Roxie has questions.

“Hi, how are you?” says the pretty light pink Moluccan cockatoo, the second you step into her lair at Fins & Feathers, where she hangs by her beak and impressive claws on a wire cage.

Next door, in the visiting room, where humans and exotic birds become buddies during Play With the Birds sessions, is sweet little Ponyo, a red-capped conure. She happily accepts head and neck scratches, but ixnay on stroking her wings or belly. Not because she wouldn’t like it, but because it would make her sexually frustrated and could cause hormonal imbalance, aggression and feather plucking, says Fins and Feathers manager Roxann Cooper.

But right now, her bobbing head is a sign of contentment.

“She’s a sweetheart,” Cooper said. “She was surrendered by a family who was moving and the new house they were renting would not allow birds. It broke their hearts.”

Fins and Feathers, a sanctuary and rescue for exotic birds like Roxie, is also the state’s only fish sanctuary, Cooper says. Every creature at the nonprofit in a storefront off North Academy Boulevard has been surrendered.

“People ask us all the time why don’t you release them into the wild? They wouldn’t survive. Some would,” Cooper said. “There’s a small window. But they don’t  know how to go out and forage or get water. We’ve got to take care of them.”

The majority of surrenders, often due to financial concerns, are smaller, more easily adoptable birds, like budgies and cockatiels, but they accept larger birds, too, depending on the available space and the health of the birds, who first have to be cleared by a vet.

“We don’t want these bigger birds to be put in a situation where they’re in yet another home, and they get given up on, and they’re back here, or someone else’s home,” Cooper said.

Aggressive fish will be turned away, but a pair of semi-aggressive fish or small community fish are OK, depending on space in the rescue’s eight fish tanks. Fish are typically surrendered when people move, as transporting them is difficult.

A couple of dozen surrendered birds live here as sanctuary animals, like Jade, a Severe macaw in her mid-20s, who was let go when her owners started a family and she didn’t fit in anymore.

“We adore her,” Cooper said. “We’ve had her for over three years.”

Living across the way from Roxy are two more macaws: Ellie, the second bird in a family who realized they were in over their head with winged creatures, and Ruby, whose owner’s dementia worsened.

Others are available for adoption, like some of the budgies, lineolated (linnies) parakeets, cockatiels, lovebirds and parrotlets, who mix and mingle in a giant cage that sounds like a bird nightclub just past the front door. The chatty Kathys gossip among themselves as they eyeball you with their enormous, expressive eyes, hoping to exert their wiles and find their forever homes.

Listen carefully — one of those nightclub cockatiels can whistle “The Andy Griffith Show” theme song, thanks to repeated listens to a recording.

“The more repetition, the more they’re going to get it,” Cooper said. “Another cockatiel knows the theme song to ‘Star Wars.’ A lot of videos show these cute birds, and people want to get them, but it doesn’t happen overnight.”

It can take months or years, or never. You must be prepared to be disappointed. Though all exotics are capable of talking, they might not feel like it. Some of them, like African greys, can mimic their owners. Currently, a budgie holds the world record for the most words spoken by a bird.

“Although they’re tiny, they’re amazingly smart,” Cooper said. “An African grey, you can hold up a red ball and he might say red ball and make that association. A budgie doesn’t have that intelligence level, but they can learn words and tricks if you are avid about teaching them.”

Gabe Cooper, Roxann’s husband, inadvertently founded the rescue in 2014 when he agreed to take in a friend’s cockatiel. Shortly thereafter, someone else asked him to take in their bird, and his basement menagerie of discarded exotics began to grow. He wasn’t adopting out, just taking in.

In 2022, he opened a storefront and relocated the rescue to its current home a couple of years ago. The shop also offers play dates with birds, which can be booked online; a retail space, stocked with everything a bird owner might need, such as enclosures and tree stands; a grooming salon; and boarding.

“I’ve heard exotic birds are the third most popular pet to get, and the most rehomed,” Cooper said. “It’s sad but also makes sense because we’re still learning about these guys. They’re not domesticated like cats and dogs. They’re the least domesticated.”

Details

Fins & Feathers, 5002 N. Academy Blvd.; finsandfeathers719.com