Anything But Flighty: Birds Are Serious Business for Boros of American Bird Co.

An article published last week in the journal Nature Reviews Neuroscience reported that ongoing studies of birds’ brains have led to the new recommendation that the parts of the brain be renamed. This, according to the article, is in recognition of overwhelming evidence that birds have far greater cognitive ability than previously thought.

Presently, the names of areas of bird brains reflect a long held belief that most of a bird’s brain is used in instinctive response, but the new studies have shown that birds in fact use the same proportion of their brains for complex thinking as humans.

While the information comes as a surprise for many researchers, it is hardly something new for Pat Boros, owner of Falls Church's American Bird Company, a store selling exotic birds on the Lee Highway (S. Washington St.) for nearly 20 years.

Combined with another 10 years in Louisiana when Boros bred and sold birds, she has compiled nearly 30 years of experience with everything from everything from tiny canaries to the majestic macaws. Throughout it all, she has learned there is much more to any bird than meets the eye.

Boros didn’t plan on selling birds. While living in Louisiana she never had an interest in them, until her husband, who built stands for parrots, brought home a parrot for her. That one parrot eventually turned into several, and Boros started to receive requests from people for baby birds. Before she knew it she was breeding a variety of exotic birds for wholesale throughout the state.

Boros’ entrance into the business coincided with the rise of the pet bird industry. When she started in the business, owning a bird had become something of a fad. Birds were caught and shipped in from all over the world. The prices were low and everyone wanted a parrot of their own. They could be found everywhere and sold in all kinds of stores. Boros can remember seeing parrots for sale at Sears in tiny cages for half of what they cost now.

But while the capture and importation of birds was financially successful, the fallout from the trade was devastating. The combination of trapping and deforestation caused bird populations throughout the world to plummet, driving many species to or near extinction.

Additionally the process of importing birds, the majority to the United States, was harmful to the birds. According to a 1992 Defenders of Wildlife Report, in 1989 over 50% of birds imported to the United States died before arriving in stores.

While the imported birds were less expensive, they were not socialized and unprepared for human interaction. People often bought these birds only to discover after taking them home that they were terrible pets, biting, screaming and chewing furniture. Since the larger of these birds can live well beyond 60 years, people often found themselves caring for a pet they couldn’t enjoy.

“There are a lot of parrots still living in basements today that were imported and bought at Sears,” Boros said.

But it still made more sense financially to sell imported birds than it did to breed them. Exotic birds are often unpredictable and inconsistent in their breeding, requiring calm in order to reproduce. The expenditure was greater than the prices allowed, so few participated in breeding.

When the Wild Bird Conservation Act was passed in 1992 everything changed. It suddenly became illegal to import endangered birds, placing restrictions on many of the most popular species. With the change in laws, suddenly breeding birds was the only way to get them.

In 1987 Boros moved to Falls Church where she opened up her store on Lee Highway, and set up breeding facilities on a 60 acre lot in Fredericksburg. She was unwilling to continue selling birds wholesale where they would end up in crowded pet stores, poorly cared for, with little hope for a good home.

Instead, she wanted to open her own retail store, where she could have direct contact with the customers and know where her birds are going. At the store she sells 25 different breeds of exotic birds that she has selected through experience as being the best breeds for owning as pets. She refuses to sell any others because of the problems people often have with them.

But while a poorly chosen bird can create problems, Boros said that they can also be a blessing. Since owning her first parrot, Boros has discovered that properly raised birds can be some of the best pets. With some species of parrot said to be as intelligent as a five year old child, she said they are great for people that want a friend as well as a pet.

Exotic birds, especially the medium and large parrots, also have a longer life expectancy, meaning that many birds can live with an owner for their entire lives.

The other aspect to parrots is their ability to communicate. The African Grey Parrot, one of the most popular birds, is the most talented conversationalist. While it was previously believed that the words parrots say is just them mimicking, new evidence has shown that the birds are actually communicating.

Boros said her own parrot would tell her to take him for a walk whenever he needed it and short conversations she would have with it.

But the intelligence and need for social contact can also make birds very difficult to own when not raised properly, something Boros is all too familiar with. At her breeding facilities in Fredericksburg, many of the birds are ones that were abandoned for a variety of reasons.

Exotic birds, especially parrots, require a great deal of mental stimulation and personal care. If neglected or improperly raised, they can become aggressive very quickly and even self-destructive to the point of self mutilation.

Also, because of their long life expectancy, they sometimes live long after the initial interest from the owner fades, and sometimes even beyond the lifetime of the original owner. When this happens the birds are often passed on from one owner to the next, leading to even worse treatment and sometimes even abuse.

“Parrots are just like other pets, except since they live a lot longer, you have to make sure you get it right,” Boros said.

Knowing this, Boros makes sure she knows the people who she sells to. There has even been the rare occasion when she has been unwilling to sell to a customer because she didn’t think they could raise a bird. She described one man who wanted to buy a bird for his son in order to teach him how to be responsible in feeding and taking care of him.

When she asked him what would happen if the child wasn’t responsible enough, he said that the bird would die and that would teach a lesson as well. Boros didn’t agree and wouldn’t sell, despite his protests.

While exotic birds can be quite expensive, with some of the larger parrots and macaws costing well over $1,000, Boros said that the price of the birds doesn’t even cover the cost of upkeep for the breeding facilities.

The only money she makes comes from the cages, toys, and seed that she sells. For that reason, it is more important for her to keep up a relationship with the people she sells to, rather than just the sales of the birds themselves. So it matters to her that the birds fare well with their new owners.

Still, Boros said, the ultimate responsibility lies with the owner for raising a loving bird that is a treasure not a chore.

For those owners that have taken the time and trouble, Boros has seen them gain a lifelong friend. She mentioned one parrot Coco, one of the first birds she sold when she moved into Falls Church. After nearly 20 years, the owners still come into the store to buy toys, seed and to share stories about Coco, who is still going strong.

“It’s an emotional commitment,” she said. “It gets to be a very close relationship.”