Pancho is being held for ransom!

Chocoyo with no name

You may recall that in a crazy twist of events we found our lost chocoyo, Pancho, enjoying life beachfront in Awas, Nicaragua (read about it: We found Pancho).

Originally, the plan was that we would find another chocoyo and make a trade, but we weren't able to find one for sale. We mentioned to Pancho's new family that we would be willing to pay some money for him in exchange - so we found out what the going price was to buy chocoyos. Generally, a baby bird would cost about 150-200 cordobas ($8.00 US) which we felt was a fair price to pay to get Pancho back. Well, in discussion with the family that is looking after him we were told that the man that found Pancho wants $20.00 US in order to get him back!

We couldn't believe it! We told the family that we thought that was too much money to ask for and that we weren't prepared to pay that much money to get him back - we would just have to visit him at their place.

Another twist in the story came tonight - a friend of ours was able to get a chocoyo for us. This poor little guy has arrived tired and cranky. We were warned that he bites - so I guess Pancho isn't unique in that way!
We hope to make an exchange for Pancho later this week. In the meantime, we'll have to try and sweeten this little guy up!

We found Pancho!

Pancho enjoying the beach in Awas

You will never believe it - but Pancho has been found! As you may recall from a previous posting (Pancho has flown the coop!) our pet chocoyo decided to escape from his "birdsitters" while we were in El Salvador. When we returned I called for him for a couple of days thinking that if he was nearby that he would return to us. When he didn't come back we hoped that he had found a new family (bird or human) and that he was happy but secretly I thought that he had died.

Last week when I was visiting a family in Awas I could hear some "chirping" from inside their house and asked them if they had a chocoyo. Miss Ildelia told me that her nephew had found the bird about a month ago in the rice field out by the road to Raitipura (right about the time that Pancho went missing). I asked if I could see him and told her the sad story about loosing Pancho and how we miss him. The room that the bird was in was quite dark and it was hard to get a look at him. My friend and I had a good laugh because of the way he was acting. We kept saying - Oh, it has to be a boy - he acts just like Pancho!

This morning I went back out to visit Miss Ildelia and Mr Orlando and this time the bird was outside on the wooden railing. As soon as I saw him I knew - it was Pancho! This bird had the same plucked chest and the same bald spot on the head! After a little coaxing he was back on my finger - happy as could be.

So - now we have a little problem. His new family really like him. They run a small tourist business and they like to show Pancho off to the tourists. Also, Pancho now has waterfront living - will he want to come home?Pat and I have decided that we will have to find a replacement for him so that we can bring Pancho back home.

Debbie with Pancho - Awas, Nicaragua

Mr Orlando and Miss Ildelia with Pancho - Awas, Nicaragua

Pancho has flown the coop!

Pancho enjoying the back yard

Pancho, that ever independent, little bird has decided to spread his wings and make his own nest in the trees of Pearl Lagoon.

It's our fault I guess - we've never kept him locked in his cage because we hated to see him frantically trying to get out. He was always happiest when he could maneuver his way inside to outside his cage and back again. Also, we would take him outside on a weekly basis so that we could clean his cage - we encouraged him to enjoy some time outdoors.

Up until this point we've only had one scary situation where Pancho decided to make a break for it - that was in early August. Pat had taken him outside to clean his cage and instead of hopping onto the grass as he usually did, he decided to fly off into the neighbours yard - 3 houses away. We had to go out for a couple of hours and so we couldn't chase him, but we figured he would have just kept flying away from us if we did. When Pat returned a couple of hours later
he checked in the back yard to see if Pancho had returned - no Pancho! I returned about an hour later and still no bird. I went into the back and called him but there was no answer.

After lunch I just had to go into the yard and try calling him again. Sure enough, I would call his name and there would be a little "chirp". Pat came out back and called "chickenhead" and all I could hear was this excited - "chirp, chirp, chirp". Pancho was close by. Pat put on his boots (it had been raining and we figured the neighbours yard would be muddy) while I kept calling Pancho. Just as Pat entered our neighbours back yard and slid into a small swamp Pancho flew out of some bushes towards me. He landed about 10 feet away on the other side of the fence. As I kept calling and Pancho answered, Pat got closer to the clump of bushes that Pancho had landed in. Finally, Pat located Pancho and put his finger out for the bird to climb onto. How do you think Pancho responded? - he bit Pat on the finger! After a second attempt Pat was able to get the bird to climb onto his finger and he brought him to me. Pancho was all shivery but seemed happy to be back home. We decided that even though it is common here for people to clip their birds wings we wouldn't do that to Pancho - even though we now knew he was able to fly.

