After reading (and watching) “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” earlier this year, I developed a much better understanding of the essentially wild nature of all domesticated birds.
It’s not like this hadn’t been explained to me in other bird books, but it was how the author, Mark Bittner, highlighted in such intimate details the parrots’ reactions to even the most necessary captivity while ill or injured that really helped me to not only intellectually grasp but also emotionally feel their essential wildness.
Pearl had a wing injury when she was a chick that would have prevented her from ever being released into the wild anyway, even if she were not bred domestically and hand-fed so as to be suitable for adoption as a pet.
Yet, she loves listening to the wild birds that chitter and chirp all around the eaves of my house, and when I take her outside (another thoroughly enjoyable activity as long as Mommy remains within sight at all times) I can see it in her eyes and feel it through her feathers that she remains wild at heart.
