Indoor Birding: Owners and Their Pets Go Clubbing

There are humans in the room at the back of the American Legion Hall in Culver City, but it’s the birds you notice first. Huge blue and yellow macaws and snow-white cockatoos, budgies and lovebirds all about, perched on their owners’ shoulders, or resting on the backs of the metal folding chairs, all talking.

A pheasant with brilliant red and green curved feathers is wandering under a table. Another table holds snacks--one-half is for the humans and the other is labeled “For Birds Only!” to protect its array of nuts and other finger-tempting goodies.

Lorrie Mitchell, who has six parrots, is here with her double yellow-headed Amazon, Carla, happily perched on her shoulder. Carla, a 16-year-old large green parrot with bright yellow on her head, is excitedly repeating her favorite phrase, “I’m a green chicken!”

Mitchell says Carla, who also sings “Over the Rainbow,” “knows how to work a crowd ... She’ll meow and as soon as everyone is standing around watching her, she’ll laugh at them.”

Members of the West Los Angeles Bird Club--feathered and otherwise--have gathered for their regular monthly meeting. And while you might be tempted to conclude that this is a gathering of odd ducks, they are not alone in this pursuit. In cities across the country, bird clubs are thriving, bringing pets and their human companions together to exchange information and socialize. In New York City, it’s the Big Apple Bird Assn. In California, there are at least 40--including the West. L.A. club, the West Valley Bird Society in Sherman Oaks, the South Bay Bird Society in Torrance, and the new Parrot Society of Los Angeles in Marina del Rey.

While cats (just try to get one to go to a meeting with you), may still rank as the country’s No. 1 pet choice, and dogs the second, birds are No. 3 in popularity with an estimated 40 million in the U.S. today, according to the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council, a trade group. About half of bird owners have more than one bird, and, on average, pet-bird households have 2.7 birds in residence.

Phyllis Levine is not only a multiple bird owner, she is a member of multiple bird clubs. It started a decade ago when she was shopping for a fish and found a bird, her pet cockatiel, Peep. She now has expanded her pet flock: There is Pete. who turned out to be a girl; Scruffy; Wheezy, who wheezes from a congenital heart problem, and his love, Ruby; Topper; Toddler; Carrot the Parrot; Harey, who has a deformed beak, and his love, Mary; and two Goffin cockatoos. She attends eight bird club meetings, including one specializing in pigeons, each month.

Birds are creatures of the wild, but as pets, they often form strong bonds with humans--a bond strengthened by the fact that parrots and myna birds can easily learn to speak words and sentences of human language.

Bird-keeping was popularized in the United States in the 1920s by a young German emigre, Max Stern, who brought to New York City birds from Germany’s Hartz Mountains (hence the name of his company).

It got another boost after World War II when air travel became commercialized, and it became easier to transport birds from exotic locales.

In the early 1970s there was a U.S. outbreak of VVND, a strain of avian Newcastle disease especially dangerous to poultry. It hit the Los Angeles area particularly hard, and for two years the bird trade shut down and many birds died.

Toucans, ringnecks and myna birds were banned until 1974, when a quarantine system could ensure that only healthy birds were imported. The changes triggered a resurgence in the popularity of pet birds, which has not abated.

While one might assume that someone who pays $1,000 for a pet--the price of a medium-size parrot--is unlikely to neglect it, that is not always the case. They are not take-care-of-themselves pets, often live much longer than other pets, are not always nice to be around and can be very loud. The average cockatoo, with 500 pounds of pressure in its beak, can turn a piece of furniture into toothpicks.

Depending on their size, parrots in captivity have a life span of 25 to 150 years. Their longevity and special needs have left them vulnerable to changes in the circumstances of owners, such as those who are genuinely devoted but can no longer care for the birds, and, more often, those who simply lose interest.

This helps explain why most bird clubs also serve as networks for the rescue of birds who have been abandoned or are at risk. For every bird properly cared for, it is suspected that many more are being abused, neglected or left homeless.

Dave and Liz Friedman of Culver City and members of the West L.A Bird Club find that the birds they love most are the least exotic. They rehabilitate wounded or disabled wild birds such as finches, starlings, mourning doves and sparrows.

“Some people will rescue a wounded falcon or hawk, but who wants to spend time or money on a sparrow who can’t fly?” says Dave Friedman. Their rescues have also included a quail and a baby duck whose mother and siblings were killed. After a month or two they usually re-release them into the wild. “There’s a lot of satisfaction knowing you saved something that otherwise would die,” Friedman says.

Meeting since 1974, South Bay Bird Society is the oldest bird club in the area. While the group doesn’t allow pet birds at meetings, it maintains roughly the same number of members--about 100--as the other local clubs.

The society’s annual Birdtique, held in July, attracted 500 visitors last year and featured 30 nonprofit parrot education and rescue groups, vendors and other bird clubs.

This year, club president Janet Ragonesi says they hope to add bird exhibits, “so people will be able to tell the difference between a cockatiel and a cockatoo.”

Each club has its own specialty or claim to fame. At West Valley Bird Society, it might well be its elaborate raffle table. Most bird clubs feature raffles to defray costs and help raise money for their pet projects. But at West Valley, raffle tickets sell for different prices for a variety of items on a table piled high with macaw toys, gourmet bird food and housewares with bird themes.

The recently formed Parrot Society of Los Angeles meets in a tony hotel in Marina del Rey. In addition to the shared objective with other clubs of bird care education, the Parrot Society is aiding in the preservation of natural parrot habitats and protection of the birds in the wild.

At its last meeting, the speaker was Charles Munn III, director of Tropical Nature, a conservation organization whose efforts with ecotourism have secured millions of acres for wild parrots in the Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon jungles. The Parrot Society also has an adoption network for birds that are given up by their owners or rescued from abusive situations, which is now considered a crisis by pet bird experts.

At the West Valley club, Linda Lindsay’s two double yellow-headed Amazons, Frankie, a 45-year-old male rescued five years ago, and Bosco, an 8-year-old female, sit next to each other on a perch atop their travel case, more interested in each other than in the evening’s events.

Frankie is finally safe after years of abuse at the hands of a previous owner and 17 years spent sharing an 18-by-18-inch parakeet cage with another Amazon.

“He was very sick, very mean,” says Linda. Today, he is healthy, and happy too, she says, since he’s in love with Bosco.

At the February meeting of the West L.A. Bird Club, members chat and mill around the snack tables until the evening’s events begin. Many have brought along their birds, but not all--and having a pet bird is not a requirement for attending.

Avian veterinarian Attila Molnar gives a heady presentation of avian physiology, including details of how birds fly and why they need to stay warm. He is followed by the impressive acrobatics of five macaws in Steve Reverditto’s show, “Tricks Without Treats.” The finale, a scarlet macaw in full flight over the roomful of attendees, gets a round of “oohs” and “aahs.”

Scheduled for the March meeting this Wednesday: Parrot expert Joel Tatom, who will bring some unusual lories with him, and Melissa Berger, a bird-loving belly dancer whose Senegal parrot, Luisa, will perform with her.