meet the bird family

Kokola is the loudest. He's from the cockatoo family, called a Corella. aka bare-eyed cockatoo, and specifically he's a slender-billed corella (with a long upper bill). He's all white, with orange undersides to his feathers around the head. his bare skin around the eyes are blue. In spite of his long beak & racuous voice, he's the gentlest coward. Loves hugs & cuddles, and will say Hello Kokola! Go to Bed! in any combination just to get his favourite treat, cashew nuts. He can do a "high five" or shake hands or wave. He's from the wild. My husband found him with a broken wing when he was a young bird, and the vet said he'd never fly again. Well he's proved the vet wrong a few times, when he flew off in a fright about something, and got lost in the wild for days. Each time we found him again, hungry and thirsty, happy to be found. Now he lives in an enclosed space with the dogs and Pepi.

Pepi is the little green budgie. He's a sweetie, and I originally gave him to my mum & dad, but mum realised she was allergic to the feather dust after a couple of years, so he came back to us. You can tell what household he came from - he says Praise the Lord, and Hallelujah. Since he joined us, he's started to say "Whatcha doing!?" and he learnt lots of new phrases from Chojo our other budgie who died a few months ago, and is always missed --considering that the vet was going to put Chojo down 2 years ago, and he recovered to live another 2 happy healthy years is a great blessing to us already.

Chojo could say:

hello chojo
how's my little baby?
Chojo Boy
Come and kiss me
Cutie pie
mmm Gorgeous
special baby
What're you doing
Chojo loves mummy
mummy loves Chojo
(variation on above - mummy loves mummy; chojo loves chojo)
Naughty Leo [our Italian sheepdog]
Leo's a naughty boy
Wilson! Come here! [our other Italian sheepdog]
I love you- do you love me ?
Kokola
little brat !
mummy go to bed
mummy slow down
I love you Kurtie daddy
yummy yummy
excuse me, what did you say?

Tutti is our lutino cockatiel, very feisty yet very sweet and tame. He is the latest addition to the family. He joined us about March 2004 as a little baby. For some reason he doesn't talk, unlike our other birds. Maybe he bonded with the budgies early on and never really bonded with us humans, though he spends lots of time with us. He showers with my husband, meditates with me, reads with me, works in the office with me, and always wants to eat with us. He's all yellow, with 2 round orange spots on his "cheeks", looking like he didn't blend his blusher properly.

Fifi, Lulu, Mimi, Tutu are the 4 geese. There were 5, but when Leo our Italian sheepdog was recuperating from a knee operation and not doing his watchdog duties, the fox got one of the geese. It was very sad because it was the tamest one of the geese who always wanted human company.

Leo & Wilson are not birds, but they know their birds. They are Italian sheepdogs called Maremmas, and are white and long-furred and big. But size doesn't prevent them being scared of Kokola's wildly unbalanced flights around the enclosure, and when Kokola does occasionally take fright & fly, the dogs are ready to take flight too, because Kokola is known to land on one of them and dig its claws in for security! When Chojo the budgie was alive, he used to like sitting on Leo, as he knew Leo from when Leo was a tiny puppy. But Leo is scared of Tutti the cockatiel. He flees when Tutti comes near. So much for Leo's 50kg size against Tutti's 88g! Wilson, the other Maremma dog, is neutral about the birds.