FOR MONTHS, the nice couple Tracy Bockenhauer waited on at her husband's restaurant complained about their pet bird.

Amos the African grey enjoys good health and a full set of feathers since his rehabilitation.

Amos, a 10-year-old African grey parrot, refused to talk or do tricks. Worse, he plucked out his own feathers. Disgusted by his appearance, the couple had tried without success to trade Amos in at the local pet shop for a scarlet macaw.

Bockenhauer, who lives in LaCrosse, Wis., with her husband, Ted, and 10-year-old daughter, Breanne, had an African grey of her own named Charlie, and a Quaker parakeet named Carlos. The more she heard about Amos, the more concerned she became.

She told her customers she would be glad to take Amos off their hands if they did not want him anymore. Finally, she convinced them to let her come to their house to see the bird for herself.

What Bockenhauer saw shocked her. Amos the African grey was almost completely bald, with only a few feathers left on his head and rump.

"I was instantly heartsick," she recalls. "He was a fright to look at."

Inspired to act
The couple accepted $100 for Amos and Bockenhauer drove him straight to her veterinarian, who diagnosed a bacterial infection.

Although afraid she might further traumatize the weak, spindly bird, Bockenhauer learned how to restrain him with a towel twice a day to administer an antibiotic.

Over the next year, she nursed Amos from a "Cornish game hen from the frozen food section" back to health, including a full set of feathers.

Amos, whom his previous owners claimed ate only sunflower seeds and corn, thrived on the pellets, vegetables and bread Bockenhauer provided. His favorite food was Lafeber's Nutri-Berries, which he gobbled at a rate of almost 20 pounds a month.

Five years have passed since Amos came to live with Bockenhauer. He still does not talk, unusual for an African grey, but his sad condition the day she rescued him spoke volumes to Bockenhauer about parrot care.

Figuring he wasn't the only pet bird suffering at the hands of misinformed owners, she resolved to do something about it.

"I made up my mind then that I had to help other parrots that were misunderstood and underestimated," says Bockenhauer, 44, a mother of seven.

Bockenhauer founded LaCrosse Avian Rescue, Rehab & Adoption Inc. in 1996 and turned her three-story home into a sanctuary for unwanted parrots of all kinds.

LARRA has become her full-time job, supported by income from her husband's bar and restaurant, Nutbush City Limits. (For more about LARRA, see this issue's Rescue Spotlight.)

A new kind of rescuer
No one knows exactly how many homeless birds or avian rescue groups there are.

Anecdotal evidence suggests parrot rehabilitation is a new type of grassroots animal rescue, and growing. A review of Web sites reveals approximately 80 organizations, here and abroad, most in existence for 10 years or less.

Most of the groups receive between 50 and 100 birds annually. The largest ones report accepting 300 or more. Most say they receive a greater number of birds each year. There may be many more small groups that lack an Internet presence or keep low profiles within bird clubs.

Growing pet bird population
If the number of homeless parrots is increasing, a steadily growing population of pet birds appears to be the culprit.

According to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, birds are the third most popular pet in U.S. households, with 18.6 million in 6.9 million homes last year, compared with 12.8 million in 5.6 million households in 1992, an increase of over 30 percent in less than a decade.

The American Veterinary Medical Association reports slightly lower numbers. In 1996, the last year the AVMA conducted a survey, it reported 12.6 million birds in 4 million households, compared with the APPMA's 13.5 million birds in 5.9 million homes.

Tracy Bockenhauer holds an almost featherless scarlet macaw she rescued at a breeder's going-out-of-business sale.

As for most popular pet, the APPMA says that honor goes to cats, with 73 million in U.S. households last year, followed closely by dogs, at 68 million.

Challenging care
Though there may be far more abandoned cats and dogs, unwanted parrots pose their own knotty problem.

The trouble begins when people underestimate what is required to properly care for a parrot.

Because of their intelligence, dietary requirements and tendency to bond with owners, parrots often need more attention than a dog or cat--and for a much longer time, given the 80-year lifespan of larger species.

Yet many people believe that birds are low-maintenance pets that can live in a cage on seed and water alone.

When the bird becomes ill, temperamental or neurotic due to neglect and a poor diet, disenchanted owners often quickly discard it.

