Not long ago Catherine Tobsing was selling all her bird toys at bird shows or from her online store. These days, she's chatting up customers who walk into her brick-and-mortar store in Chicago. Windy City Parrot is a rare bird among bird-toy companies; it's a retail store, too.

The Windy City Parrot brick-and-mortar store in Chicago features racks of colorful bird toys.

From dining room to downtown
A couple of months ago, Tobsing made the decision to move her business off her dining room table, where many a bird toymaker toils, and into a separate space.

At the time, all she really wanted was a place to spread out toy parts, dyes and her drill press. "Even in a three-bedroom, it took over my life," she says of Windy City Parrot. "I never could find anything."

Tobsing wound up leasing a 2,000-square-foot retail space in north Chicago in prime shopping territory. "It’s a beautiful (shopping) area and traffic is very heavy," she says.

The space included a 15-foot-by-30-foot storefront. So in November, Tobsing opened Windy City Parrot as a brick-and-mortar retail store, too. In one weekend, she drew about 30 walk-ins and made enough money to pay a big chunk of one month's expenses. "I didn't advertise; it was just word of mouth," says Tobsing.

Dream store for parrot owners
Currently, the Windy City Parrot store opens only one weekend a month. Still, it's practically unheard of for a mom-and-pop bird-toy business to open a retail store of any type, and it should give Tobsing an edge. Conventional pet stores offer bird toys, but the selection is skimpy. Toymakers offer a nicer selection, but most don't have walk-in stores.

Regardless, for Chicago parrot owners out for a stroll, Windy City the store is a little piece of nirvana - over 400 square feet devoted strictly to toys and toy parts for their feathered friends.

The main floor features three walls full of racks, a glass display case, and several large plastic bins filled with colored balls. A hardware kiosk contains links, chains and other stainless-steel and nickel-plated parts.

Customers can choose from among 25 different kinds of plastic pieces and about 30 different wooden shapes, including ABC blocks in three sizes. All parts are drilled with holes and ready to slip onto a piece of leather or chain.

In the back of the store is a toy-making counter where customers can repair old toys or whip up new ones using parts purchased at the store.

Tobsing, who enjoys this new way of meeting her customers in person, is nearby to offer guidance. Later this year, she hopes to offer toy-making classes held at the store, too.

Mostly solo
On a typical day at the store, Tobsing works alone, dying wood, shipping off finished toys, and assembling more for incoming orders. Her boyfriend keeps the computer equipment and office space in tiptop shape. Another friend does piecework for Tobsing in her home.

Eventually, Tobsing hopes to hire in-store help. In the meantime, two fellow bird experts drive in from out-of-town for each open house to help her greet customers.

Richard Weiner, founder of A Refuge for Saving the Wildlife, a Northbrook, Ill., bird-rescue organization, brings some of his adoptable parrots, gives educational talks and even performs microchipping.

Michelle Karras, founder of The Polite Parrot, an avian behavior consulting service based in Morris., Ill., answers questions about training.

From humble beginnings
Like most bird-toy enterprises, Windy City Parrot (formerly known as Windy City Aviary) began as a hobby. Tobsing's first toys, made for two cockatiels she owned 13 years ago, were "clothespins and leather - very crude."

Tobsing sold her first homemade toys at a bird fair from behind a 6-foot-long table. "They weren't that well received. I was kind of new at it. But little by little I started finding the good parts and got better at it."

Small birds love Windy City Parrot's simple wreath swing, says proprietor Catherine Tobsing.

At the same time, Tobsing discovered that people wanted to buy parts from her so they could create their own toys. She hunted down the requested parts, such as beads, at flea markets and crafts stores.

Today, Tobsing attends more than 40 bird shows a year at fairgrounds, community centers and schools in Illinois and six surrounding states, within about a 400-mile radius. She's expanded to three 8-foot tables, "the maximum" she can fit into her travel minivan.

Simplicity is key
Unlike some toymakers who promise that their own birds test and "approve of" their wares, Tobsing can't rely on her two ringneck parrots, Sunshine and Honey, to play with new creations - "they aren't good testers; my male's favorite toy is the label off the toy" - so she simply makes a prototype and waits to see how it sells. "I make a bunch and take them to shows."

Tobsing specializes in bell toys, and resells many toys and parts bought from smaller companies, including one in Wisconsin that supplies her with pine chunks.

But the longest-running toy she's sold is a simple grapevine wreath-swing with beads. She tried to discontinue it once, thinking people could make it themselves, but customers complained so much she had to reinstate it. "I guarantee your lovebird will adore it," she says. "I see birds swinging for their lives."

Another popular item is a hollow plastic golf ball with pony beads, but lately Tobsing has had trouble finding balls with holes the right diameter. It's one of the many niggling problems a bird toymaker encounters.

The most popular toy part Tobsing sells is a wooden star. Another simple item she recommends are perler beads, which she calls "birdie chewing gum," suitable for conure to macaw sizes. They keep her own birds occupied for hours.

Tobsing believes simplicity is key in making your own bird toys. "Too many toys out there are made to be attractive to people because we’re the ones buying them," she notes. "People want big toys that are perfectly symmetrical, colors to match their living room, but that’s not what’s on the bird’s mind.

"If you asked a bird, they’d say, 'Just give it to me. A bead on a piece of chain.' I think half the time when birds destroy their toys they’re just paring it down to a size they like: 'No, I don’t like this, let’s get rid of that.'"

Wooden star shapes are Windy City Parrot's most popular toy part.

Online and in town
After years of limiting her sales efforts to bird shows, Tobsing took Windy City Parrot online in January 2002. The physical store at 4427 Milwaukee Ave. came along less than a year later.

While it's been exciting to gain a retail space, Tobsing maintains the storefront is just an experiment. So for now, she plans to continue spending most of her time on the road, where she still makes most of her money.

"I’ve been lucky to have been doing this long enough to have a customer base. If we don’t have that many (store) walk-ins, it won’t affect business that much," she figures.

At the very least, the extra space accomplished what Tobsing set out to do, and that's get more organized. She now turns toy orders around in two hours, instead of two weeks.

Clean, well-lighted place
Still, it's clear from the obvious pride she takes in Windy City Parrot the store that Tobsing may soon have a firm foot in the retail world as well.

"In Chicago, only three or four stores do bird toys. They have parrots, too, but their toy selection is abysmal or the store is dingy."

At Windy City Parrot, the sales floor is brightly lit, the walls are freshly painted and a divider is painted the same bright gold as the tablecloth Tobsing uses at bird fairs.

Shoppers can wander among a treasure trove of toys and parts - bells, beads, rope, chain and wood blocks.

Close by is Tobsing, ready to offer sage toy-making advice. And that's something you'll probably never find at the local pet chain.