And seconds after I stopped that video, Peg flew off with the dish. Cheeky bugger:
And this poor bugger looks like something out of a horrror movie:
We believe this bird to be suffering from Psittacine beak and feather disease. It is no fun:
Psittacine beak and feather disease is a viral disease affecting all Old World and New World Parrots (Psittacini, Hookbills). The virus belongs to the family Circoviridae. The virus attacks the feather follicles and the beak and claws-growing cells of the bird, causing progressive feather malformation and necrosis. In later stages of the disease, the feathers develop constrictions in feather shafts, cease development early until eventually all feather growth stops.
We saw something in the paper saying that you should actually try to capture these birds and take them to the local WIRES, as the disease is communicable. We'll look into that some more before actually throwing a blanket over one. Poor fella.
All my life I've only seen these birds in captivity in zoos or as pets. I still can't get used to seeing them as wild and free animals in your posts. Beautiful birds and I know they can be really loud and annoying too. Cool that you feed that one-legged one. I used to have a parrot with two messed up feet. It couldn't sit on a perch and had to sort of hop around a bit, but it was otherwise a healthy and cool parrot. Had it for years and found it a good home when I decided to stop being an amateur zookeeper...I hope that diseased one can be helped or put out of its misery...take care buddy and keep them posts comin'!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Gene, I will. We're moving toward Spring, now, so I'll get my butt ut in the Bush more often. as far as the sick guy - 'fraid he's a goner. It's not something they have a cure for. We'll call WIRES and find out what to do.
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