LA HABRA : Bird Expert Focuses on Pet Projects

High on a hill overlooking the city, “the bird lady” of La Habra watches over her flock.

Robbie Harris’ first love is the hundreds of birds she raises for sale to pet stores nationwide. Her second is the books and newsletters she writes about them.

Harris is the author of two books, “Breeding Conures” and “Grey-Cheeked Parakeets and Other Brotogeris.” She also publishes two newsletters and receives telephone calls daily from bird owners seeking advice.

“Maybe I have a feathered thumb,” she joked. The 35-year-old California native credits her expertise to common sense and experimentation for 19 years.

Two 50-foot bird enclosures and a couple of small barns house pairs and small colonies of brightly colored parrots. Each day, Harris prepares a huge tub of fruit and vegetable chunks which she combines with various seeds to feed her multitude.

The birds lay eggs in wooden nesting boxes attached to the side of each cage. When the eggs hatch, Harris moves the chicks into her spacious home for the all-important hand-feeding process.

Wild birds can seldom be trained or accustomed to human handling, explained Harris. When baby birds are hand fed and given lots of attention, they become gentle pets.

“People want to own birds that I have raised,” she said. “I sleep with the little babies in my bedroom. I get up in the middle of the night to feed them.”

As a child, Harris was taken by her grandmother to a Los Angeles poultry market, where she developed her interest in birds.

“We had to get rid of my first bird because my sister was allergic to them,” she said.

“I ended up with hundreds of hamsters. My mother knew I had hamsters, but she never knew how many.” Harris made her own cages and “got boxes of fruits and vegetables from the trash behind grocery stores. I told a cabinetmaker that I’d sweep his floor, and then I took the shavings home for my hamsters.”

Harris is now a speaker at gatherings of bird lovers and is scheduled to talk Feb. 29 at the Bird Expo at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

When Harris speaks before groups, her favorite pet, Sunny, accompanies her.

“His main feature is that he trusts me completely,” she said. “I can stand him on his head, or hand him to a complete stranger, and he will remain totally calm.”

The La Habra Department of Community Services has asked Harris to develop a class for children.

“I thought it would be good to let kids know that the pretty bird they see in a pet shop will not automatically become something that they can take home and be happy with. Sometimes they end up getting bitten and become very unhappy. And the bird becomes unhappy too.”

Children will learn about feeding, nutrition and training birds.

Harris has also won four awards for being the first to breed various species of parrots in the United States.