The result is a physically and psychologically damaged animal that can be more difficult to rehabilitate than a four-legged one, say avian advocates.

Making matters worse is the fact that few mainstream humane society or SPCA shelters accept birds. If they do, they rarely have in place a formal adoption program.

In the absence of organized help, avian rescue groups have stepped in. Many are individuals who, like Tracy Bockenhauer, fill their own homes with parrots and devote their lives to rehabilitation and adoption.

A few, such as the Gabriel Foundation in Colorado, have become mini-conglomerates, with dedicated buildings, a paid staff, and annual conferences.

Full-time job
Bird rehabilitators are high school teachers, real estate agents, housewives, artists, veterinarians and law enforcement officials. They are retired, middle-aged, and high school students.

His pet parrots helped Brian Wilson recover from a serious auto accident.

A surprising number have made parrot welfare their full-time occupation, spending their days caring for birds with health or behavioral problems; driving hundreds of miles to pick up new ones; and speaking to anyone who will listen about the importance of proper care of pet birds.

A reason to recover
Brian Wilson, founder of the Wilson Parrot Foundation in Damascus, Md., decided to rescue birds full-time after his two companion parrots helped him recover from an auto accident.

Wilson, a retired firefighter, had trained his three parrots to perform tricks at public talks he gave on fire and firearm safety. Driving to a talk one day in 1995, Wilson lost control of his car and crashed into a parked van.

Rocco, a green-wing macaw Wilson had owned since he was 14, was crushed to death in Wilson's lap. Wilson sustained a serious brain injury that paralyzed the right side of his body.

"The doctors told my parents I would never walk or talk any better than a two-year-old," recalls Wilson. But doctors had not banked on the therapeutic effect of Wilson's two surviving parrots, Rosebud, a double-yellow-headed Amazon, and Rocco's mate, Daisy, a blue-and-gold macaw.

"They taught me through repetition how to talk again. They were my inspiration. Because of the role they played in my recovery, I decided to put all my efforts into rescuing and rehabilitating parrots."

Wilson, who still walks with a limp but whose speech betrays little evidence of the accident, soon will move into a four-bedroom house to accommodate his 19 rescue birds.

Breeding about-face
Breeding parrots can be lucrative, with some larger species, such as cockatoos and macaws, selling for thousands of dollars. However, more than a few rescuers once were breeders who decided to abandon their dream of raising birds after they saw the devastating effect uneducated owners had on parrots.

Sybil Erden, director of The Oasis Sanctuary, a 1300-square-foot facility on 72 acres near Benson, Ariz., stopped breeding lovebirds in her back yard in Phoenix seven years ago when she realized she was "keeping three out of four birds because I didn't like the people who wanted them.

"A lot of people would say, 'I want to buy a bird for my kid.'

Former breeder Sybil Erden turned to rescue after she decided her buyers were not serious enough about owning a bird.

But they had no idea of what to feed a bird and no vet lined up. Others would try to negotiate price, saying they couldn't afford more than a certain amount. I would say, 'If you can't afford this, you can't afford to take the bird to a vet,' and they would say, 'Well, I'll get another vet.'

"You begin to realize there are not a lot of people out there who are willing to provide the amount of care and long-term commitment needed to seriously own a bird."

Working with whooping-crane chicks for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service whetted Dee Thompson's appetite for raising parrots. "I was really ready to care for baby birds on my own in a trained scientific and professional manner," says the Maryland rescuer.

Edith and Archie, blue-and-gold macaws thought to be 50 years of age, retired to The Oasis after raising over 200 chicks.

Thompson had gathered all the equipment she needed and the birds she wanted to breed--Quaker parakeets, citron cockatoos and Timnehs--when she decided she could not go through with her plans in good conscience. More pet birds were being abandoned at the animal hospital where she worked; in 1986, Thompson took 15 of them home.

"I had no idea there was such a thing as an unwanted parrot," she says. Now she uses the scales, incubators and handfeeding techniques she learned for breeding to care for rescue birds instead.

Sad stories
Rescued parrots vary as widely as the reasons people decide to help them. They range in size from budgie to macaw and may be a few months old to many decades. However, almost all arrive with a sad story. It is these birds that attract rescuers and keep them in the trenches.

