Yet another illegally captured young parrot has been confiscated. Just like the large group of chicks rescued in July this poor bird was starving. But thanks to STINAPA, the bird is now safely with the Echo hand-rearing team at Jong Bonaire.
Her physical development and eye colour in particular, indicate that she is the oldest of the lora chicks and yet she weighed a mere 170g (6 onces). The oldest of the chicks, which have now been under Echo's care for 6 weeks, by comparison weighs 280g (10 onces). Even Sid, the smallest chick who is possibly 5 weeks younger than the new girl weighs 215g (7 1/2 onces). Thankfully the hard working Echo team know what to do and now she is gaining weight rapidly.
Let's just take a moment to put this in human terms. A healthy English gentleman, just under 6 feet tall, living on Bonaire might weigh around 75kg (165lbs). If the English gentleman had lost a similar proportion of his body weight as this young parrot chick (40%) he would weigh 45kgs (99lbs). It's pretty shocking isn't it?!
This young bird quickly became the topic of much conversation and so it was decided she needed a name because this constant "she" or "her" was far too impolite for such an important endangered parrot. This is extremely unusual for the parrot team who otherwise operate in a rigorously methodical and professional manner when working with these wild birds. None of the parrots we are here to serve have been named other than: Monty, Fat Sally, The Darling, Isla, Johan, Al, Sue, Sid, Harry, Olivia, Oswald, Bo Peep and Wee Ben. And so it was that we decided to make a rare exception and name this new recruit.
The great honour of naming the new girl was given to parrot hand-rearing expert Phoebe Linden who dropped everything and flew down from California to help the rescue. Realising the significance of this moment and the great opportunity to make history Phoebe thought hard before declaring: "Oh Harry (her husband) is so much better at names than I am". Those of us who had anxiously waited to hear the name Phoebe would come up with were somewhat disappointed by this and so it was decided to wait a day.
In Phoebe's defence she had worked without rest for an entire month and she was taking her turn to feel completed exhausted by the parrot rescue. A cold was taking hold and her voice was so raspy other team members were actually suspicious she had been out screaming at a rock band or something in some dark corned of Bonaire the night before.
To say Phoebe had worked without rest is to say that during her visit to Bonaire she had attended 58 parrot feedings, each taking between at least 2 and 3 hours. During that time she had probably plunged over 1000 syringes of delicious baby parrot gloop into the mouths of the screaming parrot and parakeet chicks. What is more she had then cleaned up the resulting mess that is the consequence of parrot digestion. In between feedings she had gathered the various fruits and other supplies needed for feeding, or perches or done some other task related to the parrot chicks. She had been pretty busy.
On the very next day the parrot team reconvened and various names were suggested with renewed enthusiasm. There was some confusion about the name of a pop star from years ago whose name was neither Skinny Millie nor Skinny Vanilli This input was sufficiently stimulating, however, to lead to Phoebe choose the name: Twiggy. Some readers will of course know that Twiggy was a skinny singer from days gone by. The name is also relevant as parrots of course perch upon twigs. And so it was that "she" became Twiggy.
In the days since being saved from death by starvation Twiggy has rapidly put on weight. She is doing very well and is a receptive recipient of almost any food that she encounters. We'll keep you posted with her progress in the next blog but if you should wish to find out more about Twiggy or other aspects of the rescue you can do so at www.facebook.com/echobonaire.org
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