So, what happened this time? Since we were out of town for a few weeks we had a couple of "bird sitters" lined up. Our friend Jean has been in the house a number of times and she was able to take care of Pancho for a couple of weeks. He seemed quite happy with the arrangement and went out of his way to stay up late and talk with her (until 10 pm from what we hear). Since Jean had to leave Pearl Lagoon too, we made arrangements for a few new friends to look after Pancho until we returned. Unfortunately, Pancho didn't know them and had a bit of a tantrum with lots of "squawking" and seemed quite agitated at the change in arrangements. As they were doing some laundry Pancho took advantage of an open door and flew away and hasn't come back.

Since we came back yesterday, we have been out calling him hoping that if he is near that he will come back. But, to no avail - not even a "chirp". We will miss the little guy and hope that he has found a mate or a new family to take care of him. We've enjoyed getting to know him and his quirky personality.

Pancho enjoying the view in the front yard

Where's Pancho?

It's amazing how well camouflaged Pancho is - he really blends in when you put him into the bushes. Can you find him hiding in the bushes in this picture?

Pancho hiding in the bushes

 Maybe this picture will help you to locate him:

Pancho enjoying some outdoor time

Did you find him? See if you were right - check out the picture below:

Can you see Pancho now?

How is Pancho?

Pancho eating a mango (note his "featherhawk"

Quite often we are asked, "How is Pancho?" As, many of you are aware our little chocoyo, Pancho, suffered an injury in May wherein he lost part of his scalp. If you haven't read the story you can read it under, Living in a community where there is no vet.

At the time that it happened we weren't sure whether Pancho would be able survive with his injury - after all his skull was exposed. We soon realized that Pancho was a determined little bird and even an injury like he had wasn't going to keep him down. Within a very short time he was back to his chirpy old self and even for a while sported a "featherhawk" as his feathers were a little wild around his injury.

After a recent birdbath we noticed that there seemed to be some "skin" growing on his head and we wondered if it would eventually grow some feathers.

As the days go by his wound is becoming less apparent and although his head doesn't look as "smooth" as it was before the accident it is looking better and better all the time. Pancho has discovered a new love in life - mangoes! It's very likely that he always liked mangoes but he wouldn't eat the little pieces that we would put in his cage. No! he was holding out for the real thing - he has to have a whole mango to himself!

Pancho's head wound

Now, if we can get him to stop plucking out his chest feathers!

Pancho enjoying some time outside

Who left the school gate open?

Horse leaving the classroom

If you have been following our Facebook page you will know that we have taken pictures of horses that we have found around town.  There is at least one if not two herds of these horses that roam around town. You will find them almost anywhere and anytime. From what I understand, it is illegal for these horses to be roaming free in this manner and the owners (if they can be identified) can be fined and made to tie the horse up on their property or to send them to the family farm.

Today, a friend and I were walking past the public school and were admiring a dog that had been tied up in the yard. Suddenly, my companion started laughing and said that the horses were in one of the classrooms - "Too bad I don't have my camera", she said.

Ahh, but I had mine..... can you count how many are inside?

When they knew they had been busted they made a quick getaway!

So, all in all, there were 5 horses that had been holed up in the classroom. Fortunately, they didn't leave any of the students "presents" to find on Monday morning. Later in the afternoon this same herd were happily chomping the grass on someone's  front lawn waiting to be able to sneak back into the schoolyard for the night.

If

Pancho, our chocoyo, getting ready for bed.

We've had a number of people express how "intelligent" they think Pancho is. Well, of course, we think he's pretty smart too - but we might be a bit biased. Tonight, we set out to capture Pancho's bedtime routine. He always follows the same pattern. He jumps down from his daytime cage, walks across the floor to the bookcase where his "nighty-night" cage is, climbs the towel up to the cage and then slips under the covers and climbs onto his perch - all tucked in for the night.

Tonight should have been no exception - however, it turns out that our little bird is a little camera shy and he didn't like the "paparazzi" following him. Take a look at what happened earlier in the taping of this movie:

Living in a community where there is no vet.

