By Mitchell Kirk | Daily Reporter
GREENFIELD — It’s not uncommon for animals to be at the Hancock County Fairgrounds, but its most recent visitors were a little more exotic than usual.
The Sarah Burke 4-H Exhibit Hall was filled with the chirps, whistles and squawks of parrots, cockatiels and other feathered friends during a fair put on by the Central Indiana Cage Bird Club on Sunday. The event provided an opportunity for longtime bird owners to stock up on supplies, novices to get their first bird and learn from experts, or even members of the community to get out on a nice day and enjoy an activity with family and friends.
Birds, toys, cages, food, bird-themed apparel and other goods filled vendors’ tables throughout the building.
Theresia Ray, fair coordinator and former president of the Central Indiana Cage Bird Club, said the organization holds four fairs a year. The Rushville resident added the events offer products that can be hard to find at traditional pet stores and raise money for research and rescue efforts regarding exotic birds. With lifespans that can reach more than 80 years, certain breeds often outlive their owners, making rescue programs particularly important, she said.
Bongo, Ray’s 23-year-old African grey parrot who knows more than 500 words, accompanied her to the fair.
“He can imitate just about everything he hears,” she said.
Ray enjoys the camaraderie among the club’s members.
“It’s nice to be able to talk to somebody who gets it,” she said. “You’re not a ‘weird bird person.’”
On Sunday she manned a table for her line of bird toys, Polly’s Follys.
“I have an excellent toy tester in the house,” she said.
Not far from Ray’s setup was one for The Bird House and More based in Shelbyville, which offers a full line of bird supplies, including food, seed and toys. Gary Floyd and his wife, who owns the business with him, hand-make many of the toys designed to keep birds’ beaks busy. He pointed to one made from wood and rope along with cardboard, which birds love to tear apart; and kangaroo leather, which is far more durable than cattle leather.
“We’re bird owners ourselves, so we know what the birds like and we build those toys to their needs,” he said.
Oscar, Floyd’s Moluccan cockatoo, stood on a perch nearby in his light pink plumage. The 23-year-old should live another six decades.
The Bird House and More also breeds exotic birds and offers a rescue and re-homing program.
Floyd has been working with exotic birds since he was 12 with his father, a breeder who traveled all over the country in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
He enjoys training them and helping people who run into issues with their birds. He recalled helping a woman whose macaw parrot detested men. After about 30 minutes, he had the bird snuggling up against him and not long after, the bird was getting along with the woman’s husband.
Floyd rejects the notion that he’s a “bird whisperer,” however.
“I’ve just been doing it for a long time,” he said. “You just got to put that love into them. The more you love on them, the better.”
Greenfield resident Debra Anderson and her children, Allie and Alex, met Oscar during their visit to the fair.
“I think it’s pretty neat that they were able to bring this to Greenfield,” she said. “Usually with the fair stuff, it’s just farm animals, so this is really cool and exotic.”
Bonnie Vance, who owns Shack in the Back Exotic Birds in Junction City, Kentucky, with her husband, brought cockatiels and conures they breed along with cages, play stands and toys for sale.
One of her customers was a young boy getting his first bird. She taught him how to take care of the animal and encouraged him to talk to it often and ensure it has plenty of toys to play with when he’s not able to play with it.
“I set him up with a cage, I gave him some toys in it, showed him the food and water, and worked with him to make sure he was handling it properly and what he wanted to do to make sure he and the bird bonded,” Vance said.
Having exotic birds for pets, she said, is addictive.
“You bond with the birds and their personalities,” she said as she sold a toy to Kim McGraw, a New Castle resident and Central Indiana Cage Bird Club board member who attended the fair with her son, Brenden.
The toy was for their green-cheeked conure and featured bells, his favorite thing to play with.
“He will sit there and ring them all day,” Brenden McGraw said.
Kim McGraw got the bird, who bonded strongly with her son.
“My bird likes him better than me now,” she said with a laugh.
She also won a toy in one of the fair’s raffle drawings — a soft and fuzzy tunnel to hang from the bars in their conure’s cage that he’ll be able to nestle in.
“Green-cheekeds, in the wild, burrow into trees, and that’s where they sleep,” she said. “It’s a comfort, safety thing.”
Phil Cloncs, a Speedway-based bird breeder, sold everything he brought to the fair less than three hours into the six-hour event. He’s been working with birds for more than a half-century and has about 80 to 100 in fly cages in a building on his property. Cloncs specializes in smaller exotic birds, like cockatiels and conures.
He enjoys their company and the accomplishment of taking care of them.
“I absolutely love the birds,” he said. “I have a lot of them that fly out on me and they like me and everything. It’s just having something that you’ve done yourself.”
