Today is #GivingTuesday. Cooper decided she wanted to use the money she has made from her Redbubble shop to donate treats and toys to Free Flight Exotic Bird Sanctuary and to Ginger’s Parrot Rescue.
Both rescues have a donation page. Other ways to help are by sponsoring a bird or donating items from their Amazon wish lists.
Free Flight’s Wish List
Ginger’s Wish List
Cooper has a shop on Redbubble. She donates a percentage of her sales to her favorite bird rescues. The past couple years, Cooper decided to adopt a turkey through Farm Sanctuary. This year she decided to adopt again.
You can read more about Farm Sanctuary here.
Cooper recommends skipping the turkey this Thanksgiving. It’s all about the sides anyway.
Beautiful Kräri the crow and his family visit his human friend. Kräri solves various puzzles for food and keeps his human friend company.
You can see more of Kräri here.
The Budgie Buddies Aviary at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
The aviary holds hundreds of free flight birds – budgies, cockatiels, rosella and princess parrots. The zoo offers seed sticks so you can get up close and personal with the birds.
Ninety nine budgies were recently brought in to the British Columbia SPCA in West Kelowna. You can read the full story here.
Their previous owner was not able to care for the birds, who were living in unsanitary conditions. Most were removed from the home. The owner was offered assistance, and there will be a follow up visit to ensure that the remaining birds are being suitably cared for.
The budgies will be all be examined and given any necessary medical attention.
If you would like to donate to the care of these little ones, you can do so here.
Once the budgies clear their quarantine they will available for adoption. If you are in the area and looking to add a budgie or two to your family, please keep the 99 in mind.
Thank you to Shivangi for sharing this story with us.
The Bloedel Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park housese 150 free-flying tropical birds & 500 kinds of exotic plants inside an historic triodetic dome.
Constructed through a donation from Prentice Bloedel, the aviary was dedicated at its opening in 1969 “to a better appreciation and understanding of the world of plants.”
If you’re in the area, see if you can spot the budgies.
On Saturday someone on my neighborhood facebook page posted about a little loose budgie.
Harry and took a cage, some seed and some water out to where he was last seen.
We played budgie calls on my phone, hoping he would hear and come back to the area. We had no luck, but people walking by said they had seen him over the past couple days. So we decided we would try again the next day.
We set up in the same spot and waited. A man walking by said he saw the budgie across the street. And there he was! Someone had set up a little dish of seed and water and he was hanging out there.
Harry almost got him, but he was very skittish. We watched him fly back and forth, trying to follow a hummingbird.
Here’s a little video – he’s the white spot in the middle of the bush.
Harry has been back every day trying to get the little bird. He didn’t see him yesterday, but he saw him today.
Someone else recently posted these photos of him, so he is still in the neighborhood. Harry will try again tomorrow.
Hopefully, someone can manage to catch the wiley little guy.
The third Friday in May is Endangered Species Day. It is a day to learn about and take action to protect threatened and endangered species. In honor of this day, Cooper is donating to Kākāpō Recovery.
Kākāpō Recovery combines the efforts of scientists, rangers, volunteers and donors to protect the critically endangered kākāpō. Sadly, there are only 199 kākāpō alive today.
If you would like to help out, you can donate here.
Cooper hopes that one day there will be no need for an Endangered Species Day.
Last week a small flock of budgies were found on a Laguna Niguel trail. Mission Viejo Animal Services arrived and rounded up the budgies. The budgies were not able to fly and some appeared to have been injured by large birds.
The birds were fed and given water, given names and examined. They will be put up for adoption.
If you should find yourself unable to care for your birds, please do not set them free. Budgies are not likely to survive in the wild. Finding food and water is problematic, and they are likely to be attacked by animals and other birds.
Taking them to a shelter or rescue is their best chance for finding a safe, happy home.
You can read more about the budgies here.
We had a little friend pay us a visit.
A little internet sleuthing tells me it’s a Lesser Goldfinch. I took a little video of it outside the window. It seemed very interested in what was going on in the bird room.