Callie the Blue Headed Pionus

My 15 year old son wants to be a veterinarian. He loves all creatures from hermit crabs and bearded dragons to dogs and cats. Over the years, I have indulged his passion for pets but had always put off getting a bird. I knew that birds were loud and expensive and messy. I knew that birds lived a long time and that bird cages were expensive as well. He continued to ask and I continued to give reasons why it was not a good idea. However, he is a good kid. He is quiet and makes good grades and has never given me a moment's trouble. So after a particularly good report card I gave in. We began to research parrots in earnest. After many days of Internet reading and buying books and Bird Talk magazine, we decided on a blue headed pionus. Then we began to search for a breeder in our area. The pionus is not a bird that has yet gained much popularity as a pet apparently. We finally located a breeder about 2 and 1/2 hours away. One a beautiful sunny Saturday in March we drove south along the coastal plain and into the salt marshes of North Carolina. My son read to me from the latest issue of Bird Talk and we discussed possible names.

The breeder had three blue headed pionus hens, all of them with ragged feathers and missing tails. I had already prepared my son by telling him if the birds did not appear healthy that we would not purchase one. He fell in love with the quietest one and 350.00 dollars later we headed home. Jordan held the pet carrier in his lap all the way home and informed me that the bird's name was Callie. She repeatedly called from the carrier the whole way home. We had already purchased a cage and equipped it with toys and perches and bowls of food, water and treats. Callie spent the first two days huddled in her cage, not eating the tasty treats, not playing with the carefully chosen toys. On Day 3, she arose and attached herself to Jordan with a single mindedness that I have only seen previously in dogs. She loves that boy. She waits for him to return from school each day and hangs upside down, swinging back and forth to attract his attention. Her favorite place in the world is on his shoulder where she loves to pop the lenses from his glasses. If she is on the floor, she will walk her adorable pionus waddle across to him and climb up onto his feet. I love her as well. She is the perfect bird.....gentle and loving and endlessly comical with her antics. It didn't take me long to decide that I wanted a parrot of my own. Enter Ceazar, the Indian Ringneck Parrot. But that is another story.