Wendy, Ann, Val, Grant, and a few feathered advocates for the Refuge recently participated in a Professional Development day for regional high school teachers. It was a great opportunity to educate the educators regarding the plight of parrots, both in the wild and in captivity.

Wendy with Peaches

Ann with the PED Day Display

Thanks to the hard work of a few enterprising volunteers, our cockatoos are able to spend the last days of summer enjoying the sun in their very own outdoor flight! Not only did Larry and Anne Neil; and Doug, Val, and Erin Jones; raise the money for the flight by holding their own garage sale at Doug and Val's home (with the support of Quality Foods), but Larry and Doug worked many long days to construct the outdoor flight. Many thanks to these incredible people who love the birds so dearly, and to all the people who helped them to make this first flight a reality.

Doug and Peaches add the finishing touches

Larry and Rusty hard at work under the blazing sun!

Dale lends a hand with the outdoor flight

Perches in outdoor flight under construction

Sasha gives an interview as feathered supporters look on

Wendy helps shy birds take their first outdoor venture

Evo has the first taste of freedom

Happy to be in the sun!

Pictures from the successful garage sale!

Val and Doug, whose generosity made the garage sale possible

Larry helps set up goods for sale

Erin and Barney work the tent at the garage sale

Garage sale

If you are in the Nanaimo area this Saturday, May 10, how about heading out to the Country Club Mall for the 2nd Annual SPCA Pet Show? Sasha and Dixie will be there representing the Refuge, and will be chaperoned by some feathered ambassadors. Memberships and other goodies will be on sale. Sasha and Dixie will be looking for hard-working volunteers to join our team. They will also be providing information about the virtual adoption program, and other facets of the Refuge operation.

The SPCA asked Esther if he would make the draw for their raffle. Esther agreed graciously, and is getting his beak polished for the occasion.

Likewise, if you are in Parksville on Saturday, May 10, our founder, Wendy Huntbatch, will be operating a display at the Parksville SPCA open house, and will be available to answer your questions.

Volunteers Anne Neil and Margaret Trotter recently represented the World Parrot Refuge at the Brant Wildlife Festival

This year's woodcarver's competition featured some of our parrots. They did quite well, judging by the ribbons!

The carvings sprang from a presentation Wendy Huntbach gave to the Vancouver Island Woodcarver's Club.

If your group would be interested in Wendy's talk, aided by some feathered friends of course, please contact us for details.

Refuge volunteer, Alex, presents two more of his hand-crafted bird toys to WPR founder, Wendy Huntbatch:

Please click on the thumbnails below to learn how you can help some special birds have a home for life through our "Virtual Adoption" program!

Birds who are now partly sponsored, thank you!

Birds who are now fully sponsored, thank you!

"The World Parrot Refuge is a true sanctuary where parrots live out their lives in a loving, spacious and happy environment under the guidance of extraordinarily caring people. The many visitors destined to pass through the refuge will come to understand that parrots are not toys or trophies, but beings with needs and emotions as real as our own."

– Rosemary Low (author of more than 30 books on parrots)

"This is, in a word, a great place and these miraculous creatures deserve no less, but few places can deliver it this well. It is, indeed, 'world class'."

– Stewart Metz (author and Director of the Indonesian Parrot Project), after his visit at the Grand Opening of the Refuge on August 13, 2005.