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Ripping up the road
Administrator
Avenue Veteran
Celebirdy of the Month
Mayor of the Avenue
Avenue Spotlight Award
- Joined
- 4/15/10
- Messages
- 51,205
- Real Name
- Matthew
Our "Mayor of the Avenue" award is presented to a member who exhibits the qualities that distinguish them to be an upstanding credit to the Avenue, a loving, informed, conscientious and caring bird parront and an all around good neighbor.
I am happy to announce that KiMa27 is February's Mayor of the Month.
I enjoyed reading your interview, and am sure that everyone else will as well!
1. What kind of birds do you have (age, species and names)? I currently have 3 conures and an Alexandrine. In order of adoption date:
Nikko (a 24+ year old male Nanday conure)
Boomer (a 19 year old female Sun conure)
Benny (a 15-ish year old male Alexandrine)
Piquito (a 10-ish year old male Green Cheek conure)
2. What got you interested in birds?
I’ve always loved animals but was actually very scared of birds growing up! That changed when I worked as a teacher in Alaska back in 1997. I was assigned to an animal science classroom and one of the many animals there was a sassy, independent wild-caught Nanday conure named Baybird. I fell HARD for that little cutie
. When the school termed the program the next year, I got to adopt her (if that hadn’t been an option I would have stolen her anyway!) From there I joined a local bird club, brought home 2 more birds in the next three years, then later adopted my 4rd and 5th from a rescue I volunteered at… all told I’ve been fortunate enough to have been owned by 10 wonderful birds.
3. What have your birds brought to your life?
I don’t have human children so having parrots definitely fulfills that nurturing need. But it’s not just that – they give me companionship, entertainment, comfort when I’m sad, pause when I need to slow down and rethink what I’m doing, and lessons that hopefully I’m observant enough to learn from.
4. What have you learned from sharing your life with your birds?
In addition to patience and hopefully better observation skills (which I’m still working on every day), I’ve learned that humans are meant to be companions to animals, not the boss of them. It is a huge responsibility and honor to share your life with them.
5. What's one birdie memory that will stay with you forever?
The first things that come to mind are all of the excruciatingly sad moments of loss when you have to say goodbye to your bird. While those can be soothed by remembering the good times and taking pride in knowing you gave them a good home, those sad memories definitely stay with you...
I’d rather share my happiest memory. It’s when I realized that birds were something to love, not something to be afraid of… which takes us back to Alaska in 1997. When I started caring for the classroom animals, I was immediately entranced by BayBird – her smarts, silliness, sweetness and even her scrappy ‘F-You’ attitude. On the 2nd or 3rd day I took a Polaroid photo of her taking a bath and put it on the front of my work binder. It made me laugh and smile every time I looked at it, so much so that my first husband got a bit jealous! After a few days it hit me that I was 110% smitten with that bird and I was never going to let her go. I still get emotional thinking about the overwhelming feeling of love I felt with that realization. (Plus, I still love watching my parrots take a bath!) Her passing was almost more than I could bear (and I’m sure most of you know that feeling) but it’s those happy memories and a life-size tattoo of her on my shoulder that continue to make me smile.
6. Where is your birds main living area?
The birds sleep their own room (though my 2 newest are still getting acclimated to the flock from our den). However, when we’re home the birds are all out in our living room on their individual play gyms and they have a straight line of view to our dining room and kitchen so they can keep an eye on my husband and me to make sure we don’t get into trouble.
7. Did you change things in your home to accommodate your birds and if so what kinds of things did you change?
It’s all the basics… don’t use Teflon, nothing scented, run air cleaners, covering mirrors/windows, etc. When we bought our house, it was a priority to have a separate room for the birds as well as a common area where we could interact with them and keep an eye on them. We also wanted a house with lots of windows for good sunlight. Those requirements made it harder to find a place, but it was worth the extra time and effort. Other than that, we put up long curtained-doors between the common room and the smaller rooms/hallway, moved furniture/shelving so there are no small gaps for the birds to fall behind if they get spooked and fly off, covered open heating grates, bought sun lamps and radiator heaters for winters, attached screen doors front and back for the summers, put in extra CO2 monitors and smoke alarms, etc. We even put up translucent privacy film on their bird room windows to minimize scares from the outside while still letting in all the light. I’m sure there’s more than that but the many of those modifications are just the ‘norm’ now, you know?
8. Are you involved in any kind of bird related group or activities?
Other than Avian Avenue, I’m not currently involved with any groups or rescues. There aren’t any in my town, plus my time is limited between a more-than-full-time job and taking care of 4 special needs birds. I hope to retire in a couple years to spend more time with my flock, maybe then there’ll be a local bird place I can check out.
