To Jadie,

Some best friends have hair, 

some best friends have fur,

mine just happens to have feathers.

"Dr. Jo"

Jo Gonsalves, Ed.D

Hello!

I am  Jadie Bird Johnson,

and this is my story.

I am a scaly-headed parrot.  My scientific name is Pionus maximiliana, but you can just call me Jadie.

I am a small parrot, measuring only a foot long from my beak to the tip of my tail.

My feathers are green, blue, and red.  My beak is yellow.   I have shiny black eyes with white rings around them.  

          There are many kinds of Pionus, but we all have

         red tail feathers and white rings around our eyes.

          Pionus parrots live in the forests, savannahs,  

          and mountains of Central and South America.

Bronze-winged

White-capped

Blue-headed

I don't live in Central or South America, because I'm adopted. I live with Mom and Grandpa in this brown house in the city of Sacramento in California, U.S.A.

My cage is right over here.

I like to look out the window.

This is Mom.                She has curly grey feathers on top of her head. I really like 

to chew on them. 

Mom will give me 

a delicious almond when I dance for her.  

She also gives me rides on her shoulder.

That's Grandpy.        His job is to open my cage every morning.  

He has short feathers on top of his head, 

just like a baby bird.  

Mom feeds him, too. He doesn't have to dance for his snacks, though.

Mom tries to teach me to talk, but I am still learning.  I can say "peekaboo" and "pretty girl" but they sound more like "peeboo" and "purtgurrl." 

I am much better at whistling.  I have a special whistle that I use to call Mom.  She says it sounds like a smoke detector that needs a battery. She always comes when I whistle, and sometimes she'll say, "Yes, your majesty?"

I like to meet the other Jadies around the house.  Mom says I'm cuter than they are.  I believe her.

This is my cage. I love

to climb all around it.

My cage is like a jungle gym. Mom gives me lots of toys to play with, but my favorite thing to do is to tear up paper.

Sometimes I make a really BIG mess, and Mom says, "Naughty girl, Jadie!" 

One day, I thought I would try to fly around the house, so I spread my wings and off I went...

SMACK!

I crashed right into the sky! 

Ouch!  That hurt! 

I felt dizzy!

Grandpy let me climb on the end of his cane and carried me all the way back to my cage.  

Let's get on with the exciting part of my story.

It was a pretty Spring day, and Mom let me go outside with her.  I usually sit very nicely on her shoulder,  but this time, a big dog ran out of his house and jumped up against our back fence.  He made a very scary noise, and I flew away!

I had never flown this far without crashing into the sky.  Mom yelled, "Jadie, come back!" but I didn't know how to stop, or turn, or slow down. 

I just kept flying, and flying, and flying, until...

 I landed on a tall tree.  

I used my claws and beak

to hang on.  I could hear Mom calling me from far away, but I couldn't see her.  

I was too scared to fly again, so I decided to just sit up there and wait for Mom to fly up to save me.