Bodhi singing "Happy Birthday" [Video Clip]

We managed to record Bodhi trying to sing the "Happy Birthday" song.

He's more of a bathroom singer who don't usually sing in front of people. And because he is camera shy and clams up when we focus the camera at him, we turn the camera on Tara, the Jenday conure instead. So all you can hear is his voice singing in the background.

Its not Tara singing!

Bodhi being a nice boy [Video Clip]

Bodhi can be very aggressive at times and give deep, painful, bleeding and nasty bites.

However, like many Amazons with mood swings, he can be mild as well.
Here's one of his sweeter moments.

Baby Playing and Bathing [Video Clip]

Baby playing on her rope boing

These monkeys enjoy swinging...and never seems to get enough play.




Here's her enjoying her bath. Look who peeping around the door and waiting for his turn to bathe next. :)

Introduction to My Parrot Flock Part 2

Bodhi Robert, the Blue-Fronted Amazon Parrot




Bodhi Robert, the Blue Fronted Amazon Bodhi's story, compared to Tara's and Manju's, is a decidedly more sober one.

Bodhi came to me as a feather chewing and vicious 5 year old biter. According to the owner, this Amazon is first bought from a local private breeder to a person who is unable to find the time for this baby and returned Bodhi to the breeder. The owner bought this bird as a one year old and kept him for four years till the present.

Increasingly as Bodhi matures, his fiery Amazona hormonal temperament starts exerting itself and poorly equipped on how to deal with such a situation, his owner and family, becoming afraid of his bloodletting bites and unpredictable moods left him bound to his parrot stand; untouchable. The feather chewing starts after his owner decided to give up on parrots altogether, selling away his other Timneh grey, who is Bodhi’s only parrot companion in the household. Somehow, Bodhi must have sensed something because the departure of the grey triggered Bodhi into feather plucking and chewing.

Bodhi enjoying his bath. Note the chewed wing feathers.

I adopted Bodhi, becoming his third care giver and named him “Bodhi”, a Buddhist Sanskrit t

erm meaning “Enlightenment”. Robert is later added to his name because we realized he love this name and keep repeating “robert” to himself although neither the previous owner nor I have ever exposed this name to him. Bodhi’s welcome for me the first night he arrived was a few deep bleeding cuts and bruises on my fingers and hands. Honestly, it does cause some fear and anxiety in me.

Thanks to a friend who is experienced in avian behaviour and training, a single session with my avian behaviourist friend help transforms both Bodhi and my perception and understanding of each other. Although there are ups and downs, where one mini step forward is sometimes followed by several steps backwards on this journey of confidence and trust building, I’m heartened and glad to say it can still be considered positive and progressive.

Gradually, Bodhi becomes increasingly manageable—the bites from purely defensively and aggressively painful and damaging to increasingly rough in a playful way. The chewing and plucking has all but stopped, with beautiful and complete feathers slowly replacing damaged ones. And with that, he rewards us with golden moments of pleasant surprises and laughter. Bodhi “help” us answers the phone ringing with ‘hellos”, greet us “good morning” when we uncover the cage cloth every morning, shake hands with us and say “bye bye” when we leave for work or school. When we’re finally home, he’ll often ask “how are you” as well. There are even the rare occasions when Bodhi mutters “I love you” and “thank you”, so fleetingly we almost miss what he said. Bodhi also has a soft spot for children, getting all excited and charming them with human words to the glee and giggles of little boys and girls.

I will be sending his previous owner some photos of Bodhi once he regain his complete new plummage because this is the only request he made of me that once Bodhi recover from his chewing habit, to send him photos of Bodhi fully feathered. I can see that he really love the bird but just that due to to inappropriate circumstances, knowledge and skills to make him flourish.

Bodhi's previous name is Baby, so actually I have 3 Baby at home. Baby the macaw, Baby the Amazon and Baby my siamese sable holland dwarf rabbit!

