Sid was the youngest and possibly the most adorable of the parrots rescued on July 1st. In the past five months he had changed from a tiny pink bundle of joy into the one of the most handsome of birds. His condition was tiptop and his glossy green feathers shimmered in the light. He was, too beautiful.
Marvin had arrived starvin' a little later in the year. The Echo team's diligent care of the poor bird had produced a pleasantly plump parrot. Marvin too, was a most handsome and eligible young chap.
In many respects Sid and Marvin lived enchanted lives. Each morning and afternoon they were served freshly chopped fruits and vegetables. As young parrots they were still being fed by hand with a delicious gloop of nutritious baby parrot food. Their home was cleaned daily and fresh branches were provided three or more times each week. They were kings.
The afternoon of November 14th was typically sunny. Sid and Marvin had been growing agitated because the humans had been reducing the amount of delicious baby food forcing them face the indecency of foraging for themselves. This afternoon, they reassured each other, things would be back to normal. So it came as quite a shock when the human brought the afternoons 16 dishes to be distributed among the parrots and parakeets but then turned and left without serving the young kings their baby food.
"An oversight for sure" Sid told Marvin, but he was wrong. The next afternoon the very same thing happened. This continued and it became clear to the young kings the good times were through. No sooner has this dawned on them then construction work began. Great sheets of plywood were fastened to the aviary preventing the parrots from seeing the nice humans as they arrived to serve the endless dishes of food. Dear Reader, do not be concerned. It is not as though young Sid and Marvin are now in a box. The entire other side of their large aviary is open to views of the surrounding habitat.
They waited to see how the humans would deliver their food dishes now. It was funny because they knew the food would arrive in a bowl as it always had done. Just as one supermarket is pretty similar to any other supermarket, but still when the food arrived through the new little slot for feeding dish, they just had to check it out for themselves.
Sid and Marvin thought it was a terrible shame that they couldn't use their relatively large eyes to watch the human approach their palace. Dear Reader, you will no doubt know that parrots, like most birds, have incredible vision. Not only can they see full colour but they can see the ultraviolet light too. The shimmering feathers of a boy parrot may look the same as those of a girl parrot to our human eyes but to them, the difference is couldn't be clearer. Parrots like pigeons have their eyes on the sides of their head allowing them to spot predators from afar. I'm sure you'll agree Dear Reader that while pigeons of course deserve to be eaten, parrots like Sid and Marvin should remain sacred and never be preyed upon.
Unlike parrots the Merlin and Peregrine falcons that find their way to Bonaire each winter without the need for a jet plane, have heads that are quite wide. This enables bifocal vision and brings great accuracy to their hunting. If in doubt about the value of bifocal vision we suggest you close one eye and try and touch a specific point some way in front of you (but obviously within reach!). Merlin's and Peregrines are of course the birds that eat pigeons. What's more they are now flying above and around Bonaire in great abundance and if you are on the island and you'd care to use your myopic human eyes you'll easily be able to spot one.
Dear Reader we must get back on track. The reason Sid and Marvin found themselves closed off and excluded is because they are in a cage and the Echo team would like for them, or anybody else to be free. Sid and Marvin of course were not aware of the Echo team's intentions and so when the human entered the aviary to clean the aviary they flew down to say hello. In that same moment a tremendous noise could be heard. Sid and Marvin looked at each other in bewilderment and fear. For a passing moment Sid thought that it might just be yet another Icelandic volcano erupting, only this time on Bonaire. Similarly Marvin wondered whether the Mayan calendar, and indeed the crazy Hollywood movie they'd watched the other week were true. Was the world coming to an end?
The terrible noise continued for some moments. The human continued with his cleaning task. Sid and Marvin were terribly afraid and they realised the human must not be aware the world was ending. Very quickly the human left the aviary and as the door closed the noise ended. The young kings were puzzled and they thought about the world ending long into the night.
The next morning the food dishes were served as normal. The parrots ate, they played a little, they digested and all too soon it was afternoon again. Sid and Marvin were expecting the afternoon dishes to be served with the dedicated tedium the parrot team know all to well but instead a human entered the aviary and suddenly the world started to end once more.
Sid and Marvin quickly decided they didn't like humans anymore. The humans didn't bring them their food dishes anymore they just arrived through the slots and whenever the humans were there the world nearly ended. It was as thought the humans were a bad thing. Sid and Marvin decided they would stay well away from humans from now on.
Hopefully Dear Reader this will indeed be the case. Once we are absolutely adamant that Sid, Marvin and the other parrots have a healthy dislike of humans it will be possible to release them back into the wild on Bonaire. It has been a long journey to reach this point and only possible thanks to incredible donations and funding Echo has received. Huge thanks go out to our supporters.
Parrot Bloggers
Search by:
