Article content

Aviary little thing they do is magic at the Greyhaven Exotic Bird Sanctuary.

Inside the nondescript building on East 8th Avenue in Vancouver is a collection of birds rescued from the World Parrot Refuge in Coombs on Vancouver Island 16 months ago.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Rescued parrots: Loud, proud and still looking for homes at which to roost Back to video

Of the 586 rescued birds, about 170 are still looking for homes.

Photo by Arlen Redekop / PNG

“It’s a sad story, but it’s a happy story because they’ve improved so rapidly,” Greyhaven’s Jan Robson said. “If you saw where they came from, this ain’t sad.”

The birds were found in filthy, rat-infested cages, many of them sick and malnourished, many of them injured from fights or self-abuse.

One lovebird Robson adopted is emblematic of the shape most of the birds were in, she said: A damaged beak, two missing toes, a drooping wing, a tendency under stress to peck herself to the point of bleeding.

“And today there are so many happy stories,” Robson said.

The one, for instance, about Ruby, a green-winged Macaw, and Dexter, a severe Macaw, a duo that had been living in what’s called the intake area when they were rescued from the World Parrot Refuge.