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  • 11 minutes ago
Sometimes, being your best self means slowing down, taking a deep breath, and reconnecting with the world around you. And had better way to do that than spending time in a bird sanctuary?

In Your Best Self, Our reporter Sharla Kistow and camera operator Immanuel Nunez took flight with some colourful macaws and parrots at Feathered Friends TT.

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Transcript
00:06being your best self doesn't always mean spending a lot of money sometimes it's
00:10simply about being outdoor enjoying nature and taking time to relax in tonight's your
00:15best self we're going to do exactly that right here at Feather Friends TT
00:39forget the noise of everyday life for a minute in a world where many of us are constantly rushing
00:45from one responsibility to the next making time to slow down can sometimes take a backseat but
00:51self-care doesn't always have to mean a spa day or weekend a getaway sometimes reconnecting with
00:57nature can be the escape we need basically how Feather Friends started was with one bird that
01:02I rescued called Rio and I successfully trained them to free fly free flies when you could take
01:07your parrots or macaw anywhere to a savannah let it fly and it comes back to you and through that
01:13I
01:13got a lot of attention from people and they used to ask me how I did this and many people
01:17wanted
01:18macaws because of that what began as one rescued bird grew into something much bigger founder of
01:26feathered friends TT Johan Edwards says training Rio to free fly sparked curiosity among people who
01:32wanted to know how it was done many people but free flying is about more than simply watching a
01:39parrot take off it involves training trust and understanding the birds behavior with safety
01:45and welfare at the center of the process and once you see the birds in action it's easy to understand
01:51why
01:51people are fascinated I think seeing a macaw and the parrot behind bars compared to seeing them free is
01:59totally different you got to appreciate what they see and seeing them in flight is so fantastic I think
02:03that changed a lot of people perspective on what a parrot or macaw really is those vibrant colors those
02:12enormous wings and the confidence with which they take to the sky make these birds impossible to ignore
02:18but behind every beautiful flight is a responsibility that goes far beyond the putting on a show we
02:24started the tools to keep this project going but they eat they eat about twenty thousand dollars worth in
02:32food a month we don't just feed them sunflower city we feed them a variety of fruits vegetable nuts and
02:46seeds that's where the costs come in if you just throw some sunflower seeds in the cage or on the
02:50ground
02:50there it will be cheap but we give them the best what they are actually meant to eat and just
02:54like
02:55humans birds need proper nutrition to stay healthy their diets must be suited to their species and
03:01individual needs and that that careful attention is part of the commitment involved in caring for them
03:07and speaking of things that make these birds special let's meet a few of the stars at Feathered Friends TT
03:14so this is a green wing or the red and green macaw believe it or not this is the second
03:19largest
03:19macaw species in the entire world that beak can go up to 2,000 psi in power it has the
03:25power to take
03:25your finger right off yes it's stronger than a lion bite force
03:34how do birds keep its color it's color because you can see the red is so vibrant so how healthy
03:41diet and freedom because a bird in a cage is fed a poor diet will be dull in color but
03:48these birds are fed the best of the best
03:52now it's time for you to meet poco she's a blue and yellow or blue and gold macaw this is
04:00yes this
04:01is a native species to Trinidad and Tobago and this is a species that was extinct in the 1960s to
04:071970s
04:08and while these birds are admired for their beauty their story also reminds us why protecting wildlife
04:15in its natural habitat is important a bird's beauty should never be a reason to remove it from the
04:21wild for the sake of keeping it as a pet and if you think the macaws are impressive wait until
04:28you meet Zazu
04:30this beautiful girl this is Zazu she's an African gray parrot and they're known to be the smartest bird
04:35in the entire world this bird has the capability of a five-year-old child Zazu do you want to
04:41go
04:41like a cat for them go like a cat for her so she can hear you she usually goes just
04:47like a cat every
04:48time I ask her to go like a cat but not every bird here arrived in good condition some came
04:54with a
04:54difficult pass and their journey to recovery requires patience and extra care this guy if
05:02you all notice look at his wings right so when we adopted him the previous people clipped his wings
05:07and they even clipped the blood feathers look at it so you can't fly for approximately 10 months until
05:13all these feathers fall out and grow back but he's his name is blaze and he's a military macaw so
05:19he was
05:19a rescue as well all these birds were either rescued or adopted and then this is scarlet and she's a
05:26scarlet macaw and they're two babies so they just love daddy it's all about love for birds like blaze
05:34rehabilitation can take time feather damage poor nutrition and a weekend of flight muscles can all
05:41affect a bird's ability to fly and restoring that ability is not simply a matter of opening a cage door
05:47it takes careful assessment and appropriate care Johanna explains rehabilitation begins with
05:54making sure each bird is healthy enough to move forward so how rehabilitation starts we have a
06:00quarantine period where the birds are put in a cage to make sure they doesn't have any diseases or other
06:05sicknesses right after the quarantine period we got a lot of birds with plucking issues that's when
06:10they pull out their feathers due to stress so the next step will be giving them a healthy balanced diet
06:15allowing the feathers to grow out and once they could fly properly they are put in a flight cage to
06:21experiment and then they release but in some cases the birds wings muscles are atrophied due to
06:28them being in a cage for so long they could never fly again but we try to take birds that
06:34will be able
06:34to fly again because our goal is for them to be free
06:55until next time I am Charlotte Crystal with Johan and our federal friends reminding you to be your best self
07:01so
07:06you