Meet MIss Daisy: Because of her horrific abuse situation, she came to us with her wings unable to open, they were just quills, not feathered, and she had plucked her entire body, front and back, as her way of dealing with her stress. She had a large cyst on her face, and she was severely underweight. She is 14 years old in this picture. Daisy is a Green Wing Macaw.

Miss Daisy, 4 years later. She can actually get a little bit of lift, and we are looking forward to her getting some aviary flying practice. She is 18 years old.

Vinny: UPDATE: On July 13, 2017, Vinny took his final flight with the help of our incredible veterinary team. The mass in his chest was growing, and his heart was failing quickly, and after a bunch of blueberries, (his favorite food), we said our final goodbyes. 

The birds in the house mourned deeply, and it was more than a week, before many of their normal sounds began to return. We all miss him, greatly. 

We adopted Vinny from Feathered Friends of Michigan. He is one of only two birds here that were actually loved until their surrender. (Health reasons) Vinny spent a year in the rescue because he is a bitey little guy. But he is also a sweetheart, and he makes me smile every day. He is a dancer, and ringer of bells, and loves all things juicy. About a month ago we learned that Vinny is now struggling with heart disease. Injections are now part of daily routine, but nothing dims his spirit. Vinny is a Noble's Macaw, and he turned 19 on April 1st.

Tsuh(Tea-suh), Girly, (the Lady Gouldians), and Tiny and Little ( the Orange Cheeked Waxbills):

Believe it or not, we have heard tales that even these tiny little guys make too much noise. Finches are also in rescues. We try to keep a revolving colony here, because when these guys lose a friend, they really mourn. Life expectancy is only 3-5 years for the little finches. These guys don't really want handling, but they do enjoy time free flying, and they love their fresh greens in the morning. Lady Gouldians are native to Australia, and the little Waxbills are from Africa.

Baby Bird: Baby Bird came to us as a tiny little guy, he was only a few weeks old. If you click the picture, you can see that he has a malformed beak. He was bred for profit in a pet store, and once they saw his face, they knew he wasn't able to be sold. The store was going to put him in a freezer at the end of the workday, and somebody had overheard that conversation and people helped get him out. He was delivered here to us. I spent weeks hand-feeding him, and he proved that having a malformed maxilla would not stop him from learning to grow and get stronger every day. 
He weaned himself onto Roudybush nibbles, and he loves softly steamed apples and broccoli. He is now one of our flyers, and he can navigate himself around a couple of rooms to various swinging ropes. Baby Bird is not yet two years old and he is a Lutino Cockatiel.

Paco: Paco was once loved by his family. He was allowed to fly freely for 19 years. Then, the family changed things up, and got some new things, in their house, and they didn't want him flying and landing on new stuff. He started being chased with a broom handle to get him down off of things, and then he was turned over to a rescue. Paco is a sensitive soul. He spent almost 5 years in a rescue, in a couple of different places. People would come to meet him, and Paco would show his fear by lashing out, and then he would sit again. He has quite the bite, and leaves you bruised for days when he gets you, if you were lucky enough to not have him go through skin. Paco wants to fly. He can fly, and it is incredible, but he needs space to fly, outside. Being out of doors in a huge aviary where he can truly fly, is one of the main goals of the sanctuary. Paco is a Blue and Gold Macaw, and he is 25 years old.

Sunny: Sunny was first bought at a pet store, by a family who was purchasing her on a whim. The family thought that it would be easier for them to just get a water bottle for her drinking source, because then they could just change it once a week. (Water bottles need to be cleaned with a brush, daily. Bacteria builds up quickly) Sunny didn't know how to drink from a water bottle, she was just a baby, and the people provided no other water source. They took her back to the store and said she was sick and dying, and they didn't want her anymore, they wanted a different bird. Sunny came here to live until her forever. She was better in less than a week. She just needed clean water. Now, she drinks and bathes in a long water bowl, and she can fly through a couple of different rooms. She loves her fresh salads and Roudybush pellets. Sunny is a Pineapple Green Cheek Conure, and she is under 2 years old.

Captain Jack Sparrow: Jack is an American Singer canary. Long ago, canaries had one of either two types of songs...Trills or tweets. American Singers became popular when a group of Boston women in the 1930's, got together and tried to breed both trills and tweets into the canaries. 

The canaries many people look for, are able to sing complex songs, containing both trills and tweets. Believe it or not, canaries are also considered to be too loud for many people, and they are frequently found in rescues. 

