Parrots are a Pain

Written Nov. 27 in my notebook (see, I am posting regularly!)

I was hanging out with my host family in the house when we heard a loud squawking noise from the hill above. All of the kids ran up to see what it was, and a green parrot had fallen out of a tree with a broken wing. My host sisters claimed it as a pet and brought the snappy, angry bird into the house on a stick.

The next day the 15 year old brother tamed the parrot by giving it oranges and petting it. The parrot was then left on a limb outside the house to enjoy the sunlight. We looked over later and it had escaped! After what seemed like hours searching for a green parrot in the green trees, my host mom spotted it about 30 feet high in a big fruit tree right near the house. As the tallest member of the family, I was given the honor of trying to knock it out of the tree with a long bamboo pole. The parrot just kept climbing higher though, so my host mom decided to chop down the tree with a machete. When the tree trashed down, we grabbed the parrot and brought it back inside.

I thought this was the end of the parrot hunt. For some reason though my host mom never tied up the parrot and it escaped for the next two days, again. We spent evenings searching for it in the trees. When I left for Thanksgiving, the parrot had been missing for more than a night and I figured it was gone for good (and wasn't too upset). When I returned from my getaway I found the parrot inside the house with a string around its foot so I guess it is being treated more like a pet now. I was not there to witness it, but Lola (it also was given a name and a gender when I was gone) would not come down from a tall tree, so my host mom sent a log of fire ants up the tree until the parrot was so bitten that it fell down!

Interesting fact: This wild parrot only eats the inside of oranges seeds and leaves the rest of the orange. What a picky eater.