Where do you buy a bird? Pionus edition!

[@carolcantor2039]

I have a bronze winged pionus. I have also had a blue headed and a white cap. They have all been wonderful bird. Raku the bronze-wing is almost 30 years old. I had my blue head Skye for 17 years, and I had my whitecap for 20 years. I moved to Hawaii 10 years ago and there really aren’t any places to buy parrots. Skye and Raku were bought at ‘bird shows ‘ in California from breeders. There used to be regular bird shows but when again flu became prevalent the bird shows stopped. My whitecap Ziggy was a rescue. She was given to me because she had pulled out all of her feathers except for the ones on her head. She was pitiful and a nervous wreck. I was minimally successful at getting her to stop picking and she was mostly feathered at one point. She only wanted to be with you always. She loved to sit on your shoulder and be scratched, if you were too slow she would bite and make a hole in your shirt. My husband would sit outside with her on the lanai for hours. She died suddenly three years ago. We had to get our blue head and bronze-wing DNA sexed because they spent altogether too much time together. Turned out they were both males. My whitecap let us know because one day she started laying eggs. Non fertile eggs. She had no truck with my male birds. She laid eggs several times up til the point where she was leaching out the calcium from her bones and couldn’t stand up. After the vet visit her egg laying days were over. When she passed away I had her cremated and I have her in a little cedar box on a high shelf and I still talk to her every day. One of my birds , a Senegal still says her name occasionally. I have had birds all my life, started with budgies from Woolworths . I love birds and their companionship.

[@DADA-ey2ir]

I live in the US. The price for pionus are very expensive！Ranging from 3000 to 7000 us dollars at the moment. Like you mentioned, there are currently only two active breeders and 4 bird shops that actually have them in stock in the entire country at the moment... On top of that you have to wait for forever for the breeders because for each one there are already like 100 people on the waiting list. I was extremely lucky that one of the 4 shops that have them happen to be in my region, and I got my baby BHP without evening knowing how rare they are. I guess it was just meant to be lol. I paid 3000（already the cheapest one I've seen everywhere） for mine. I initially wanted a brownes winged, but they go for 6000+，which is insane... Mines still pretty pricey to be honest but she's super sweet and I think shes worth every penny of it.

[@stellaandcharlie]

How awesome that you were able to find one!! I also was lucky that there was absolutely no line for many of the pionus at Charlies breeder (expect the bronze wing i wanted originally), but yes, rare and expensive in the US and also UK is what I'm hearing, it's insane how much they ask for them. But so glad that she was all worth it, they truly are.

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

@@stellaandcharlie It isn’t insane at all. They should be worth a bazillion hundred million trillion dollars. It is very wrong to keep these extremely intelligent and emotional birds in captivity.

[@patricholmstrom4263]

I bought my bronze-winged pionus from a breeder in Sweden. He breeds pionus parrots and has a number for sale each year. Depending on what is bred, he has withe cap, bronze-winged or maximilian pionus for sale every year. He´s stay in Laholm so for you in Denmark you have near to him

[@KurtVSJ]

Im looking for just this. Could you help me get in touch to this bronze winged breeder?

[@ageofechochambers9469]

I clicked on a few bird videos and ended up here ! In Denmark.

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

The picture at 9:58 was _EXTREMELY_ disturbing. Who the heck would do that with their bird??? I had a white capped Pionus for almost 32 years, and he died a month ago today… I would’ve never done anything like that to him in a million years. What is wrong with people??!! I really hope that owning birds in captivity becomes illegal, except for those that rescue.

[@sayurikitamura7109]

That's a very smart and helpful video 👍

[@stellaandcharlie]

Thank you so much Sayuri❤️

[@miaandreasen]

Hej. Elsker dine videoer og fedt du er fra danmark! 🥳 Jeg har selv været inde og søge på den opdrætter, som du viste, men nummeret står til at ejes af natteravnene når man søger det på krak? 😅

[@stellaandcharlie]

Uuuh det er sjældent jeg møder andre fugle interreseret i Danmark, så fedt at du har fundet frem til mig og du kan lide dem! Hmmm, hvilke af numrene brugte du? Jeg har haft fat i avleren ved navn Bjarne, og har stadig hans nummer, så du er velkommen til at skrive til mig privat hvis du skal have hjælp :)

[@georgevillasenor5225]

Love the info you provide for the community, thinking about getting a Pionus, and this video is very informative! Now I'm personally that's it's probably cheaper to get a round trip away from the US for a Pionus, than getting one here. Haha

[@stellaandcharlie]

Thank you so much! And lol, you are probably not wrong :)

[@stellam5872]

Thank you so much!!! I'm also wondering if you might be able to do a video on how to care for a bird with a 9-5 job? Since I'm worried about the bird being lonely -- or would it be best to get at least 2 birds so they can keep each other company?

