Bird lovers gather to celebrate their feathered friends

Pet Bird Club of Independence member and bird fair organizer Heidi Szatkowski of Blue Springs plays with a Macaw during the club's annual fair at the Sermon Center in Independence Saturday. Photo: Julie Scheidegger/The ExaminerBirds, even pet birds, won’t be happy if constantly left in cages.

Members of the Pet Bird Club are all too familiar with birds that self-mutilate, scream, or bite others as displays of unhappiness. The members often are called on to “rescue” such birds from households where the owners didn’t understand their pets’ need for companionship, said Pet Bird Club President Leisa Daniel of Blue Springs.

Daniel knows what happens to wild birds when left alone and abandoned by the flock. They die. When people adopt a bird, they’re joining the bird’s flock, she said.

“People don’t realize how much they love this,” Daniel said. She used a finger to gently stroke the back of the head of a bird, crested in colorful plumage, at the club’s annual club fair at the Sermon Center Saturday. The bird, which measured about a foot tall, closed its eyes, arching its neck for more petting.

The event is the club’s annual fundraiser. Vendors, who range from bird breeders, to cage and supply sales companies, pay the club for booth space. In addition, the club sells concessions, baked goods, and, this year, also held a cake walk to raise funds.

Members use the money to donate to bird rescue organizations, and to adopt housed birds from the aviary at the Kansas City Zoo, said Pet Club Vice President Heidi Szatkowski of Oak Grove.

A major mission of the club is to educate owners about how to socialize their birds. In fact, club members are required to be accompanied by a bird at club meetings.

Education takes many forms, including mentoring and sharing information with other bird owners and informational speakers at club meetings. Such education is crucial, members said, for healthy, happy birds and owners. Daily care includes bathing, which many owners do by allowing their birds to mist while the owners are in the shower. Daily care also includes feeding, usually three times each day, and cleaning up after their feathered friends, who tend to take bites of food, discarding the remains on the ground. In the wild, this method replenishes the rain forests, the birds’ natural habitats, when seeds are scattered.

Bird owner Donna Martin of Oak Grove understands the need of her two pet parrots for attention. In fact, one of her birds joins in her daily routines, perched on her shoulder while she cleans and cooks. Her bird also is fond of curling up on Martin’s neck while they both snooze. But life with birds isn’t always calm. Martin knows that any paper she leaves out will soon be mutilated.

“If you put him on the counter and you have a bill there, it’ll be shredded to nothing,” Martin said. “They’re pretty unbelievable. I’d have more, but my husband would divorce me.”

Club member Bob Brice understands. He shares his Independence home with about 100 birds, which he breeds.

“Some guys like fishing and sports cars,” Brice said. “I’ve had birds all my life and couldn’t live without them. It’s a good hobby.”

Club member Kerry Savage shares his Blue Springs home with four birds and a few four-legged animals. One of his birds does such a convincing imitation of his pager that Savage has been known to wake in the middle of the night to the pager’s familiar ring-tone, only to discover that one of his birds is imitating the noise.

Savage teased that if he’d known how much he’d love bird ownership, he would have had birds instead of kids.

“At least they won’t wreck my car.”