Finding Konchog Birdy
Friday, October 2nd, 2009I volunteered in the Garuda Aviary for awhile when it was located in Arizona. In 2004, we took in an Amazon parrot named Skipper. Everyone loved him. He and I became quite close—I think I probably resembled his former owner—and he stayed with me whenever I was working. Within a couple months he developed a breathing problem. When the avian vet said Skipper couldn’t continue to live with so many dander-producing birds, Jetsunma allowed me to adopt him.
I had him for several months and as he reached maturity and began to test his dominance, it became clear that I did not have the “alpha bird” qualities to be the leader. He began biting and becoming more unruly. He had been very well-socialized, and I knew that my weakness would ruin him.
Thankfully a woman named Bernadette—who had volunteered at Garuda Aviary for some time and had adopted several of the birds who also couldn’t stay in the aviary—was happy to adopt Skipper.
During the last two weeks with Skipper, I began to have flashes of a yellow bird in my mind. As if that didn’t seem crazy enough, I sensed that he needed me. At some point I realized it was a cockatiel. Each day it got a little stronger and I had a feeling of urgency about finding the bird. I started looking at cockatiel rescue websites and checking out local pet stores.
I was to bring Skipper to Bernadette’s home in the early evening. That whole day, the sense of urgency grew so strong that I finally went into my prayer room and prayed deeply to Jetsunma, “I don’t know where this bird is and don’t know what else to do. Please plop him in my lap.”
That evening I drove out to Bernadette’s home with Skipper in a travel cage. It was a difficult trip because I loved him so much. It was like giving up a child. We got Skipper set up and Bernadette gave me a tour of her many rescued birds, sharing their life stories. They were mostly large birds.
When she finished the tour I said, “I have a general question about cockatiels.” Before I even asked my question, Bernadette interrupted, “I’m going to give you Trickster. He’s a cockatiel who needs a home, and you’re the perfect person to take him.”
I was speechless. I hadn’t said anything about looking for a cockatiel, the yellow bird, nothing. And during her tour, she hadn’t even mentioned that she had any cockatiels.
She led me out to the backyard in the pitch dark, and we walked down a dirt path to an outdoor aviary. She shined the flashlight on a small flock of cockatiels all bunched up on a long perch. She quickly grabbed one, stuffed him under her shirt and led me back in the house, saying “This is your bird.” For a moment I thought I should be the one choosing my bird, but then I remembered the prayer I had made to Jetsunma and how weird this whole thing was.
When we got inside, Bernadette pulled Trickster out of her shirt and put him in Skipper’s travel cage. There he was—a bright yellow cockatiel! Bernadette said he was a rescue who’d come with the other 11 cockatiels. But unlike them, he was a “people bird” and wasn’t thriving without a lot of human interaction.
I renamed him Konchog Birdy. He is pure joy. Many times when I’ve felt depressed he’ll say, “What’re you doing?” and then “I love you!” It always snaps me out of it.
Ani Sangye Drolma
Poor Tashi Bird had a problem ─ a big problem ─ she pulled out her own feathers; something parrots do when under stress. Tashi didn’t pull out just any feathers, either. She was pulling out what is called “blood feathers.” Yikes! Blood feathers are shafts full of blood, and when they are broken, they can bleed profusely and endanger the bird. In order to help Tashi, Jetsunma would restrain the bird while Christopher, using a pair of needle nose pliers, would pull the rest of the feather shaft out so that the bleeding would stop.