Compilation of Amazing, Hilarious and Poignant True Parrot Stories

About the Book

For over a decade, I have been interviewing and meeting many top parrot breeders from all over the UK - and Spain - while working as a freelance writer for Cage & Aviary Birds, Bird Keeper magazine, Parrots magazine and Australian Bird Keeper. This put me in the unique position of having an amazing collection of truly wonderful parrot stories.

So, I decided to put together a compilation of 64 of the very best 'real-life' parrot stories that I have - along with 42 full-colour and 32 black and white photographs - to create this unique book of amazing short stories dedicated completely to parrots.

Parrots are complex, intelligent and awe-inspiring creatures and what they are capable of will simply astonish you.

As I collected hundreds and hundreds of stories, I realized that no two parrots - whether kept in breeding pairs or as pets - are the same. All parrots have strong, individual characters and a remarkable deep sense of intuition and resourcefulness that certainly goes beyond our comprehension.

Even if you do not keep parrots yourself, you could not help but be amazed at some of the things that parrots get up to - or the things that have happened to them!

But, there is one thing for certain; as you make your way through this book - jumping from one incredible story to another - it will make you realize that there is a lot more to parrots than first meets the eye.

About the Author

Pauline James began writing for Cage & Aviary Birds and Bird Keeper magazine back in 1994 - having spent her earlier years working for the Financial Times newspaper in London as a Researcher/PA to the Science Editor. She now also writes for Parrots magazine and Australian Bird Keeper.

Pauline has spent much of her recent leisure-time traveling, and has enjoyed observing parrots and parrot-like birds in the wild, in India, Costa Rica, Kenya and Australia.

In the 80s and 90s she built up a huge collection of Masked and Peach-faced lovebirds, breeding most of the newest mutations. She and her two daughters, Lucy and Rebecca also enjoyed - and spent much time - hand-rearing youngsters over the years, but her special interest was genetics.

She went on to collect all eight species of lovebirds and also had a mixed colony of cockatiels. Her favourites though, were her colony of around 30 'pure-bred' Black-cheeked lovebirds and four very rare Red-faced lovebirds. The two pairs of Red-faced lovebirds were sold to Grant Scopes, the top lovebird breeder in the UK, when she got divorced and moved house in 1997. The two Red-faced pairings went on to breed, just a few weeks later and produced the very first Red-faced chicks to ever have been bred - and survive to adulthood - in the UK.

In 2004, Pauline and her new partner moved from their home near Sevenoaks, in Kent to rural southern Spain. Her new home coincidently came complete with an aviary, which is now occupied by two Nanday conures.