Ten-year-old Zeke, of Phoenix, was in his glory at the annual World of Pets Expo at Timonium fairgrounds last month. Strangers walked right up to him and told him what a handsome guy he was.
People thought it was cool he was born on Christmas day 2001 and were surprised to learn he'll probably live another 50 years.
Zeke, a people-friendly parrot with emerald green feathers, was one of the stars at the Baltimore Bird Fanciers club's display at the expo.
He perched on kids' fingers while they giggled and resisted the urge to yank their hands back. He sat on hundreds of shoulders and looked around at the people who flocked to the bird area.
"He's never been a biter, so I've been bringing him to this expo for five or six years and he loves it," said his owner, Marianne Shepperd, of Phoenix, president of the Baltimore Bird Fanciers club. "He got so tired he finally just fell asleep in a cage."
Shepperd answered specific questions about Zeke, a Solomon Island Eclectus, and general ones about bird care. She also talked about the club, which was begun as a canary club in 1940 and meets monthly at the Towson Library.
The club has about 55 members who pay $20 a year in dues, but Shepperd invites people to attend a meeting or two to see what it's all about.
The meetings feature a speaker, plus time for members to talk about everything from the most nutritious bird food on the market to tips for trimming their birds' nails.
Many members bring a bird, but library customers won't see macaws and parrots while they browse though books. The club meets in the ground level meeting room.
Other small birds joined Zeke in front of the club's display area at the expo. Jan Baker, of Severn, who owns 40 birds, brought Avocado, a Quaker parrot. He was a big hit and so was Marshy, a black-capped conure owned by Chris Key, of Lutherville.
"I clean my house with him on my shoulder," said Key, who owns five birds. "Our cockatiel and parrot take walks together and they groom each other. They're so social."
While the small birds were front and center, people had questions about the menagerie of macaws that sat on perches away from the crowd.
Everybody wanted to know why the birds, which have 3-foot wingspans, didn't just fly away. Macaw owner Yvonne Lanting explained that their flight feathers have been clipped.
She learned the hard way what happens when they aren't. A few years ago, she took Fredo, a 5-month-old macaw, out to her backyard in Phoenix.
He took off and immediately became, well, as free as a bird.
Lanting thought he was too young to fly, so she hadn't clipped his wings.
She called the Jacksonville Volunteer Fire Company, and its members tried unsuccessfully to find him in trees with heat-seeking cameras.
Lanting slept outside that night. At dawn, she saw him in a tree. As she spent all day calling him, Fredo flew from tree to tree toward her house until he landed on a low branch.
She climbed the tree, grabbed him, and immediately clipped his wings.
They both visited the fire company the next day and gave the volunteers a cake for their efforts.
Lanting now owns eight birds and has a sun room taken over by huge cages.
"They have physical beauty, they are intelligent, and I like that they still have that wild trait that domesticated animals don't," she said, while Fredo cracked open a walnut and began eating. "Each one has a distinct personality, which keeps things interesting."
Trying to better understand her macaw's personality prompted Terry Riordan, of Towson, to pay to attend a seminar given by "bird whisperer" Jesse James, who traveled to the expo from his home in Canada. James, who has studied parrots in the wild, gave two three-hour seminars at the expo on parrot behavior.
Riordan acquired her parrot, Remington, 18 months ago after his owners got too busy to give the 15-year-old macaw the attention he needed. She took him in to fill her own empty nest after her two children left for college.
"He was intimidating me," said Riordan, who had never owned a bird before. "I want better interaction with him, but want to let him know I'm in charge. The biggest thing I learned at the seminar was that birds need to thrive, not just survive."
She learned how to read his body language and, since the seminar, she gets him out of his cage more often and spends more time with him.
Not everybody in the bird club has a large bird.
Tad Rykojc, of Parkton, raises canaries and enters them in singing competitions. He has about 100 birds now, but it's mating season, so that number will grow.
Rykojc keeps a breed of canary known as American Singer in 70 individual cages in his basement. He also has a walk-in flight cage.
"A lot of people in the club have birds as pets, but my main focus is shows and competition," he said. "I train them to sing on cue, and I breed them for their song."
His birds have won many contests and Rykojc has become a singing judge. This "Avian Idol" judge travels to competitions and listens to some 200 birds sing in a day.
"At the end of the day, I can remember the songs from the top 75 birds," he said. "To me, it's like going to a concert."
The public will get a chance to hear Rykojc's birds and see many different breeds at the Baltimore Bird Fanciers Spring Mart on May 21 at the Tall Cedars of Lebanon Hall on Putty Hill Road. Admission is $5 for those 12 and older. People can buy birds and bird-related merchandise and learn more about owning a bird from club members.
"Our members have so much practical experience and they're more than happy to talk about birds," Shepperd said. "Once you get your first bird, you'll be hooked."