Sep-Oct 2016, Volume 26 Issue 5

For over two decades, the Parrot Society has been at the leading edge of Parrot Keeping and Management. We have continually strived to ‘Raise the Perch in Parrot Aviculture’. It is thanks to our past and present management board that we have watched the Society go from strength-to-strength and in particular, congratulations must go to the foundation members and those that followed in their footsteps, for their efforts and service to the society.

Lories are among the most beautiful and entertaining of all aviary birds. I have never been without them in my own aviaries since 1971. I love them for their inquisitive nature, playful ways and almost constant activity. Their colours are varied and vibrant – as a group unrivalled among the parrots. However, I started with the least colourful species. I was totally captivated by a pair of Black Lories (Chalcopsitta atra) in a friend’s aviary and was finally able to buy a pair in 1971. Lories and lorikeets can be so addictive that some people empty their aviaries of other species after keeping their first pair of lorikeets! Within ten years of acquiring my first pair I had, with my husband, a sizeable collection of lories and lorikeets. I can now celebrate 45 continuous years of keeping and breeding lories and lorikeets in my own aviaries.

The Tsitsikamma forest (Tsitsikamma being the Khoi -san word for “many waters”), curls along the Southern Cape coast of South Africa, stretching along the garden route in ageless glory. The Tsitsikamma is a fine grain forest, with the nature of a Brazilian rain forest, where trees and plants grow in matrimony over the Outeniqua Mountains. Tarzan-like vines create a cross stitch through the canopy. Ancient arbour giants grace the marquee of foliage, being old enough to witness the passage of the Stone Age, through to the Portuguese and Dutch settlers, until the ages come to what is our modern world. Outside the sleepy town of Plettenberg Bay in the area known as “The Crags”, is where you will find the world’s largest, multispecies, free flight aviary: Birds of Eden.