9. What is the one luxury item you would love to have for your bird(s)?
An outdoor aviary, of course!
10. Is there any bird that you dream of owning and if so why?
I’m lucky enough to currently own 2 of my 3 favorite types of parrots (Nandays, Alexandrines and Blue Crown conures) but I dream of adopting another Blue Crown since my Bobbi Blue stole my heart. Please keep your fingers crossed that I can talk my husband into letting me get one in the next year or two!
11. Describe a typical day with you at home with your birds.
In the mornings, my husband is up first and he starts with prepping all the meds. When I get up I start the 3-phase ‘morning’ lighting for all the birds (hall light, opening curtains and finally room lights) then I check in with everyone. We make breakfast for everyone then give meds and then food. Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have before we go to work.
In the evenings, everyone comes out to the common room for a couple hours, waters get changed, head scritches and kisses are doled out (that’s more for me than them, lol!) and I prep meds and make dinners, do some target training and spend individual time for each bird, then it’s bedtime. We aim for a 7am-7pm schedule whenever possible. Weekends are similar, just lots more ‘out’ time plus cage cleaning. That’s just for our 4 birds, I can’t imagine how all of you with more than that manage it!!!
12. What have you learned about owning birds that you would like to share?
I can’t think of anything the folks here wouldn’t already know, but if I were to talk with someone who doesn’t have birds I would definitely make sure they know that while having a parrot is rewarding, it’s also extremely hard and expensive (especially good avian vet care). I’d try to make them understand that many parrots don’t just talk like on TikTok videos and that they are so smart they need WAY more time, toys, space, patience and interaction pretty much any other house pet.
13. If you knew then what you know now about birds, what would you do differently?
I would've made more of an effort with breakfast and dinners with bird breads and fresh veggies and fruit. My original birds were all on a good pellet diet but I hated food prep and cooking. I still don’t love it but have gotten used to it and I think I enjoy their two-meal schedule as much as they do. I also would have tried to do a better job rotating toys.
14. What other hobbies do you have?
I love old houses and old movies. There’s nothing better than a DIY weekend updating my 1921 house, going for a walk through our neighborhood, then sitting down with my husband and the birdies for a Fred Astaire, Val Lewton or Alfred Hitchcock movie marathon… bliss!
15. Anything else you would like to share?
Absolutely – I want to share with everyone how grateful I am for all the warm welcomes, great advice, and generous support of all the wonderful folks here at the Avenue. It had been a while since I’d been involved in a group or rescue and I really appreciate having this connection to so many other parrot owners like myself!!!
I am happy to announce that KiMa27 is February's Mayor of the Month.
I enjoyed reading your interview, and am sure that everyone else will as well!
1. What kind of birds do you have (age, species and names)? I currently have 3 conures and an Alexandrine. In order of adoption date:
Nikko (a 24+ year old male Nanday conure)
Boomer (a 19 year old female Sun conure)
Benny (a 15-ish year old male Alexandrine)
Piquito (a 10-ish year old male Green Cheek conure)
2. What got you interested in birds?
I’ve always loved animals but was actually very scared of birds growing up! That changed when I worked as a teacher in Alaska back in 1997. I was assigned to an animal science classroom and one of the many animals there was a sassy, independent wild-caught Nanday conure named Baybird. I fell HARD for that little cutie
. When the school termed the program the next year, I got to adopt her (if that hadn’t been an option I would have stolen her anyway!) From there I joined a local bird club, brought home 2 more birds in the next three years, then later adopted my 4rd and 5th from a rescue I volunteered at… all told I’ve been fortunate enough to have been owned by 10 wonderful birds.3. What have your birds brought to your life?
I don’t have human children so having parrots definitely fulfills that nurturing need. But it’s not just that – they give me companionship, entertainment, comfort when I’m sad, pause when I need to slow down and rethink what I’m doing, and lessons that hopefully I’m observant enough to learn from.
4. What have you learned from sharing your life with your birds?
In addition to patience and hopefully better observation skills (which I’m still working on every day), I’ve learned that humans are meant to be companions to animals, not the boss of them. It is a huge responsibility and honor to share your life with them.
5. What's one birdie memory that will stay with you forever?
The first things that come to mind are all of the excruciatingly sad moments of loss when you have to say goodbye to your bird. While those can be soothed by remembering the good times and taking pride in knowing you gave them a good home, those sad memories definitely stay with you...
