This handicap worried me a little at first. How could a bird possibly manage without flying? Very well, as it turned out.

If you looked at it from the grooming perspective, you could say Nelson's problem was a plus - we never had to clip her wings. From her perspective, I think Nelson would have preferred wings that worked; she certainly tried using them often enough, to the point I finally had to lay foam padding on the floor to break her frequent falls.

Despite her problem, I think Nelson had a good life. Just like a clipped bird, she could get where she wanted to go by climbing or walking (sometimes running). She ate well, enjoyed snuggling in my hair, and was 182 grams of red fury when defending her territory from other birds. In other words, except for the bum wings, she was a normal lory. One thing is for sure: I would not have traded life with Nelson for one with a "perfect" lory.

Handicapped parrots tug at our heartstrings. Birds already seem so delicate; give them a malformed wing, splayed leg or vision problem, and we fear for their survival. But disabled birds are a lot more resilient than we think. Don't be put off by a mere physical problem when it comes to choosing one to love. With your help, an imperfect bird can survive just fine and offer a lot in return.

In this issue's lead feature, Perfectly lovable, you'll be amazed at the obstacles some "special needs" birds have overcome. Perhaps it's only instinct - the will to live - that drives these birds to prevail. To me it also looks like courage.

Blue-and-golds return to Trinidad
Wild parrots are dying out at an alarming rate. Captured for the pet trade and driven from their habitat by development, these beautiful birds will disappear from nature forever unless we do something about it.

Bernadette Plair is doing something about it.

Eleven years ago Plair, a researcher at the Cincinnati Zoo, began a push to bring back the blue-and-gold macaw to her native Trinidad. In December, Laura LaFay, a frequent contributor to ParrotChronicles.com, joined Plair on the Caribbean island to witness the release of birds into the Nariva Swamp, where blue-and-golds flew 40 years ago.

Read more about Plair's brave crusade in Resurrecting the blue and gold. And take this issue's poll: should parrots be pets?

Petco poll results
A funny thing happened on the way to the forum; last issue's forum on Petco's animal-care practices, that is. A coding error allowed individuals to vote an unlimited number of times.

Unfortunately, some voters used this security gap to stuff the ballot box. The poll choice most obviously manipulated was the one supportive of Petco ("Carry on – it’s doing fine"). This choice jumped by 2,000 votes in one hour – without a corresponding number of site visitors for that day. By the time I fixed the problem, the results were irreparably skewed.

Too bad. It would have been nice to know how ParrotChronicles.com readers really feel about the quality of Petco's animal care. Then again, the true poll results probably can be found in your poll comments. (See About This Issue, January-February 2004.)

The benefits of laser surgery
I'd like to welcome a new contributer to ParrotChronicles.com, Tammy Parker, DVM. Dr. Parker is a veterinarian with the Loving Hands Animal Clinic in Alpharetta, Ga.

In this issue's third feature, Is laser surgery right for your bird?, Dr. Parker writes about the technology's special benefits for avian patients. If you think your bird may ever need an operation, it's a must read.

Welcome, new advertisers!
Most bird lovers have at one time or another dreamed about turning their hobby into a paying career. If that describes you, find out how to do it with Paula Fitzsimmons' affordable new booklet, The Companion Bird Lover's Guide to Careers.

Got bird behavior problems? Live in Illinois? Bird behavior expert Connie Talbert provides pet sitting and in-home training locally and nationwide phone consultations. Find out more at Companion Avian Training Techniques & Services.

Message board, sans ads
If annoying pop-ups and unrelated ads have discouraged you in the past from using the ParrotChronicles.com Message Center, check out the new ad-free message board. If enough of you use the Message Center, we'll keep it free of those animated weight-loss, Heald College and TurboTax banners.

In another site improvement, we've expanded our article index to stories listed by topic. We've also indexed Mailbag and Your Bird photo pages. This should help you find information more easily than ever (of course, there’s still the search box on every page).

-- Carla Thornton, Editor