COUNCIL BLUFFS — As area skies cleared Sunday afternoon and birds began chirping, hundreds more sang, squawked and talked — indoors.
Large green Eclectus parrots with fiery red beaks and white umbrella cockatoos with blue-trimmed eyes mixed with breeders and vendors at the Greater Omaha Cage Bird Society's semi-annual bird fair. The convention center at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs was converted into a pet bird heaven with wall-to-wall colorful toys and foods and willing adoptees gazing at every feathery friend.
Hundreds of birds were sold during the event to Omaha-area families that left with care-packet instructions.
“If the bird picks you, it's your life partner,” said Rick Kling, president of the Greater Omaha Cage Bird Society. “And you have to know that birds are like 3- to 5-year-old children, but for 60 or 70 years.”
So you have to know it's a good match.
Part of the society's mission is to increase awareness of how to properly take care of birds. It hosts workshops and camps for children in the Omaha area, one of which is called Camp Kindness and is held each summer at the Nebraska Humane Society.
The society also provides an adoption and fostering service for lost or unwanted birds. Adoption prices range from $1 for finches to $50 for macaws, African greys and cockatoos. Breeder prices for large birds can be up to $1,500.
Bubbles, a 30-year-old female white umbrella cockatoo, was in need of a home when Dave and Stacey Ewing of Omaha adopted her two months ago.
The Ewings are also breeders who work closely with the Omaha bird society, which has 130 members throughout the Midwest.
The Ewings have too many birds to count, they said. “If you have one, you have 10,” said their friend Stephanie Lemunyon of Omaha.
While other people were adding multiple birds to the family flock, 14-year-old Levi Schmidt wished he could adopt just one more.
“Yeah, but I've got two more at home to take care of,” Levi said, while holding a baby parrot.
Levi spent more than six hours cuddling with the young yellow-naped Amazon while his mom, an Omaha breeder, was busy selling Gouldian finches.
The bird playfully pecked at Levi's nose and was in no hurry to leave.
Whether or not Levi could take the parrot home, it was clear to see: The bird picked him.
Contact the writer:
402-444-1084, ellen.hirst@owh.com
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