I’d rather share my happiest memory. It’s when I realized that birds were something to love, not something to be afraid of… which takes us back to Alaska in 1997. When I started caring for the classroom animals, I was immediately entranced by BayBird – her smarts, silliness, sweetness and even her scrappy ‘F-You’ attitude. On the 2nd or 3rd day I took a Polaroid photo of her taking a bath and put it on the front of my work binder. It made me laugh and smile every time I looked at it, so much so that my first husband got a bit jealous! After a few days it hit me that I was 110% smitten with that bird and I was never going to let her go. I still get emotional thinking about the overwhelming feeling of love I felt with that realization. (Plus, I still love watching my parrots take a bath!) Her passing was almost more than I could bear (and I’m sure most of you know that feeling) but it’s those happy memories and a life-size tattoo of her on my shoulder that continue to make me smile.
6. Where is your birds main living area?
The birds sleep their own room (though my 2 newest are still getting acclimated to the flock from our den). However, when we’re home the birds are all out in our living room on their individual play gyms and they have a straight line of view to our dining room and kitchen so they can keep an eye on my husband and me to make sure we don’t get into trouble.
7. Did you change things in your home to accommodate your birds and if so what kinds of things did you change?
It’s all the basics… don’t use Teflon, nothing scented, run air cleaners, covering mirrors/windows, etc. When we bought our house, it was a priority to have a separate room for the birds as well as a common area where we could interact with them and keep an eye on them. We also wanted a house with lots of windows for good sunlight. Those requirements made it harder to find a place, but it was worth the extra time and effort. Other than that, we put up long curtained-doors between the common room and the smaller rooms/hallway, moved furniture/shelving so there are no small gaps for the birds to fall behind if they get spooked and fly off, covered open heating grates, bought sun lamps and radiator heaters for winters, attached screen doors front and back for the summers, put in extra CO2 monitors and smoke alarms, etc. We even put up translucent privacy film on their bird room windows to minimize scares from the outside while still letting in all the light. I’m sure there’s more than that but the many of those modifications are just the ‘norm’ now, you know?
8. Are you involved in any kind of bird related group or activities?
Other than Avian Avenue, I’m not currently involved with any groups or rescues. There aren’t any in my town, plus my time is limited between a more-than-full-time job and taking care of 4 special needs birds. I hope to retire in a couple years to spend more time with my flock, maybe then there’ll be a local bird place I can check out.
9. What is the one luxury item you would love to have for your bird(s)?
An outdoor aviary, of course!
10. Is there any bird that you dream of owning and if so why?
I’m lucky enough to currently own 2 of my 3 favorite types of parrots (Nandays, Alexandrines and Blue Crown conures) but I dream of adopting another Blue Crown since my Bobbi Blue stole my heart. Please keep your fingers crossed that I can talk my husband into letting me get one in the next year or two!
11. Describe a typical day with you at home with your birds.
In the mornings, my husband is up first and he starts with prepping all the meds. When I get up I start the 3-phase ‘morning’ lighting for all the birds (hall light, opening curtains and finally room lights) then I check in with everyone. We make breakfast for everyone then give meds and then food. Unfortunately, that’s all the time we have before we go to work.
In the evenings, everyone comes out to the common room for a couple hours, waters get changed, head scritches and kisses are doled out (that’s more for me than them, lol!) and I prep meds and make dinners, do some target training and spend individual time for each bird, then it’s bedtime. We aim for a 7am-7pm schedule whenever possible. Weekends are similar, just lots more ‘out’ time plus cage cleaning. That’s just for our 4 birds, I can’t imagine how all of you with more than that manage it!!!
12. What have you learned about owning birds that you would like to share?
I can’t think of anything the folks here wouldn’t already know, but if I were to talk with someone who doesn’t have birds I would definitely make sure they know that while having a parrot is rewarding, it’s also extremely hard and expensive (especially good avian vet care). I’d try to make them understand that many parrots don’t just talk like on TikTok videos and that they are so smart they need WAY more time, toys, space, patience and interaction pretty much any other house pet.
13. If you knew then what you know now about birds, what would you do differently?
I would've made more of an effort with breakfast and dinners with bird breads and fresh veggies and fruit. My original birds were all on a good pellet diet but I hated food prep and cooking. I still don’t love it but have gotten used to it and I think I enjoy their two-meal schedule as much as they do. I also would have tried to do a better job rotating toys.
14. What other hobbies do you have?
I love old houses and old movies. There’s nothing better than a DIY weekend updating my 1921 house, going for a walk through our neighborhood, then sitting down with my husband and the birdies for a Fred Astaire, Val Lewton or Alfred Hitchcock movie marathon… bliss!
15. Anything else you would like to share?
Absolutely – I want to share with everyone how grateful I am for all the warm welcomes, great advice, and generous support of all the wonderful folks here at the Avenue. It had been a while since I’d been involved in a group or rescue and I really appreciate having this connection to so many other parrot owners like myself!!!
pretty please 
