Project Bird Watch / Indonesian Parrot Project - Teaching Outside of Indonesia

The members of the Indonesian Parrot Project teach in many different venues outside of Indonesia using either written or spoken presentations.

However, sometimes the birds--on whose behalf we work-- provide the most poignant, inspiring and even life-changing lessons. Therefore, we provide below eulogies to two very special birds who have inspired us:

An Elegy for China:
A Shooting Star Whose Light Was Extinguished Long Before Her Time

In 1993, I first fell in love with parrots, largely due to the comical, yet somehow stately antics of a magnificent Moluccan cockatoo at a zoo. By the end of 1994, I brought home China, a gorgeous one-year old Moluccan hen. Now isn't the time or place to try to describe her wonderful qualities. I've never been able to, anyhow.

But by 1997, I was searching frantically to determine whether these jewels were still alive in the wild, since there was so little information available about them. Since then, whatever little bit I have been able to, or tried to, accomplish for parrots (especially cockatoos) in the wild and in captivity, has been inspired by China.

China had a foot-long cylindrical steel bell inside her cage which she loved. When I woke her up each morning, I usually said, "China, ring your Happy Bell." She would furiously shake it like a rattle, as if there was so much joie de vivre inside her that she simply could not contain it all. But when I found her on May 6, after she had collapsed and died, she looked liked a tattered Raggedy-Ann doll. Or like Homer's warrior Gorgythion, his head drooping in death , like a red poppy weighed down after a Spring shower. Even in death, China was still beautiful. She died at the far-too-young age of ten.

Now there is huge hole in my heart for that pink bundle of love and "trouble", who died, ironically, because her heart was too big. Her deep, knowing eyes are no longer bright. But that only means that we must redouble our efforts to help these wonderful, and very-special creatures. We have tortured them, both in the wild and in captivity. These birds seem to me to be "star-crossed" like Romeo and Juliet. As if accursed by the Gods, they have been knocked down over and over again -- largely because of the very qualities which enthrall them to us.

We say that parrots live a long time, but China’s flame was quickly burnt out like a candle in the rain. She was a shooting star whose brightness was extinguished long before its time. For now, China, your wings have lost their fire, like sunset fallen behind the horizon. But tomorrow, you rise, with your feathers once again ablaze with the dazzling flames of the sun. You have traversed a full circle— the Moluccan Mandala.

Thank you for showing me a glimpse of stars and of suns, even of dreams and of heavens. Now, it's time for you to fly away home.

Your glow must, and will, continue to provide a beacon for years to come, to light the search back to a pristine world, long ago and far away. In the canopy of your ancestral home on Seram, your proud cries, and those of your cousins, will always call out : “I am Cockatoo; Hear me now!”

I hear you, China. I always will.

These two birds (among many other who could be cited), exemplify the many remarkable trait of parrots, especially their sentience and sensitivity, as well as their intelligence and ability to communicate with receptive persons in a non-verbal (and even at times, verbal ) ways.