Mickaboo and the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

Members of the San Francisco wild parrot flock end up in the Mickaboo system for many reasons:

• They have an unknown neurological disease that makes them too dizzy to perch or fly. They get ill, are unable to keep up with the flock or to eat, and they fall to the ground.

• They suffer injuries from predators or in other ways.

• Fledglings crash and break a wing, a leg or their spine.

If they're lucky, instead of being found by a predator looking for an easy meal, they're found by someone who brings them to San Francisco Animal Care and Control or calls Mickaboo.  SFACC contacts Mickaboo about all the intakes of ill or injured wild parrots.

When the parrots come to Mickaboo, we immediately arrange for necessary veterinary care.  Because treatment of the neurological illness and breaks is extensive, we often spend more than $1,000 on their initial care.  Once they are stable enough to live in a foster home, we place them with volunteers who hand feed the babies, socialize the adults, and continue administering prescribed medication.

The Betsy and Sam Reeves Medical Fund for the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill

At the end of 2006, Mickaboo received a grant from the Reveas Foundation that enabled us to set up The Betsy and Sam Reeves Medical Fund for the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill.  Since we received that grant, it has funded the treatment of:

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The birds are unable to return to the wild flock - either because they have injuries that prevent them from being able to survive in the wild, or because they been gone so long that the flock wouldn't recognize them as a member, and sometimes because they came to us as fledglings and never learned the skills necessary to survive. So Mickaboo works to find them good homes where they can live long lives with good food, plenty of toys, and lots of love.

Wild Parrots Helped by Mickaboo

The Neurological Illness

The birds of the flock who come in with the neurological issues rarely survive long in our care.  By the time they come to us, they are not only sick but are often dehydrated and starving too.  When one of these birds dies, despite all the best medical care we can provide, a necropsy is done.  Each of these exams has indicated traces in the brain that show that parasitic larvae have made it into the brain, causing irrepairable damage.  Often the damage is severe, other times it can be overcome by the bird.  Paco is our best example of the latter, although Gillespie is doing much better now too.  For ongoing information about our research into this disease, please read our entries on this subject at the blog we maintain about MIckaboo's interaction with the flock, here:  http://wild-parrots.livejournal.com/tag/neurological+illness

How You Can Help

• Go through Mickaboo's approval process and adopt or foster one of the flock members.  To find out more information, check the "How to Adopt" page on this website (http://www.mickaboo.org/adoption/index.html)

• Donate to Mickaboo to help us pay for the hospital care these birds all require upon coming into the Mickaboo system.  For more information on ways to donate, please see our "How You Can Help" page here:  http://www.mickaboo.org/help.html
• Shop at Mickaboo's Cafepress store: http://www.cafepress.com/mickaboo; The "Mickaboo and the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill" section has tshirts and other items with a collage of many of the birds we've helped as well as their stories on the back of many of the shirts.

To contact the conure coordinator, send an email to:  coordinator-Conure@mickaboo.org