The Displaced Bird: 

This country is facing an alarming epidemic of homeless birds. Exotic Bird Rescue's all the country over are full to brimming; many being filled to capacity.

There are many reason's for this but the most common reason is that birds make great companions but they make terrible pets.  An astounding 75% of parrots living in captivity in the United States are living in less tha suitable living conditions and the average parrot will have 10 homes in the first 7 years of its life.

 “The misconception that a parrot is tame because it was breed in captivity is one of the greatest illusions about this bird. Just as big cats raised from cubs in captivity still retain their wild instincts, even captive-bred, hand raised parrots remain wild. For example the majority of parrots, for their entire lives, will bite the hand that feeds them. It is not something that can be trained out of them completely” (Twita, 2009)  "The parrot is a naturally assertive,  domineering, and demanding creature, that upon maturity  will have hormonally induced "temper-tantrums" (Guide to a Well Behaved Parrot). Many if not most parrots are surrendered when they begin to become sexually mature. They are a handful, and it takes hours of fearless dedication to raise and care for one.

People have been taught by the media that birds are decorative and that you can buy one, put it in a cage, and have a pretty pet that is easy to care for and talks on command which has become a very serious misconception.  There are no real life gilded cages. Although all parrots can talk, many never become inclined to do so. This too, is a very poor reason to purchase a parrot. Parrots are also ALOT of work, and are quite expensive, demaning and time consuming to keep as pets. All of these factors combine to create an animal that most people are seriously under-equipped to deal with for the long term.

Please take your time and consider wisely before buying or adopting a parrot. It is up to us, experianced parrot owners to do what we can to help tackle this problem.

For some further reading: