Friday, September 7, 2007

Non-Wounded Bird - Only His Feelings are Hurt . . .


Meet Morph, the Half Moon Conure. His little bird brain is convinced that he rules the roost at our place. Morph was found on the street here in Gracias. He was already tame, but his wings had not been clipped, and he was free as a . . . well, you know. However, Morph didn't seem to know what to do with his freedom, so he was living on the streets, potentially attracting dangerous companions, who would lead him astray, or possibly eat him. Not a pretty story.

He was brought to us by a friend, who hoped that we would encourage this young bird to live a safer lifestyle. In spite of his 'foundling' status, he maintains his King of the Streets attitude, and now bosses our family around unmercifully. If his wishes are not granted, we suffer his noisy wrath!



Kirstin is his preferred slave, and his usual source of transportation. During daylight hours, he pretty much lives on her shoulder, or atop her head. If Kirstin eats or drinks anything appealing, he runs down her arm and dives in! Kirstin has to be especially careful when consuming anything hot.

This week, the unnamed wounded bird joined our household. Morph is miffed. He sits on Kirstin, and watches her minister to the baby's needs. But you can tell, he's unsettled. His world has turned upside down, and he isn't sure what to make of this newcomer in his realm.

Today, Morph tried to join the baby bird in his box, but we were unsure of his intentions, so we distracted him toward other pursuits.

Poor Morph! I keep expecting him to start dragging a wing, or something, so that we'll all return to paying what he considers an appropriate amount of attention to him!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

my finger still hurts from Morph's bite. 'bad bird!' haha

Pastor Yoon and others arrived safely. We just came back from pastor's house. thanks for everything

Younggi

La Gringa said...

Cute bird! And funny article, too. I feel like I know Morph. He probably wouldn't like me though, since I'm a dog person.

I just noticed that photo at the bottom of your blog. Wow, that is fantastic.

Trish said...

Younggi! Thanks so much for letting me know that the group got home safely. We're all looking forward to next year, down here. Hope you are, too!

Thanks, La Gringa. I am a dog person, too, and Morph and I are just starting to warm up to each other.

I used to think that birds were just pretty ornaments, which sat in their cages creating lots of noise and poop.

Now I know that they can travel all over the house creating noise and poop.

But seriously, I am starting to find the birds enjoyable - a new experience for me. Oh, and the bird totally has the dogs cowed! They wouldn't mess with Morph for anything!

Anonymous said...

Just so you know..dh and I got a half moon conure (named Morris), since we move so much he ended up being adopted by my in-laws for a number of years..and then my sil took him. We probably should have paid child support..he lived 21 years!

Trish said...

Wow, Anon, 21 years? We were told that the birds only live about 3-4 years, but I thought at the time that this was probably because locals feed their birds corn meal as their entire diet. I've been advised (by other than local sources) that these birds eat fruit in the wild, so we are trying to make sure we feed him better than just corn meal!