Bird Lovers’ Paradise
Papago Park, Istria
Well, this was a find – a bird park!
On a hot day such as we had, Papago Park in Črvar, just up the road from Poreč, was the perfect place to visit. The beautiful setting in natural woodland is shady and cool. The dedicated park owners apparently spent seven years preparing and landscaping the grounds. Their hard work has certainly paid off. Apart from keeping visitors cool, it is an ideal environment for the feathered inhabitants too. I have to admit to being a tad jealous!
My first surprise though, was a pair of emus at the beginning of the trail through the park. If looks could kill…
To be honest, for me, they were almost as scary looking as the dinosaurs we’d encountered down the road a few days earlier. Thankfully, the Dynamic Duo didn’t hang out with the emus for too long and soon ducked into the woods where the majority of the bird cages are located.
We were all quite taken aback by the welcome the first pair of cockatoos gave us. They immediately flew over to the front of their cage and took a great interest in us. They appeared to get as much a kick out of interacting with the Oldies as the Oldies did in watching their antics. You’d wonder who was observing who!
I know that I’m blessed with good looks, but some of these birds could enter a beauty pageant. My vote would go to the rainbow lorikeets. What stunners!
This male golden pheasant was almost a bit too bling for my liking however, although the Oldies were very much taken by him. What a show-off!
Rosy-faced lovebirds sounds like something I’d call the Oldies after leaving them out in the sun for too long, but believe it or not, this is a real variety of lovebird. And they’re certainly better looking than the Oldies. Which wouldn’t be hard, mind you.
There are also several other varieties of lovebirds in the park, each lovelier than the other. These tiny, sweet, colourful birds cuddled up together are the picture of cuteness.
Most of the birds weren’t the least bit disturbed by our arrival, even this pair of galahs whose lunch we interrupted. They happily came over to say hello and obligingly posed for the camera, although I caught them starting to nod off a couple of times. I could sympathise. The Oldies quite often have that effect on me too.
Now this was the real McCoy! Or should I say the real macaw. What huge, powerful birds. And what a beak! The male scarlet macaw gave us a great demonstration of strength by dangling his whole body by the beak from a branch. I reckon he could be a contender for the title of the Arnold Schwarzenegger of the parrot world.
As we came to the end of the trail, the Wingless Wonders were invited to enter a cage with a sulphur-crested cockatoo called Whitey, a blue-and-yellow macaw and a harlequin macaw. Whitey, a right showman altogether, did everything he could to hog centre stage – clicking his tongue, dancing, following the Oldies around… And whenever he felt His Lordship wasn’t giving him his full attention, he chewed his ear about it. Literally.
One worrying aspect about our visit was how the Oldies had become more and more besotted with the birds as they went along. His Lordship, who had long ago vowed never to get another pet, didn’t raise the slightest objection when Herself started talking about how nice it would be to have a cockatoo like Whitey. For goodness sake! Have they forgotten that they are already the proud owners of a beautiful, intelligent and affectionate white bird?
They need reminding.
