Hansen: Man’s other best friend: the bird

Cats and dogs may rule funny Internet videos, but there’s only one species that talks — birds.

A few years ago in Colorado, a 2-year-old child was choking and turning blue, and the caregiver was in the bathroom. So Willie the Quaker parrot screamed over and over, “Mama, baby!”

The sound alerted the sitter, who ran out and performed the Heimlich maneuver and saved the child. Willie ended up getting a Red Cross Animal Lifesaver Award, presented by the governor.

There are many other examples of pet birds saving people.

In 2014, a young woman was with her African grey parrot in a London park when she was attacked by a mugger. Her bird came to the rescue by flapping its wings and squawking loudly, forcing the mugger to flee.

That same year in Florida, an Indian ring-necked parrot woke up a family in the middle of the night because the house was on fire. Everyone escaped.

The point is, people love their birds, and the birds love them. It’s not uncommon to hear owners refer to them as family.

Alex Martinez was in Omar’s Exotic Birds in Lake Forest on Monday. He had moved from Chicago just four days earlier. Even before getting settled, he went to the store to check out the birds, because he left a childhood African grey back east with his parents.

“I had him as an egg — since 2001,” he said.

As Martinez talked, a young, red-fronted macaw crawled up his arm and onto his shoulder. Martinez played with the bird for a while before trying to put it back on the perch, but the bird didn’t want to leave him.

Martinez tried for several minutes, laughing, but the bird was making a hard sell. Finally, a store clerk came over and assisted.

“Birds kind of pick their owners; the owners don’t just pick their birds,” said Omar Gonzalez, owner of the store. “If we don’t see a good match, we usually don’t recommend it.”

Gonzalez now owns four stores — in Lake Forest, Brea, Santa Monica and San Diego. With nearly 35 years in the business, he has seen the exotic bird industry evolve from a rough-and-tumble import business to a more regulated, conservation-minded operation.

In the United States and Europe, the importation of exotic birds is illegal, but globally, it’s still a problem, Gonzalez said.

“Even though we stopped our importation around ‘92, and even though Europe stopped importation around 2002, right now there’s a big middle class developing in China and India,” he said. “And they’re actually going out and depleting our forests. They are starting to do imports. It is still happening. It’s very sad.”

Gonzalez believes that only through education and transparency can careless — and sometimes illegal — exploitation of birds be stopped.

“I’ve always believed that all aspects of the avian world should work together — whether it’s conservation, rescue birds, breeding, retail, distribution of food,” he said. “Everybody should be able to work together.”

Originally from Cuba, Gonzalez said he has gone to Brazil and worked with conservation groups to educate them about improving the likelihood of egg survival. Many times, it’s better to pull some eggs from a nest and “candle” them to increase the odds that they will make it.

Domestically, the exotic bird business relies on breeders, usually in warm states like California, Florida, Texas and Arizona, so that they can have outside aviaries. The birds can include African greys, Amazons, cockatoos, caiques, cockatiels and macaws.

Additional laws govern their sale once the birds are born. For example, they can’t leave the retail stores until they are fully weaned.

Gonzalez and his team takes things further by screening potential buyers and making sure they are properly educated.

“We’re not into just making a buck with the birds,” he said. “We’ve turned away many, many people from birds or talked them into a singing, little canary that they don’t have to handle versus a bird that’s going to be around 20, 30, 40, 60 years.

“The main thing is how to take care of these birds and give them the attention they need and also be able to be there for them as they are for you.”

Gonzalez said birds are not unlike dogs in that different birds have different personalities.

“Smaller birds are more like Chihuahuas,” he said. “Macaws are more like a large dog, like a golden.”

If you’re just starting out, he advises to go with a cockatiel.

“Cockatiels are pretty good, smart little birds, and they range from $100 to $200 for a hand-raised baby that will live 15 to 20 years,” Gonzalez said.

If you’re still uncertain, just spend some time in a store, and chances are some bird will talk you into it.

Or save your life.

DAVID HANSEN is a writer and Laguna Beach resident. He can be reached at hansen.dave@gmail.com.