The tale of a little fledgling Grey Lourie

In September 2009 I was quietly sitting inside the house when I heard a commotion outside, and I saw my dogs pawing at something on the ground. As I have had experience with my dogs grabbing mice and birds before, I ran outside to go and help whatever was facing their clutches at that point again! On the ground was a little baby grey lourie, or some form of a mousebird, I thought at first glance. He wasn't injured too badly as far as I could see but I brought him inside and put him inside my parrot's travel cage to calm him down. I was more worried that the little bird was in a state of shock as we all know that shock is the danger in situations such as those.

I left him in there for a little bit while I pondered helping him make it through the night. He was still a baby and I had no idea where his nest had been or the rest of his family. At closer inspection I saw that he was indeed a little grey lourie and my heart sang, because I have always had an affinity for these calling birds of the Bushveld and thought them beyond beautiful. Suddenly I had my own baby lourie and so I truly wanted him to make it through his first night and become strong and healthy and sound.

My brother got home as he was living with me at the time, and upon seeing the newly acquired member of the household just shook his head, as he knew that there would be a flood of tears the next morning should the little one not make it through the night. I got him out of the cage and tried feeding him a strawberry as I know the louries are mainly fruit-eaters. He gobbled up that strawberry! It was delicious, you could see the little wings flapping ecstatically and he was making baby sounds which probably meant something like 'yum yum, gimme more!'.

That night I put him next to my bed in the cage with lots of towels to keep him warm, and it was with trepidation that I peeked in the next morning to see whether he survived his first night. He sat there with big, bright eyes, hungry again and right as rain!

My brother named him Punkie, due to the grey lourie's upright fringe on the head when they are on the alert and he has now been with me for nearly 2 years. Punkie has a deformity on his legs which would make it impossible for him to land on a tree and hop from branch to branch as they do in the wild. He can fly, but when I take him outside of his cage, he flies beautifully although he prefers to fly around the house once whereafter he seeks me out and finds a spot on me to sit and then fall asleep. He loves feeding time, which is more or less the whole day! I have never seen a little bird eat as much as this little one, but I adore him, he is the sweetest little soul, always happy when he sees a special treat. He flaps his little wings and emits a chirping sound when he sees an especially yummy treat and he loves to bathe himself.

My dad built him a special cage that enables him to sit outside when the weather is nice and warm and he can view the garden and take a bath and look at the other birds. He listens to the African Grey and although it breaks my heart to know that he will never be able to return to the wild, I know that he is happy and healthy with me and that is as it should be.