The truth About Tropical Birds

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The Parque de Aves, just a short ride outside of Copan, has a short trail next to the river where large enclosures are the homes for various tropical birds. The first enclosure protects about 20 or so scarlet macaws. Visitors can walk right through the enclosure, and be one with the birds.

I thought I might be greeted as an old friend, perhaps, but no, these birds tried to drive me away with their noisy protests and taunts. Their responses to me were dreadful, even though I was telling them how beautiful they were and how honored I was to be among them. And they were utterly beautiful, with their crimson plumage, long flowing tails when they flew, and other strong colors of blue, yellow, and green mixed in. I knew they had planned their greeting to be as repugnant as possible for me. Several flew right over my head, most of them sat and simply peered at me, one eye telescoping me and my intentions.

These birds only do this when people are around. When the people leave, they all hang around together and have a good chuckle about how they startled some poor tourist, made that one jump, made the other drop her bag, made yet another run for cover. No need to make so much noise at other times, its all for fun, all for the humans. Otherwise, they lead the most tranquil lives.

Same with the baby toucans. These cuties were a real treat. The park rescued them from an illegal trading operation. The poor things were rescued when very young, and needed hand feeding some eight times a day, but the people who first rescued them did not understand, so some went through terrible stress for several days before coming to the park, some died. The two that I saw were hopping around, and came right up to me to have their photos taken. It was quite disturbing to have a baby toucan peer at me with one eye, then the other, after turning its head with some effort to bypass the huge beak.

There were many more birds of different kinds, each with a large enclosure. Some were recovering from stress. The entire park was compact, delightful, and overall, well done.

So there you have the truth about tropical birds.

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Photos

Baby Toucan
Checks me out