Jack's song can last up to a minute on a single breath. It is a gift, every single time we get to hear it. Captain Jack was named because of his beautiful sparrow like appearance from the back. His face and belly are a gorgeous deep orange-red color. Jack is a Mosaic American Singer Canary, and he is 4 years old.

Captain Jack, showing off some of his beautiful colors. An interesting fact... Canaries molt out all of their feathers at once, over a 6-8 week period. It takes so much energy, that for those 6-8 weeks, the canary cannot sing. It is a noticable difference in the sanctuary when Jack stops singing for up to two months, each year.

Chatterbox: Chatter is the 2nd of only two birds here at the sanctuary, that came from a home where he was loved, very much. Yet, it is still a sad story. 

A woman wanted a Cockatiel for all of her adult life. She had heard they create dust, so she waiting until all of her children were grown, and had moved on to families of their own. She was thrilled that it was finally her time, and she welcomed Chatter to her home. 

She taught him to whistle and play, etc. and then...her children had kids of their own, and told her that she needed to be their babysitter, but they didn't want the bird to be around their kids. It broke her heart, but after a couple of months of hearing her kids tell her the bird needed to go, he was placed here, with the promise that he would stay here, until his forever. Chatterbox and Baby Bird (His story was told recently, now share a big aviary. Chatter is a Cockatiel, and he is 5 years old.

Chatterbox and Baby Bird (Smushface), now share this aviary. They play all day, and love their fresh salads. They both have learned to fly, and can navigate through two different rooms to various ropes and Cholla perches.

Allie ( Alamar): Allie came to us late on the night of Labor Day, 2016. This is what she looked like under a little piece of sock. That is a one inch hole in her chest that she put there herself by chewing out of stress. It was heartbreaking. Allie was almost 20 years old in this picture, but she was in a very fragile state. Her muscles had atrophied because for a very long time, years, she had spent her time in a cage with one round perch and one wiffle ball. She plucked, and self mutilated to deal with the stress from being away from her family and in a dark room alone. 

Allie: 24 hours later, after a day at the vet, and a bath, Allie is looking a little better. This would be the beginning of a visit per week to the vet, which we are still continuing to this day. She was underweight by more than 60 grams. But, she is on her way...

Every 8 days, Allie goes to the vet for a fresh set of vet tape and a sock. We taught the vet how to cut the sock so that it could be used in place of a collar. Allie had spent so long in hunched condition that her spine was weak and wouldn't do well with the weight of a collar made for feather pluckers. Instead, we pick her out a fresh new fun sock each week, and we are happy to say she has not had a new wound in months. She is now in the normal weight range for her species. Allie is a Goffin's Cockatoo and she is 20 years old.

Darla: Darla Bird has never known horrific abuse, but she did learn fear, and that fear caused her to mutilate most of her feathers at one time, including her wings. 

She was once a gift for a young son, and then, once the son grew up and moved on with his life, the family didn't want her anymore. To avoid being bitten out of fear, they started trying to catch her with a welding glove on, and the damage was done. 

Darla was placed in rescue, and she was there for over a year. We got a call asking if we would take Darla, because room was needed for another bird of her same species. 

We knew she was going to take some serious love and work to break that fear, but we said "yes" in an instant. She was only here for 3 months when a random firework went off and scared her so bad she pulled all of her feathers overnight. 

Cockatoos make very serious, devoted bonds with their families. Their hearts are broken again and again, and with life spans between 40 and 60 years in captivity, we are happy that she will be with family, until her forever.

We were devastated, but we just started over. She had come to us on many medications, and little by little the vet started weaning her off of them. She is now drug free, and has been off of all medications for 18 months.. Darla is an Umbrella Cockatoo and she is 9 years old.

Darla: Darla has been off all medicines for 18 months. She has grown in most of her wing feathers and last week, for the first time since she has been here, she took off and flew about 20 feet. I cried, it was such a big deal. She is a great girl, loves to come out and climb around on the ropes hanging all over the place. She gets a little scared of new things, but she eventually tackles them with the same gusto that she usually reserves for pine nuts. Those are her favorite treat.

She is learning to sing, sings Lalalala while she is bopping her head around, and goodness, the girlie has learned the scream of both seagulls and little girls having fun, so on occasion it sounds like a horror movie in here.

