Fine Feathers~

On By cindy knokeIn Birds, Conservation, MY PHOTOGRAPHS

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It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds~ Aesop
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My love affair with birds started when I was a very young child. I bred and raised parakeets and cockatiels as a kid. I had two egrets, one pigeon, two cockatiels, and one great blue heron find me at picnics or hikes or at home, who I adopted and raised at various points in my life.
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I talk to birds wherever I am and they tend to talk back. You should try it. I highly recommend it.
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Birds just make me happy. Always have and I find more and more now that I am retired, that the things that made me happy as a kid, still make me happy as an adult, and once again now, I have time for them!
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I cannot however adopt a bird until I stop traveling, so I get my bird fix these days by hanging out with the wild Holler birds, and visiting people who rescue birds.
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Check out the birds at Free Flight Exotic Bird Sanctuary. Free flight was started by a veternarian who loved birds. He built the facility next to his veterinary hospital that of course treats birds. Free flight is a non-profit that accepts birds with special problems and houses them in a natural tropical setting, where birds are kept in open air perchs with other flock members as they are in the wild. The results are magical, for the birds and for people who are encouraged to visit and interact with the birds.
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People leave this place in love with birds! You can see it happening right before your eyes, when the bird decides to hop on them.
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The helpful cockatoo got me a better photo by thoughtfully removing this boys hat. I didn’t even have to ask him! Smart chirper.
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This one had strong preferences for certain tunes on this woman’s i pod and danced in approval when she picked the ones he liked.
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Big brother was quite brave and showed his little sister how to handle a big bird!
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The staff thought this eclectus might enjoy calling The Holler home. The only hard part is walking away. We have room for free flight aviaries at The Holler, so someday….. I might be able to breed some birds that are critically endangered in the wild.
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All I know is that I grew up not questioning God. God was there like the birds and the wind~ Jane Godall
Cheers to you from all your feathered friends~

For more info check out: http://www.freeflightbirds.com
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289 thoughts on “Fine Feathers~”

  6. Beautiful colors. We have a lot of mocking birds around. Not quite as colorful as the birds in you pictures, but they know the tune to a lot of different songs. 🙂

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  9. So vibrant and beautiful, each and everyone! Fabulous pictures! I’ve loved birds since I was very, very young. Thank you for these wonderful photos that brightened my day!

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  13. They were all stunning and beautiful, Cindy, but I especially liked the blue one and the green one most. I think, of large birds though, my favorites are the eagles/hawks/falcons. Maybe it’s a “man” thing. Hugs, Cuz. 🙂

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  14. These colors are overwhelming! So beautiful!
    I can’t say, that I have a special love for birds, but I also talk to them. Once I barked at a Raven and he barked back! He spoke in foreign tongues! But this isn’t reserved for birds – I have the strange whim to “talk” to many animals. I moo at cows, baa at sheep and purr at cats. I tweet with tits and grunt at pigs. Strange, but they seem to understand, because they mostly answer 😉
    Not that I think, I talk meaningful…probably I’m well known for my really bad accent and my incoherent jabber. 🙂

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    1. Yes, I do the same. Animals are so much smarter than some people think and of course they communicate with us, they listen to us, watch our actions and our body language. If you are still and observant and speak quietly and imitate their sounds, all animals even wild ones, will be interested. I do all that you do. It works amazingly well.

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  15. Thank you for giving us a tour of these fabulous birds. Birds are beautiful, special, intelligent, and sensitive. Thank you for sharing your passion for birds, Cindy! These photos, Wow!!!

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  16. Birds always look like they’re smiling. They are marvelous creatures. I once worked in an office with an African Grey Wow, she could imitate me perfectly. She was amazing! Alice was her name.

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  18. Beauty photos. I too love birds. I used to keep finches when I was a teen. Nobody around me shares my love of birds though. I too have noticed that I still love the same stuff I did as a kid.

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  19. Wondrous. I especially love the birdie snuggle.<3 I was trying to take a picture of a woodpecker a few days ago. Its buddy decided to "disrupt" my shot by buzzing by my ear tickling me with its wings. Way fun experience. Thanks for sharing a few birdies I don't get to see around here.