Pancho's injured head

Almost all my life I've had pets. I can think of only a few times when there wasn't some cat or dog to step over and to take care of.  When we moved to Nicaragua we didn't have a pet to care for until Pancho came into our lives - keeping birds was a totally foreign idea to me. Who knew that birds had such personalities! He has quite grown on us and we are trying to take care of him the best we can.

It was very upsetting for us to come home and find out that he had experienced some kind of accident - he has lost part of his scalp along with the feathers. It is a total mystery how this came about and he isn't able to tell us what happened. If we were back in Canada, or even still living in León we would have rushed him to the vet to be taken care of - or at least to be advised what we should do for him. However, here in Pearl Lagoon, there are no vets to check him out. Instead, we have had to rely on advice from friends who have had experience in looking after all kinds of different situations with animals. Most people here "doctor" their own animals to the best of their ability.

A local dog with what looks like mange

In Pearl Lagoon you will notice many dogs, cats, horses as well as other livestock roaming around the streets. It is very obvious which ones are well cared for as well as those that aren't. Many animals are left to fend for themselves in the food department and so you see many undernourished animals. Also, many of the dogs down by the waterfront seem to have mange and it's best not to pet them. We've been told that there are some vets that visit Pearl Lagoon about once a year to care for the animals and to give shots etc. - obviously not often enough for this community. We have seen one dog that some time in the past broke it's leg and the bone was never set. It's uncomfortable to watch it walk around with the bone wobbling about in the skin. However, the pain seems to be long gone and the dog trots along unconcerned.

Having a pet in Pearl Lagoon can be a real challenge.  However, it is still as enjoyable as when we lived in Canada. As for Pancho and his "bald" head - we continue to watch him closely. He seems to have recovered from whatever happened to him, although we doubt he will ever have feathers on his head again.

Our neighbours dogs that are well looked after

Puppy - Pearl Lagoon

Pig - Pearl Lagoon

Feeding a hungry Chocoyo in Pearl Lagoon

We thought that Pancho, our little rescue Chocoyo, was a picky eater. We have tried to feed him with all kinds of different fruits and vegetables and can only get him to eat banana and maybe a little watermelon. He turns his beak up at mango - a fruit we were assured that Chocoyos love. He also won't touch sunflower seeds except to play with them. When we moved away from León I couldn't find his favorite birdseed at the grocery store to stock-up on and now I am almost out....

It appears that we were worried for no reason - Pancho is telling US what he likes to eat.......

Sharing Pat's breakfast oatmeal

Licking off the chocolate topping on a cookie

Pancho eating yummy coconut rice

Pancho eating pasta with tomato sauce

One happy bird!

Parrots - a Popular Pet in Nicaragua

Pancho

When we first arrived in Nicaragua we couldn't help but notice how many households had birds as pets. From almost every house you could hear the happy chirping of birds and almost every time we went to the market we saw little babies being sold. Also, many owners take their birds to work with them - at least a lot of the street vendors do. You will see the birds either in a small cage or loose near the owner. Without doubt the most popular pet parrot in León seems to be the small green parrot also known as a Chocoyo.

We decided that even though we had absolutely no experience with birds that we would like to see what all the fuss was about. Our first step was to buy a cage. There are many sizes and styles available at both the Central and Estacion markets.  We chose a cage that was on the larger side and had legs (as opposed to the ones you hang). Once we had a good cage we set about looking for a baby Chocoyo. One afternoon we went to all the markets looking for a baby but with no success. We were told that we would have to wait a few months until some were available.

Then, one afternoon a friend told us that a Chocoyo had "flown" into their yard and it needed a new home - did we want it? Although we were hoping to have a baby bird we decided we would give this poor little guy a chance. We decided to call him Pancho and he really is a sorry sight to see. We don't know how long he was away from his previous owners but the little guy was so stressed that he has pulled out all of his chest feathers. We're hoping that he hasn't developed a permanent habit of doing so because he looks like a plucked chicken (at least on his chest).

Pancho our pet Chocoyo

It doesn't cost very much to get set up to have a bird. This large cage only cost us 280 cordobas or approximately $11.50 CDN. Also, a bag of bird seed from La Union was only 50.5 cordobas or $2.07 CDN. Bananas - his favorite treat - are 1 cordoba each.