By ROBERT ZOLLNA
For the Independent
Sellers and Buyers from around the state descended May 2 on the Eagles Club in Port Orchard for the Olympic Bird Fanciers 10th Annual Bird Expo.
Between displays of colorful chew toys and handmade jewelry, bird hobbyists could find most anything they needed — and a few things they didn’t know existed.
Some birds came along for the shopping trip. Darla Landes was browsing a display of handcrafted rope swings with a brilliant white cockatoo named Coconut on her shoulder, holding each choice up to the bird to gauge approval or rejection before deciding on each purchase.
Not everything was for sale, though.
All Parrot Rescue, operated by Sonya Brewer, rescues abused or neglected parrots and offers them for adoption. Brewer said her group’s mission is to provide rehabilitation and adoption of parrots that can no longer live with their owners because of a change in lifestyle, financial or health issues.
All Parrot was founded in 2012 and will be a 501 charity soon, according to Brewer.
The bird expo was hosted by the Olympic Bird Fanciers, a local club founded in 2003. The group has been active in community, attending many venues and parades.
Club President Sue Marshal said the club’s goal is to help bond bird enthusiasts and socialize, but it’s also grown into community outreach. Now it educates new or overwhelmed bird owners on the proper care, diet and social well-being of owners and birds.
Club members often go on rescue missions to help people retrieve birds that have accidentally escaped.
“They have many tricks for coercing a wayward bird from a tree,” Marshal said. “Like finding a club member that has the same species and using its call to keep the bird in the vicinity.”
The bird expo is the major way Olympic Bird Fancier funds its many charity organizations for wild and captive birds.
Some are direct monetary donations like to World Parrot Trust and Indonesian Parrot Project, some for avian disease research like University of Georgia and Texas A&M, while others are through direct volunteer work like Macaw Rescue and Sanctuary and West Sound Wildlife and Rescue.
The bird expo is hosted every year and updates are regularly updated on the club’s Facebook page. Their next event will be the annual exotic bird display at the Kitsap County Fair in August.