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    1. Close encounters with wild birds feels like such a privelege. Woodpeckers are so skittish, this is particularly amazing. If I were you I would hang out more with them and see what happens……

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      1. I walk and try to take photos most days. The geese, gulls, robins just go about their business when I’m around as long as I give them about 2 feet. Chickadees, sparrows, downy woodpeckers don’t like to hold still for photos but love to flit around me. Great blue herons and cormorants and blue jays are truly disgusted when I come any where near their territory. Crows are my spirit birds. I pay close attention to their behavior (as one just flew by my window). Which birds in The Holler let you get close?

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      2. First off right after we moved here a Great Blue Heron adopted us. I was walking by the glass door and saw something for a nano-second that my brain registered as “dinosaur,” ie., “there is a dinosour at your door.” He was sooooo tall and his head looked just like a dinosaur. I was intimidated by his six inch razor beak, but he thought we were pals. He’s the third heron who adopted me. I am super close with the hummingbirds, and the red tails. Interestingly they never bother each other. The song birds come to the feeders but they don’t like me near. The woodpeckers are skittish but do let me get photos. I like the orioles a lot but they tend to be skittish too. The Great Horned Owls are here everynight, and we hoo at each other but I very rarely actually see them, so they are a mystery.
        You sound just like me with your birds! Can you even imagine living without them? I just realized I love talking about our wild birds with someone who loves them too! <3

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  22. OK, I give up, you win. You are *THE* bird photographer. These are just stunning. That (and to add insult to injury) your reds always come out so much better than mine. It must be all your clean living! Or my, well… 🙂

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    1. I think sony deserves the credit for the color and as for you, your poetry is so incredible, along with your artistic sensibility, that you must live very clean as well!!! 😉 🙂

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  25. I share your joy in wonder in our feathered friends. I love walking the Vancouver Seawall and see the wings of flight come over me. We are blessed to have these creatures walk (fly) this earth with us.

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    1. Oh yes we are, and one connects with the spiritual nature of the world when one interacts with them. In Canada you have so many incredibly beautiful wild spaces inhabited by equally beautiful wild creatures. You are indeed blessed!

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  28. Hello Cindy…they call Araras the blue one and the red one….They are originate from Brazil and and unfortunately are endangered,,,,,But we have a lot of projects to protect them….They are lovely.

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    1. Many of the parrot species are seriously endangered in the wild. We are all the losers for it. I am enthralled by the Golden Conure or Pride of Bavaria, which is seriously endangered in the Amazon where it lives. I would love to breed a pair someday. It is so imperative to have laws and projects to protect them. In California sea otters were extinct in local waters when I was a kid. Now they are back in good numbers due to the marine mammal protection act and the efforts of Monterey Bay Aquarium. I have personally seen these efforts work very well. The sea lions and seals are back again too. Fisherman used to drop fish bombs into the water killing everything indiscriminantly. Those days, at least here, are gone.

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    1. It was so great to see them in open air with no netting. They wanted to stay and it was so special to see people be able to interact with them naturally. It was marvelous to see what happened when they did, both for the birds and the people.

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  30. Stunning colors. I don’t know what it is, but birds make me smile. I’m back along the Texas Gulf Coast to get my fill of all my wonderful feathered friends. Now if only this nasty weather would move along – I have some birding to do 🙂

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  32. You find so much to love in life, Cindy, and I admire that. Such bold colors! I particularly like the white and orange bird–fourth photo–the swirling orange through the white, and then the pale blue around the eyes. Just gorgeous!

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    1. Yes, I want to share this, the importance of grabbing life and squeezing all the joy out of it that you can before it is over! So happy you noticed this. The Moluccan or salmon crested cockatoo is the one you noticed. So beautiful, such subtle coloring, I agree!

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  44. These are definitely amongst your best work. The colours are excellent.

    I used to frequent an inn that had an African Grey. He liked to sit on peoples shoulders while they played darts, watching the dart intently as it flew. He also liked to sit in a tree by the car park and announce “you can’t park here” when people alighted from there vehicles.

    Definitely willing companions. 🙂

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  47. I adore birds too! These parrots are so exquisite Cindy! I have owned parakeets and a love bird. In fact I’ve been mulling over painting a bird series. Thank you for sharing. This looks like a wonderful place to visit!

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