Life with an Amazon, particularly a veteran one that has been through human induced bad experiences and survived, is somewhat like the bird itself—predictably unpredictable. They demand a respect for their tendencies towards shrill-loud calls, their aggressive hormonal behaviours, mood swings, needs and wants. In return, they give you themselves. What more can we ask for from a fellow intelligent creature?

If anything, Bodhi teaches me an important lesson in life: with understanding comes love. For verily, to love an Amazon, is to understand them. Perhaps the same could be said for all our other parrots, companion animals and fellow humans?

Introduction to My Parrot Flock Part 1

Well, thought that I should really introduce my flock before I proceed with anything else. :)

So here it is, starting with the lady who has been with me the longest, Tara.

Tara, the Jenday Conure


Jenday (or Jandaya) conure is very much like a Sun Conure in appearance and often overshadowed by the Sun (Conure). Instead of the yellow-orange wings the Sun Conure has, the Jenday has wings of various shades of emerald green! So for those who like more green on a parrot to balance out the flashy yellow, red and orange in a Conure, Jenday is the answer! I got my Jenday Conure from Avifauna, a bird farm in Singapore, 2003. That makes her around 3 1/2 years old now. My sis and I collectively agreed that it’s a she through perceiving her gentle demur and named her Tara.

Tara is a pretty comical and energetic girl. She likes to ride on our shoulders and play with our hair, ears, ear rings, etc and like to give kisses on the noses and lips. She’s also quite an escape artiste. Occasionally when I overslept in the morning, she’ll open the cage herself; climb over and out of the cage cover and fly into my room and clamber onto me. Then she’ll either vocalize to wake me up or play with my blanket or mattress. Sometimes, she’ll imagine the bed sheets as an enemy and screech and complain and attack the sheets. Other funny moments include her puffing all her feathers in a puff ball and swaying slowly as if she’s doing Tai Chi!


There are also affectionate and heart warming moments…Conures, though generally not known to be good talkers; there are some who do occasionally talk. Their mimic of human voice is not as clear as, say the African grey, but it is still identifiable by us, their human flock. The first time Tara spoke was when she’s on my shoulder, leaning and cuddling against my neck…and suddenly, she says, “Tara” in a cooing voice. What a pleasant and touching surprise! Since then, we have observed her saying “no”, “kiss” and “yes” and mumbling “Tara” to herself occasionally. If we spend time getting to know our companion parrots, caring and loving them, we never know what wonderful aspects of their world they can offer and show us!

I will be posting video clips of Tara in the future.

See ya next time!

Eclectus Parrot Rescue Part 1

Rescue of Amber, a Female Electus Parrot

Just created the blog and here we are, a parrot rescue account to share...

A friend of mine, Nelson, who recently discovered the joy of parrots companionship, realize his uncle has a female eclectus. The bird was given to his uncle by a friend and has been with his uncle for two years.

Ignorant of how parrots in general require proper socializations and a good balanced diet to remain physically and psychologically healthy, the poor lady has been confined to a small cage, the droppings accumulating on the beddings for years. It has also been fed on sunflower seeds and peanuts alone all this while. This is especially harmful for eclectus parrots, who have a specialized deit heavily dependent on fresh fruits and vegetables, particularly with high vitamin A requirements.

Nelson requested that his uncle give the bird to him to be cared for properly. The bird does not have a name and Nelson named her "Amber" because she's red. Amber has some vulgraities vocab in Hokkien (chinese dialect) that shock us! Most probably picked them up living with Nelson's uncle.

Look at how the bird is stooping, a sign of weakness. Perhaps due to malnutrition.

See how gentle and sweet she responded to my friend, although she is suddenly transferred to a new place filled with strangers.

Will update here how the parrot fare in its new home.

What a weird combi: Buddhism and parrots?

Well...that just about describe my two main interests in life--Religion and Nature. In particular, Buddhism and parrots.

This blog is created at the behest of a friend, who suggest that i might share once in a while, my experience, accounts, thoughts about companion parrots.
Since it wouldn't completely describe me by just having a blog about parrots, I included the other half of myself...Buddhism.