds, but it's still the best way I have to give you an idea of just how cool they are. Oh and as a side note, many of our parrots can talk... they are often screaming things like "HOLA!" in screechy parrot voices, or whistling... it's very fun to have a whistling contest with parrots, they're pretty tough competitors though.

Corn is the all-time favorite food for our birds.

One of our yellow-cheeked amazonians.

I have no idea what kind of parrot this guy is, but he is probably the most beautiful in my opinion, under those midnight blue outer feathers he's hiding a brilliant aqua display that you can only see when he flies.

Houdini enjoying a banana in his tree.

Houdini, escaped once more, hanging out in the bathroom, his favorite place on earth.

This is Houdini, our blue and yellow macaw, he deserves a special explanation because he's my favorite of almost all our animals at the center. Unlike the other animals, Houdini does not live in a cage here, he has a little house in a tree just outside the house. His wings are clipped and he cannot fly, but he has become quite amazing in just how well he can walk and where he can manage to get. He is named Houdini because he always escapes from his tree and walks up to the house. About four times a day Houdini will be found in the shower (his favorite place to hang out) or in the bathrooms, not in his house where he belongs. Despite his propensity for escape, I can't help but have a soft spot for Houdini, as I am one of the only people that he likes, and he will let me pet him all day long if I like. Plus the macaws with clipped wings look really goofy when they walk around, since they use their beak like a third leg, to grab onto things, and they waddle along like penguins. Sometimes I'll be laying about in a hammock and see Houdini come waddling up to the shower and just burst out laughing from how absurd he looks. Oh also he talks, every day at about 2:30 he starts screeching “Hola!” in different voices for about an hour.