S. R. "Jake" Stewart, an ornithologist for over 30 years in Virginia, founded Rescue Me, An Avian Sanctuary five years ago after being asked to take in a 5-month-old citron cockatoo that had been struck every time she screamed.

Mickaboo Cockatiel Rescue near San Francisco also has seen its share of deliberately injured birds.

One cockatiel arrived with a broken wing after its angry owner stormed out of his house

Some birds, such as this cockatoo received by FosterParrots, mutilate themselves when neglected.

and spiked the bird over a fence into the next-door neighbor's hedge.

Turbo, a paralyzed Mexican Amazon, occupies a special place in Evergreen Acres Bird Sanctuary volunteer Michael Lockey's heart.

Lockey has cared for Turbo since another volunteer at Evergreen, a 2500-square-foot facility on 160 acres of farmland near Toronto, discovered the bird three years ago at a discount pet food store.

"He was literally sitting on an 8-inch pile of poop, covered in his own excrement and dragging himself around by his beak in a state of absolute terror whenever anyone approached," says Lockey. The Evergreen rescuer paid the store $150 for Turbo, who was cleaned up and eventually tamed.

Although he will never regain use of his legs or wings, Turbo now seems "very content," says Lockey. "He can manage to lurch into an upright position against a branch and watch the world. He preens himself as far as he can.

"He can be held, but we limit the amount of contact; he's not a toy, nor a cripple to be poked. He is, however, a special delight to take and show to handicapped kids."

Many more parrots with heart-tugging stories have found a home with LARRA since Bockenhauer's first memorable bird, Amos the naked African grey.

One, a conure dubbed Sunny D, is LARRA's mascot because of her invincible spirit, says Bockenhauer.

Sunny D lived at a pet store until Bockenhauer received a tip that an injured bird there needed help. A "mean" ex-breeder the store had given up trying to sell, the small bird had chewed a golf ball-size hole into its chest, through which the breastbone and splintered ribs could be seen.

Sassy, a cockatoo who lives at The Oasis Sanctuary, wears specially-made booties on her crippled feet. A luckier bird than most, she received exceptional care from her previous owner, including reconstructive surgery.

"That bird acted as if there were nothing wrong with her," marvels Bockenhauer, who managed to convince the storeowner to give Sunny to her instead.

After she and another LARRA volunteer "sat and cried" in the car over the bird's pitiful appearance, Bockenhauer took Sunny to the vet, who operated to close the chest cavity.

Several months later, when the vet removed the bird's body bandage for good, the two women helped the conure open up all the new feathers that had grown in underneath.

"When we were done, she had a full chest of feathers and you could not tell there had ever been a problem," says Bockenhauer.

Greedy owners
Unfortunately, not everyone with a neglected parrot is willing to give it up as easily, and weak animal cruelty laws in the United States do not offer much assistance.(See "Mistreated animals: How you can help").

Many owners want full or partial payment to recoup their investment, and that is where some rehabilitators draw the line, saying an exchange of money only repeats the abusive cycle.

"There is not enough money in the world to save all the birds who need to be saved. This is a sad truth--one we wish were not but is so," says Kim Noble, founder of Northcoast Adoption and Rehabilitation Center, Inc. in Aurora, Ohio. [If we go] into pet stores to look for abuse cases, we will certainly find them."

Others cannot turn their backs on birds in dire straits. At an Illinois aviary that was going out of business, LARRA's Bockenhauer found "the water was green muck, the birds were being fed a 100% sunflower seed diet, and the smell was so horrific my lungs hurt for two days. Yet the only way the guy was going to part with these birds was if I paid for them."

She decided to buy the birds most likely to be discarded or left for dead, and took home two "bare-naked, thin and weak" macaws for $400 apiece.

Not all surrendered parrots are neglected. A small percentage come from owners who are elderly or ill, or who realize they can no longer provide the kind of care the bird needs to thrive. These cases can be almost as heart rending as the ones that involve abuse, say rescuers.

Parson, a blue-and-gold macaw, came to LARRA because his owner developed fibromyalgia, a debilitating disease of the connective tissues.

"I drove 10 hours to pick up him up in Illinois," recalls Bockenhauer. "He was in perfect feather, the epitome of health. I met the owner in a snow storm because that was the date we picked and neither one of us could bear for her to keep the bird another day because she was so heartbroken."

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