I can always count on the fans of facebook to remind me that I haven’t updated anyone lately on the life of our birds in the circus. So here’s your update blog post on life on the road with our birds while touring with the circus!

The most exciting news we have is that Jinx joined the large part of the show (for those of you that don’t know, he was originally just in the preshow). We got a new act in the show which is a quick change act and Dave was incorporated into it, because of that, we needed some sort of transition from Dave to the quick change. So we decided to try a trick involving silks that makes Jinx appear. So it’s a quick bit in the show, but it’s great and he appears and flies to me on the ring curb. He loves this new trick and it’s so much fun having him in the big portion of the show.

We’ve also been catching on more to the load in schedule that everyone goes by with our tour. So we have figured out when we can use the arena before anything belonging to the show is loaded in. We fly the birds for fun a few days before shows start so they can play, get some exercise and just hang out.

Some of the cast and crew has been catching onto us doing this and they come around to watch or get their pictures with the birds in a non-show environment. It’s fun for the people, and the birds so we don’t mind! Above is one of the clowns in the show, Stevie, hanging out with some of the flock.

We haven’t been able to freefly our birds outside because the weather has been too cold, but that doesn’t keep us from freeflying them indoors as much as we can! We are also still traveling around with their outdoor aviary, which only gets set up when the weather is nice so lately it hasn’t been set up.

We are currently in North Carolina and the weather is gorgeous, so the aviary will be getting set up today so the birds can come out and enjoy the weather! I think they are looking forward to nicer climates and nicer weather so they can spend more time outside like they’re used to.

Other than flying them at every empty arena ahead of time, and randomly incorporating Jinx into the show, there’s not too much new news to report.

The preshow is a constant changing of things for the birds and it’s actually more of a constant challenge than we initially expected. Not because of the birds, but because of the people. I think we are going to have the most tolerant parrots in the world after this tour is over, just because of the preshow. My macaw, Jinx, has had his tail pulled and his face grabbed by kids and still hasn’t bitten a single person (knock on wood)… and whether he can tell the difference between a child whom he stays still with, and an adult, whom he will push their hand away, I’m not sure. But he hasn’t crossed any line to scare anyone which I’m very pleased about.

To keep it that way, I just have to be very in tune with what he is trying to tell me through his body language. I’ve also learned how to talk to people better so as to let the parents tell their children how to act with the animals, rather than me telling them. Somehow, it comes off better from the parent and the parent takes more responsibility for their kid when they are told the limitations of the animal.

When Jinx got his tail pulled, he was sitting on a parent’s arm and the parent moved him over their child. There wasn’t anything I could do to stop it but I’ve learned to tell all the parents now not to let their kids “grab” Jinx. This means any and all body parts, and the parents do a much better job controlling their kids urges to grab at Jinx than I could do pulling him away from the many surrounding risks of it. And because the parents are now watching their kids’ body language like I am watching Jinx’s, it makes it easier on everyone to avoid any problems between people and animal.

Here is our latest video from yesterday flying in the newest arena!

It’s definitely a great learning experience we’re still happy to be having and we feel is SO greatly enriching for our parrots.

To come visit us and our flock on tour, please click here for our tour schedule and get in touch with us to let us know you’re coming so you can meet the flock up close and personally!