Dancing to music with a great beat is one of her favorite things to do, and we also have our quiet time, every night before bed, holding hands and singing, " You Are My Sunshine". She is loud, messy, hilarious, and we love her.

This picture is with one of her "special" toys. There are no buttons or anything that come off of it, but she can only have it when she is out of her cage. She is now out of puberty, and any fluffy toys could possibly be torn apart and used while trying to build a nest. So, she gets to play with her "fluff face" , and she plays like a two year old child. Throwing it down so you will pick it up...over and over, and over 

Itty Bitty, Merry and Pip: Again, some of the tiniest creatures end up in rescues or need a helping hand in finding a safe place to land. 

These little guys and girls don't have a very long life span, the average being around 4 years. Because we have visably watched the grieving of the finches when they lose a companion, we try to make sure there is a clean, non infected revolving door for them. Our hearts break when we lose one, but so do theirs, so we make sure that they at least have friends.

This is one of the species that are bred in mass breeding organizations in order to supply huge pet store franchises. 

Society finches are wonderful friends to some of their wild cousins, even rearing the young of Lady Gouldian finches when the parents fail to do a good job.  They are such great parents, that often in the wild, they will help take care of any babies that they find. 

Here, if we have any birds who lay eggs, we remove the real eggs and replace them with fake eggs that are appropriate for the species.

Merry, Pip, and Itty Bitty are Society Finches and they are between 2 and 3 years old.

 Ubu is a prime example of what happens when something happens to you, and you don't have a plan in place, for your animals.

She had a mom who loved her for 37 years. The woman became ill, went into the hospital, and sadly, she never came home. The family, while knowing their mother loved the bird for 37 years, decided they didn't want her, and they placed her into an incredible little rescue.

We adopted Ubu knowing that she was already 37 years old, had been a fed a seed diet most of her life, and we truly thought we were bringing her home to have as great of life as possible before we lost her.

Ubu had different ideas. She is going strong years later. She plays, climbs, flies, eats very well, and she is a ham for the cameras. We always tell her she is sticking her big "bug eye" into the camera.

Ubu was is a wild caught bird, so somebody brought her into this country under horrible circumstances, and then, she was sold to a probable unsuspecting buyer. Ubu is now 40 years old and she is a Goffin's Cockatoo.

Mr. White: His story may sound familiar to some, because we told a bit of it before, when we spoke of his best friend, Mr. Gray. ( We lost Mr. Gray in the summer of 2016)

Mr. White was first turned in by his owners, along with Mr. Gray to the Michigan Humane Society. Over the next month, the birds were adopted out to 2 different homes, each time being returned to the Humane Society because they were too noisy, and messy. In both of those cases, the families said their kids hit the cages with their closed hands trying to stop the noise. Instead, they created birds who became afraid of the human hand. 

We adopted them almost 5 years ago, knowing nothing of their ages, or previous homes other than they had at least 3 homes in their lives to date. 

Mr. White mourned for his friend for a very long time. We try often, to get him out to fly, he is a really good flyer, but he is scared, and really never wants to leave his space. 

Some may think that we had no originality when naming these two birds, but actually, Lord of the Rings played a huge role. Mr. Gray for Gandalf the Gray, and Mr. White for Saruman the White, became their names. 

Many people ask if he is an Albino Cockatiel, but he is not. A true Albino would have red eyes. They are quite rare in the bird world.

Mr. White is a combination of a White Faced Cockatiel and Lutino Cockatiel, and considered to be a mutation of the two, so he is called a White Face Lutino. 

 Chummy came to us after she had spent almost a year in a pet store in a small cage. Her only problem was that she wasn't as brightly colored as her brother, and she really wasn't a talking bird.

Sadly, those are two huge factors when people buy a bird. What will it look like when it is grown, and will they talk?

Chummy is full of gorgeous shades of greens, yellows, reds and even turquoise and cream under her wings.

She has been here almost two years, and it has taken all of that time to get her very close to stepping up. She will eat from our hands, and she will give you a kiss from outside of her bars.

She is fully capable of flying, but like most animals born in a cage, she is afraid. We will just keep opening up her door, and someday, she will again take that first step and take a few laps around the various flying spaces.

She loves singing and dancing time, and the all time favorite here, is " Dinosaur Train" from PBS Kids.

Chummy is a grass parakeet and would be found in the wild in South eastern Australia.

We are absolutely fine with Chummy not being as colorful as the males of her species. She is a Red Rumped Parrot, and she is 3 years old.