REGGIE

Reggie is a Little Corella, he arrived on our rooftop one afternoon, and as we do not have these birds in our area we were very surprisedto see him. It did not take him long to let us know he was very hungry, simply staring at us continuously did the trick! and we offered him some
seed. He came straight down to us, sat on the outstretched arm and proceeded to eat. We he had sufficient he promply said "HELLO!". He sat outside on the roof of a little shed and every time we walked past, he would make comment, "Have you got any today?". Or as for some peanuts, or pumpkinseeds. He would cough like an old man, or laugh out loud at his own jokes which we could not quit catch.

This went on for about 2 weeks, he interacted from a distance. We made inquiries as to who might have lost this bird. It turned out he had in fact done the rounds of the neighbouring properties, and been sent on his way as he was indeed not quite as sweet as he would first make out. This we soon came to realise for ourselves.Whilst my husband (Rick) was playing some backgammon with my dauther (Katrina), Reggie sat on his shoulder and not too long into the game Reggie hopped down onto the board and removed Katrinas backgammon pieces from amongst Ricks pieces, and threw them on the ground. He was put a bit further away from the game but this did not suit him, as he then walked up onto Katrina's shoulder and severely bit her on the neck, we mopped up the blood, and Reggie was put back outside.

The next morning Reggie was waiting for me, he was hiding under the dogs bed, and as sson as he saw my bare ankle, he went in for the kill and grab hold with his beak and believe me IT HURT! We tried to find him a home. But nobodly who had already met Reggie was interested. It was not possible to just let him go, he had been free the 3 weeks he had been here, but at no time had he made any attempt to leave. He is an old bird, the experts tell me probably 30 - 35 years. This explains why he does not like to fly.

Realising it was not possible to rehabilitate this bird to the wild, we finally built him a large aviary, close to the house. He can now interact with us but not the females (human) of the house and visitors are permanantly on a state of alert! He is happy with this outcome but still refuses to fly even though he is uqite capable, periodically calls the chickens "IDIOTS!", and also alerts us every time the hawk is in close proximity. He is a great guard bird, knows the sounds of strange cars, and lets us know by sounding the truck reversing sound "BEEP, BEEP, BEEP!". We will probably never find out where Reggie came from, he has now lived here a few years. He knows us all by name, and is always the first to start up a conversation though not always with strangers. He seems to prefer the company of the family.

Being very much against having caged birds, it is a strange arrangement for us, but in these circumstances there did not seem to be any choice. I suppose thisbird has been bourght up in a small cage most of his life, hence the no flying, it is however a joy to see him digging large holes in the ground, creating his own compost, only to dig it up again later and eat all the bugs that has been created by this. What a shame to see these large birds in small cages, not able to fly and stretch their wings (as nature has created them to do), dig large holes and be wild like they should be.