Animal Diaries Archive

Jussari

26 August 2005

As promised, this week is all about 'Jussari', our Green-winged Macaw. Jussari arrived at Australia in mid-July this year. She was roughly 8 months old when she arrived, so she was fully-grown and already eating solid foods. During her first month at the Zoo, the crew carried out specific observations on Jussari to make sure she was fighting fit and healthy before allowing her to mingle in with our resident birds. Throughout this time, all Bird Show staff members would spend as much time as they could with Jussari, not only to bond with her but also to make the transition into this new environment as easy and stress-free as possible.

We quickly discovered what a sweetheart this bird is, and even though she has a HUGE beak, she is so gentle with it. Jussari loves nothing more than sitting on our arms and cuddling in as close as she can. She is flying to us on command within her aviary and it probably won't be too long before we can fly her outside.

We also hope that one day Jussari might fall in love with Picasso, one of our male Green-winged Macaws. Picasso can be a bit of a cranky fellow, so they just get to look at each other from a distance at this stage. Mind you, Jussari is still very young and has a quite a few years before she has to start worrying about boyfriends and babies. For now she just gets to have fun!