The Birds of Pandemonium

The Birds of Pandemonium

Michele Raffin

Language: English

Pages: 240

ISBN: 1616201363

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


“A remarkable book. Reading about the birds of Pandemonium will make you laugh and cry; it will make you see more clearly the need to take care of our planet; and it will confirm that one person with a passion can make a difference.” —Jeff Corwin, nature conservationist and host of Animal Planet

Each morning at first light, Michele Raffin steps outside into the bewitching bird music that heralds another day at Pandemonium Aviaries. A full symphony that swells from the most vocal of more than 350 avian throats representing more than 40 species. “It knocks me out, every day,” she says.

Pandemonium, the home and bird sanctuary that Raffin shares with some of  the world’s most remarkable birds, is a conservation organization dedicated to saving and breeding birds at the edge of extinction, with the goal of eventually releasing them into the wild. In The Birds of Pandemonium, she lets us into her world--and theirs. Birds fall in love, mourn, rejoice, and sacrifice; they have a sense of humor, invent, plot, and cope. They can teach us volumes about the interrelationships of humans and animals.

Their amazing stories make up the heart of this book. There’s Sweetie, a tiny quail with an outsize personality; the inspiring Oscar, a disabled Lady Gouldian finch who can’t fly but finds a brilliant way to climb to the highest perches of his aviary to roost. The ecstatic reunion of a disabled Victoria crowned pigeon, Wing, and her brother, Coffee, is as wondrous as the silent kinship that develops between Amadeus, a one-legged turaco, and an autistic young visitor.

As we come to know the individual birds, we also come to understand how much is at stake for many of these species. One of the aviary’s greatest success stories is breeding the gorgeous green-naped pheasant pigeon, whose home in the New Guinea rainforest is being decimated. Thanks to efforts at Pandemonium, these birds may not share the same fate as the now-extinct dodo.

The Birds of Pandemonium is about one woman’s crusade to save precious lives, and it offers rare insights into how following a passion can transform not only oneself but also the world.

“A delightful account. Its appeal is ageless, her descriptions riveting, and her devotion to the birds remarkable.” Joanna Burger, author of The Parrot Who Owns Me

“A fascinating and rarely seen glimpse behind the scenes. The joy she gets from her close relationships with these amazing animals and her outsized commitment to them comes through loud and clear in this engaging and joyful book.” —Dominick Dorsa, Curator of Birds, San Francisco Zoo

“Reading this wonderful book, one cannot help but realize how much intelligence and beauty there is throughout the bird world. The birds are Michele Raffin’s teachers, awakening a deep sense of commitment to caring for our collective future . . . This book is about reconnecting with the nature of birds, and the nature of ourselves.”
—Jon Young, author of What the Robin Knows

Green Earth (Science in the Capital Trilogy)

Silviculture in the Tropics (Tropical Forestry)

Green Building Guidelines: Meeting the Demand for Low-Energy, Resource-Efficient Homes

Resilience and the Cultural Landscape: Understanding and Managing Change in Human-Shaped Environments

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bird can be vulnerable—fatally so. Handicapped birds usually don’t survive very long, even in a protected aviary. Either they are harassed by other birds or they succumb to disease because they are usually confined to the floor, which is the dirtiest part of an aviary. I considered transferring him back to an inside cage, but he clearly needed company. I’d just have to get him off the ground. I decided to improvise a low corner perch made from a bamboo gardening stake. When I walked into the.

Wires in order to get another measurement, but before I pulled it out, Oscar had hopped upward to this second perch. By then he was about five inches off the ground. Instead of looking at me, his gaze had swiveled two inches up, to a point in the wire where he could reach another perch—if some slow-witted human placed it there right away. I realized what Oscar had in mind. I had brought several stakes of different diameters and lengths with me, and I ended up using them all. Quickly we developed.

Self-plucking, a result of stress. A nearly naked parrot, with its short legs and large head, looks a bit like E.T. A vet must use all her healing arts and a lot of TLC to bring a bird back to an adoptable state of health. Given Dr. Varner’s experience with abandoned patients, the clinic kept a list of people who had inquired about adopting a bird. “Special needs” birds—those with disabilities or behavioral issues—sometimes took a few weeks to place. On the other hand, a healthy bird was often.

Through a single pheasant tail feather. Our birds are gorgeous. But that’s not why I’ve fallen for them so hard and so deeply. I’ve learned that their behavior is far more fascinating than their plumage. What birds know has upended anything I thought I understood about the natural world and our place in it. Birds mourn, they sacrifice, they engage in wicked tricks. They name their babies. They invent, they plot, they cope, and, as you’ll see, some of them know devilishly well how to manipulate.

Ours is—to handle the greater administrative and public awareness tasks that a functional nonprofit demands. Finally, though, I took the plunge. Pandemonium Aviaries would become a legally designated not-for-profit. That meant shifting our grassroots start-up to an exacting business model that met government standards for operations and accounting. It seemed daunting, but I reminded myself that my graduate degree in business and my work experience counted for plenty. Hadn’t I guided Silicon.

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