Staff supervisor and volunteer manager, Stephanie Martin, with Jackman, at our June Yard Sale (image courtesy of the Oceanside Star).

Coombs Parrot Refuge holds sales to raise money for expansion plans.

This past weekend, Dixie and Sasha, along with Kiwi, Kelly and Esther represented the refuge at the Country Club Mall's annual "animal" day.

Dixie and Sasha got right into the spirit of the day with some beautiful face-paints. Kiwi's not too sure:

I wonder if Kelly and Esther would have wanted one too?

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.

Dixie is popular with the Parrots, as you can see. She's one of many volunteers who help keep the refuge going. Currently, she's planning to develop the outdoor grounds into an organic garden that would become part of the World Parrot Refuge "experience." As well it would be a source for some of our bird's nutritional needs. (Seven hundred parrots go through a lot of food - more on that soon).

Dixie is looking for a volunteer master gardener who would like to help her with this project ... any takers out there?

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.