The babysitter says Phoebe is doing great and is eager to play. It’s not the exact same playtime he gets with me, but Phoebe is apparently doing cup tossing/shredding with his new friend and he looks healthy.

I wanted to explain one aspect of Phoebe’s life that can be pretty scary. When he grows new feathers, they look like tubes of varying sizes. They’re called “blood feathers” because they are filled with blood in the part that’s still morphing into a feather.

During grooming, Phoebe will peel back the film on the tube and reveal the feathery portion as it grows in. Eventually, there will be no more tube and he’ll just have a feather. If he were a normal bird, his feathers would regrow occasionally and gradually. But because he has a feather plucking compulsion, he gets blood feathers more frequently.

I’ve heard from the babysitter that Phoebe is doing fine and he’s willing to play with his new caretaker. So since there’s not much new to report, here is the story of how I adopted Phoebe in the first place.

In December 2019, my wife and I (although it was mostly her) were looking for a new bird to adopt after our previous pet died. We came across The Gabriel Foundation, which is a bird rescue located about 40 minutes outside of Denver.

The facility is in the middle of nowhere, with a main building that has the office and several rooms of birds in cages. Then there are additional trailers with birds and an outdoor enclosure with netting, where I assume the birds are allowed to be in the summer months.

We had to visit multiple times before we could adopt a bird. The first visit was educational and we got to see a handful of birds who might be adoption candidates. I wasn’t looking for a big bird, but most of the birds for adoption were bigger and/or older. Some of them had an aversion to people or a bad feather plucking habit.

I’m taking an extended vacation for the next 10 days, which means Phoebe will be home alone. Not “alone” alone, because his dog brother will be there and a baby sitter will be stopping by multiple times per day. Unfortunately, Phoebe will be deprived of shoulder time, outdoor time, playtime, walk-around-the-building time, friend visitations, and his sleep routine. But at least he’s able to stay at home with his big cage and his toys and his view out the window.

In the morning, I drove Phoebe to the Clear Creek Trail in Golden. There were a lot fewer people out walking on Memorial Day. We went early enough that Phoebe was still lethargic. He tried to sleep on my shoulder in the car, and then he was mostly content sitting and watching the water move.

In the morning, Phoebe and I played pretty hardcore with one of his favorite toys — a pickleball. Normally, he takes a morning and/or early afternoon nap on my shoulder.

But right after playtime, I took him outside to his tree, where he did a little bit of bark chewing and sat listening to the outdoor birds. I noticed he has a lot of flight feathers coming in, although some of them are showing signs of mutilation.

After tree time, I took him to Rosebud Cafe. There was a line indoors, so I didn’t take him inside right away. Normally when that happens, he’ll protest and indicate to me that he wants to go inside. This time, he didn’t object when we sat down outside next to the window. He spent a few minutes watching his friends working, but then he started doing his naptime routine — getting puffy, doing some light grooming, getting very close to my face.

It’s finally above 65 degrees in Denver again, which means Phoebe got to go outside.

We’ve lived in our current building for six years, but for the first few years I didn’t take him out. I was afraid he would get scared and fall to the ground. Eventually, I brought him to the small park that’s next to the building. There are evergreen trees that have low enough branches for him to perch on. He also enjoys picking the ants off of the tree trunks like a predator.

For about a year now, I’ve walked him to the next block to Rosebud Cafe. It has outdoor seating where he can watch everybody and, more importantly, he’s allowed inside. I’ll write more about that in the future, but going to see our friends at Rosebud is one of the highlights of our day.

It remained fairly cold in Denver, so Phoebe had to stay in the warm rooms and away from his big cage and his windows. When I took him to his big cage for dinner, he didn’t want to leave. I have to bribe/trick/persuade him to come with me in those circumstances.

Tomorrow it will be hot enough to go outside again, and his routine will be back to normal.

What do you think is the most common question that people ask me about Phoebe?

My name is Michael. My bird’s name is Phoebe. For reference, this is us:

This website is intended to give you a glimpse into what it’s like to live with a 27-year-old parrot. The is to share frequent updates and talk about Phoebe bit by bit.

A bit of history: I live in Denver. I adopted Phoebe in December 2019 when he was 21 years old. He was in a bird rescue in rural Colorado with hundreds of other birds. He had a longtime owner, but I’m not sure what happened to that man. Phoebe was in the shelter for about six years before I adopted him.