Paul Szmal: It's 8.15 on FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio and it's time for our regular visit with our friends from the Wildlife Rockstars, I have James and Casey joining me here this morning. Good morning guys.
James, Casey: Good morning.
Paul Szmal: And who is our third guest here?
James, Casey: So this is Coco, he is an African Gray Parrot.
Paul Szmal: Okay. I notice he's got just a little bit of red tail feathers under the plumage I believe you would refer to that as?
James, Casey: So African Grays are all gray, that's kind of where they get their name, but that crimson tail feathers is actually what gives them their kind of defining factor of being an African Gray. He's a relatively decent sized parrot, but not overly large. What about maybe 10 inches head to tail? They only get about 13 inches and they only weigh about 16 ounces or 450 grams. They are the biggest parrot in Africa as there's a handful and a couple subspecies, the Temu African Gray, which is smaller, and then the Congo African Gray, which is a smaller parrot. So he's not a very big parrot, but he is the biggest one in Africa.
Paul Szmal: You were saying before we came on the air that sometimes he'll talk at the worst possible time. So he is of the talking parrot variety?
James, Casey: So African Grays have some of the best mimicry of all parrots. They can mimic almost to a T a voice. So he does a couple noises, like he'll make a door sound, he'll think someone's going into a room, he'll do someone at our program's laugh to perfection. So he'll just laugh, make a lot of beeping noises.
Paul Szmal: Well, I won't put him on the spot if he wants to pipe up during the conversation at any point, it's open table.
James, Casey: And James, you're holding him, you've got your arm out, and he is perched and nested, looks like quite comfortably.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, he doesn't have a hard time perching. It's really mainly about just keeping your arm pretty stiff, similar, so they think it's like a branch or a perch that they're typically used to. Too much movement might spook him, but he's pretty comfortable. Yeah, I accidentally spooked him before we came on the air. I wanted to move the microphone for James and all of a sudden Coco decided to go flit off into the corner and try and hide.
Paul Szmal: Now what do parents normally eat?
James, Casey: So these guys will eat fruits, seeds, mostly just that. They're herbivore in that sense. So Coco will go out and forage for seeds, he will eat fruits, we give them all that good stuff that they get every day. They get fruits and vegetables, they get seeds.
Paul Szmal: Does he ever get the chance to like fly on a tether or anything like that for exercise or is he used to being more sedentary?
James, Casey: Yeah, so he comes out of his perch every day and gets a decent amount of attention and exercise. He's able to flap his wings, but being a rescue parrot, he does unfortunately have his wings clipped so that we weren't able to lose him. If he were to somehow make his way out of the building, we would just want to keep him. I think he just piped up and tried to say something there a second ago. I saw the beak move and I heard a little something, something going on there, but not quite sure what it was.
Paul Szmal: So we're joined by the Wildlife Rockstars in studio here on FLX Morning with Coco the African Gray Parrot. How old is Coco?
James, Casey: So Coco again is a rescue, so he's estimated probably between 20 to 30 years old. As African Grays go up in age, their coloration gets a little bit darker. He's still kind of a lightish gray. So we assume that he's probably about mid-range of his life.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, I can see just on the top feathers on his body where it's just starting to turn that more ashen color rather than the light color gray. He's got white around the eyes and white kind of co-mingled in on his head. He's got a black beak and then again, his talons are kind of like a stone gray and then he's got the red plumage there underneath the tail section, the tail feather section. He's pretty docile.
James, Casey: He is. He's a very good boy.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, absolutely.
James, Casey: So how many parrots or birds does Wildlife Defenders have that they take around for presentations?
Paul Szmal: So we have a Moluccan Cockatoo named Taj. We also have a Eurasian Eagle Owl named Ozzie that we take a lot to shows.
James, Casey: Nice, very nice. So what do we do with Coco when he goes out for a show?
Paul Szmal: So Coco is actually kind of in retirement. He doesn't typically go out to many presentations, but he doesn't mind coming on the radio or news stations. But he's kind of a hang back program bird. There he is. He just he just piped up again, taking in all the sounds and giving us entertainment. Now he's examining the microphone with apparently with some interest.
James, Casey: So how is it that parrots are able to mimic voices and sounds? How do they do they learn that behavior or is that something that they're a parrot is born with the ability to do that born with that ability to mimic is just they'll pick up sounds and noises because when he's in the wild, he's a prey species. So there's animals out there that want to eat them. So what they'll do is they'll kind of mimic other predatory sounds and other sounds that can kind of help them get out of danger. But they are flighted. So that's their main defense is like if something comes after them, they can just fly away.
Paul Szmal: Oh, OK. And I'm just being quiet for a second to see if he actually we could actually pick up the sound of him actually making a noise or actually talking a little bit. He likes to do a lot of clicks and stuff. His favorite. Being shy.
James, Casey: Oh, that's OK. He's allowed to be a shy animal. That's fine.
Paul Szmal: So how are things? How are things going with the program right now?
James, Casey: Things are going really well. We just had a really nice busy week. We're at the RMSC in Eastview Mall and then the Fire and Ice Fest in Canandaigua. But one thing that we are trying to promote is that we're always looking for volunteers so we can always use new help, whether you have different crafts or skills, whether that comes from gardening, art, music, any of those things. Or if you just love working with native and exotic species, we're happy to have volunteers. We have an ongoing can and bottle drive, which all of the proceeds from that support our day program and our animals. So if you have cans and bottles that you'd like to drop off at our facility in Farmington, that would be wonderful. But we also offer pickups of our own so you can contact us and we can come to you. And we will be offering Wildlife Wednesdays at Eastview Mall throughout this summer and also being able to host birthday parties at our new facility coming up in June. So that'll be able to incorporate some of our wildlife rock star animals as well as our new Bridges Barnyard that we are opening.
Paul Szmal: Can you tell me a little bit more about the barnyard? That sounds pretty intriguing.
James, Casey: Yeah. So we had purchased a horse farm recently, which we are working on renovating. So coming up this summer, we will have two ponies, a horse, a few goats, and then possibly some alpacas.
Paul Szmal: Oh, that'll be nice to pay a visit to.
James, Casey: Yeah. A little bit of a different. You get some agricultural animals, some native and exotic species. So kind of getting all around. There we go. And that, I heard just that little bit of a noise out of them.
Paul Szmal: What do you have for shows coming up in the immediate future?
James, Casey: We have a handful of shows in March. I know that. The next coming summer, we already have a ton of shows booked.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, we'll be actually at some country maxes in the Rochester and Syracuse area coming up. So we'll be having some meet and greets going on. And if you want to tune into any events that we do have coming up, you can always check out our Wildlife Rockstars Facebook page as well.
James, Casey: Absolutely. Well, I appreciate you guys bringing Coco in. He's been quite the entertaining animal. I know he's got Greg's attention because Greg is a bird owner. I have one.
Paul Szmal: Yes. Do you have a great parrot like this?
James, Casey: Yep. Oh, no kidding. And mine would be in here screaming right now. Greg! Greg! Greg! Coco's been very, very well behaved.
Paul Szmal: So James, Casey, thank you guys for coming in and bringing Coco in this morning.
James, Casey: Thank you, Paul. Thank you.
Paul Szmal: All right. It's 824 on FLX Morning.
