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A couple share their lives with 20 parrots - and regularly take them out and about.

David Vickery and wife Gill have spent decades rescuing birds after starting with two cockatiels and two budgerigars over 40 years ago.

Their collection has now expanded and including a range of different shapes and sizes from African Greys, to Macaws, and Cockatoos.

The couple, who are part of the charity Problem Parrots, said more of the birds have been abandoned since the Covid pandemic.

David said the problem was that once parrots have been reared by humans they are unable to return to the wild as they would not survive.

Category

😹
Fun
Transcript
00:00Hello Bella. Hello Bella. Hello Bella. Hello. Hello.
00:11I'm Jill and I've got Billy with me. Billy is an umbrella cockatoo and cockatoos are called love sponges because they'll take as much as you can give them.
00:23And Billy is 20 years old.
00:28I'm David. The other birds, we've got Kenny at the end, he's the oldest of what we've got, he's 24.
00:37Bella, Bella's a boy. Georgie, the red one. The green one is Millie and the blue and gold at the end is Charlie.
00:58It's hard to say. We started keeping birds about 40 years ago. We started with two cockatiels and two budgies.
01:15We then got, I think we got an African grey, then we got a couple more and then we realised it was a bit unfair because we were at work all day.
01:26It was a bit unfair leaving them so we got rid of those.
01:31I was early retired at 49, 20 years ago and that's when we really started collecting birds, taking birds in.
01:40Mainly rescues. One or two of the rarer ones I've gone out and bought because it's my lifelong ambition if you like.
01:48But most of them are rescued and they come in for a variety of reasons.
01:54Some of them are mishandled, mistreated. Most of them come in through ignorance of the owner.
02:01The owner doesn't really know how to look after them, what their actual needs are.
02:11If the main carer dies then the rest of the family don't want to take the bird on so then they'll come in to us in that respect.
02:20Other respects, nowadays there's a lot of moving of people and landlords won't let pets in.
02:29Although I know that's about to change which should make life a bit easier but at the moment landlords won't let pets.
02:35If you've got a pet and you've got to move house and you want the house you've got to give your pet up.
02:40So they come in for that reason and some of them come in because they're ill and the people can't afford the vets bills.
02:48So they hand them in to us. Sometimes they'll come in to vets that way because they go to the vets first and they can't afford the bills so the vets hand them in to us.
03:06Sorry, he's got dirty wings because he's...
03:11I think they all have their own personalities, what do you think?
03:14I think so, this one's a bit bossy. This one, she's fairly laid back, nothing fazes her, she's sort of put up with anything.
03:25This one's a troublemaker.
03:29Yeah, looks sweet and innocent but isn't quite so.
03:33And this one is the eldest and he's the oldest of wisest and as long as he's with us he doesn't worry.
03:42It's lovely, you know, at the end of the day you see somebody smile and you think well I've done a bit good today, made somebody happy.
04:06The problem is it's a good chance for people to see them up close because if you go to a zoo their eyes are in the nest box right at the back of the cage and you can't really see their beauty.
04:18And they're beautiful creatures so it's nice for people to actually see them up close and it's lovely.
04:25Sometimes a family will come along and the kids are obviously very interested in the birds and sometimes I'll take them by the hand and put a bird on their arm just to watch their smile.
04:37It's wonderful, it's a wonderful experience.
04:55Good boy.
05:07Hello. Hello Bella.
05:10Hello. Hello.
05:13Hello. Hello.
05:16Hello Bella. Hello Georgie.
05:21Hello Bella. Hello Bella.
05:24Hey. Give me a kiss. Good girl. Good girl.

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