What Do Mick Jagger and Parrots Have in Common?
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
The Case Against Caged Birds
By Brian Kluepfel
A big celebrity news item in December 2016 was the birth of Mick Jagger’s eighth child, Deveraux Octavian Basil Jagger. Mick will turn 80 this year, and even in his great physical condition may not live long enough to see his son graduate high school.
This is also the case for people who choose parrots as pets (even birds named Basil or Deveraux or Octavian). Parrots live a long time – 60 to 80 years – so if you buy one, there’s a good chance it will outlive you, by a lot. What to do?
Parrots are incredibly smart, need lots of love and care and feel a strong sense of abandonment when their mate (or surrogate mate/owner) leaves them. Like teenage humans who “cut,” parrots even self-mutilate, tearing out their own feathers in a show of defiance, and ultimately sorrow.
“Parrot Confidential” is a PBS documentary that spotlights a quintet of parrots and their human companions. As they say in “Law and Order,” these are their stories.
Basil, a yellow-naped amazon (not Mick’s son), was ripped from a nest in Honduras as a chick in 1987 and turned up in a Boston pet shop; more than 70 percent of pirated birds don’t survive that trip. At first, he was OK with his new “mates,” a young married couple, but the husband, with whom the bird bonded, traveled a lot. Basil became very unhappy and eventually took out his anger on the wife and children, biting them.
Ultimately, Basil had to go, like thousands of parrots each year in the U.S. that are given up for “adoption,” and move on to rescue centers and sometimes second or third homes.
Dolly is a Moluccan cockatoo who learned from her first owner how to say, “I’m going to kill you, bird.” Her current owner wears headphones in the home – the screeching can be a bit much – and takes Dolly to a bird-sitter when she needs a breather. The birds can be that demanding.
Fagan, an African grey, reeked of nicotine after 25 years with a smoker and had to be weaned off the ciggies and bathed to rid him of the malodorous stench. The champion work of rescue centers who do such work and are bombarded with requests to house parrots is another revelation. Some who began as breeders recognize what they have wrought and give shelter to hundreds of birds.
The last bird in the documentary is Geoffrey, a scarlet macaw who is being raised by The ARA Project in Costa Rica with the goal of being released to the wild. The ARA Project simulates a natural habitat as much as possible so that when the parrots are sent off, they have acquired survival habits and diets that will serve them well. (Note that since the documentary was made, ARA no longer gets so close to their birds in fear of “imprinting” by the human caretakers.)
The upshot of the film is simple: Parrots are smart and social creatures who often don’t get the life they deserve in captivity. Many well-intentioned owners aren’t up to the task of caring for such a highly-evolved pet. As we watch Geoffrey fly into the Costa Rica jungle at the end, we recognize that’s where he and his kin truly belong.
I know why the caged bird sings, indeed.
Brian Kluepfel is a journalist for Birdwatching Magazine, Lonely Planet travel guides and Westchester Magazine, and other fine publications like The Examiner. He encourages you to support and attend Saw Mill River Audubon activities listed in the ad below, and must admit that he, too, once owned caged birds.
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