[@stellaandcharlie]

I will definitely make a "day in the life" sort of thing in the near future :D I wish I had space and money to give Charlie a companion, as crazy as it sounds, I think it's easier to take care of two birds than one, since the one bird you have will be very dependent on you, so if possible I would say get two

[@anti-ethniccleansing465]

You shouldn’t get a bird whatsoever in your circumstance!! It would be extremely selfish. I tell you this from experience.

[@toobamanzoor]

Hello I love Your videos but what kind of editor u use to make such awesome KZbin video. Ty❤🖤💕

[@stellaandcharlie]

Thank you so much! I started with DaVinci resolve which is free, but I ran into some problems with the frame rate of my recordings, so now I use Wondershare Filmora, which is very beginner friendly - You do however need to pay a little amount to export your videos without a watermark, but it's not much if I remember correctly and then it's a whole year for that amount :) Hope that helped, else you are more than welcome to ask

[@toobamanzoor]

@@stellaandcharlie Thank you so much for the reply

[@stuckinthelazycorneragain4016]

I just want to say that joining a bird lovers community whether that's an online website, Facebook/Instagram, a bird rescue if you find one (we only have one or two here in Sweden!) or even an exotic vet is very helpful. Not only can this further your education and care but they usually provide a bunch of resources to help you. I am in both Facebook bird groups and online bird websites where there are also a bunch of private breeders. That being said always take things with a grain of salt from online communities as they are filled with bad information from uneducated people. I usually stick to the scientific links/books because they interest me more and feels more reliable. I do this especially with my birds + lizard. So much misinformation out there (especially if you're part of American groups...). Sidenote our version of Craigslist is called Blocket. So many mistreated and abandoned birds on there, makes me so sad and angry so I try to not look there too often.

[@stellaandcharlie]

Exactly this! Unfortunately I also see a lot of uneducated people on FB (not so much the Pionus group luckily), but yes, really take everything with a grain of salt, and always do further research rather than taking the groups as only source :)) They are however great for getting an idea of what to do research on. I must mention tho, hamster groups for me personally is a no, I see way to many people saying stupid things, at least for the danish one sadly. We can talk preferences with animals when talking about there favorite treats, but way to many people in the hamster groups are saying stuff like "mine prefers not to burrow" as an excuse to not give them 20 cm bedding but rather 2 cm and also the "mine really loves his wheel" which is way to small. I could go on talking about cage size, climbing/biting the bars, but point is the people in there are too stubborn to admit that they are wrong. It's ok to make mistakes, but whether you choose to correct them or not is in my opinion the difference between a good and a bad pet owner. Sorry that you became a victim to the hamster rant (video on that in the future), but I completely agree with u

[@stuckinthelazycorneragain4016]

@@stellaandcharlie I don't mind at all! I end up in animal rants all the time lol. And I absolutely agree with you, although I am not as educated on the topic of hamster care as I would like to be, but the things you mention are absolutely things that I have noticed. So many people who REFUSE to change their ways because of xyz despite you telling them and backing it up with scientific data is so frustrating. Honestly I wish I could just steal their animals and run away sometimes lol! I haven't watched a lot of her videos yet but I do think that Victoria Raechel (?) seems fairly up to date on hamster care, at least when it comes to enrichment + bedding. It can actually be applied to reptiles too (too little enrichment and too little substrate is very common) and the foraging for food can apply to our birds which I find quite cool! If you have any youtubers you recommend on here I would love to watch them :) Looking forward to your future videos and I hope you're managing your studies + life well 💗

[@stellaandcharlie]

Ey, glad I'm not the only one seeing this. I usually stay out of the discussion, but seeing them calling people who try and educate others for "rude" is unacceptable. Victoria is so awesome, definitely give her a watch! For the birds, I would always say Birdtricks, and a favorite of mine is also Sodapets for all sorts of pets, she is really down to earth and entertaining I think (not to mention the pet care advice). And thank you so much, update will be coming for Christmas

[@stuckinthelazycorneragain4016]

@@stellaandcharlie Great, will watch some more of her content! Birdtricks is awesome, it's a bird owner sin not to follow them in my opinion haha. A duo that is less known that I think are good are BirdNerdSophie and her boyfriend TheParrotTeacher! Both very sweet with good info. I have heard of Sodapets but I haven't seen her content, will check her out thank you!