The Parrot That Laid the Chocolate Egg, And More

Don't have any groundbreaking parrot research to report on today, so content your self with fun parrot news this Friday. Just take this adorable cockatoo which has spent the last two weeks trying to hatch a bunch of chocolate Easter eggs!

The cockatoo has been protecting the chocolates since she was taken outside, and saw them on a table.

Geoff Grewcock, who owns the bird at a sanctuary in Nuneaton, said Pippa had become very protective of the eggs and acted like a mum to them.
He said: "She went straight over, climbed on the creme eggs and that was it. She thinks they're her eggs."
Pippa has become so protective of her new eggs that she used her beak to throw one at a man who was trying to take her photograph.

Mr Grewcock added: "She threw it with her beak as if to say 'leave my eggs alone, they're mine'.
"She's ever so comical - always has been."

I'll say!
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And more on pet parrots turning wild, reported in this story on Quaker parrots in Brooklyn.

They have actually been roosting in the borough for decades, those who watch them say, most likely escapees from shipments sent up from Argentina in the late 1960s or early 1970s, or perhaps accidentally (or intentionally) released by pet stores and owners no longer able to care for them.

They have made their home in a number of US states, including Texas, Illinois, Connecticut, Virginia and Louisiana. In the New York metro area, they have also been seen in the borough of the Bronx and over the river in New Jersey.
And, says parrot fan Steve Baldwin, who has dedicated the past couple of years to chronicling the birds, there is no shortage of food because they will eat pretty much anything, like grass, the buds on trees, seeds, fruit.

"I've seen them eat pizza," he said.

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Or this guy who had to be rescued by a helicopter when HE was trying to rescue his pet parrot that escaped.

William Hart, 35, from Montgomery County, near Houston, Texas, followed his £1 000 white cockatoo Geronimo after it escaped its cage.

After he got stuck, about 30 Sheriff's deputies and firefighters converged on the tree but the ground was too wet to get a ladder near the tree.

As daylight began to fade, the decision was made to call in the coastguard from Galveston, reports the Houston Chronicle.

Before the helicopter finally retrieved him, Mr Hart could be seen standing on a branch holding the bird under his shirt and smoking a cigarette.

"In my 18 years as a firefighter, I've never seen anything like this," Porter Fire Chief Jody Binnion said.

Dude, that cigarette is not good for the bird. Or you. But, the bird!!!!
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