Jeanen Lindsey talking about finding the right home for her recued birds with Rockey, Charlie and Ben. Photo: Benji Allen.
Galah parrots Rockey and Ella are the nosey neighbours who roam central Cambridge, often drawing attention for their exotic pink and grey colouration and their freedom from a cage.
The current party of parrots, who live on Hamilton Rd, make day trips to friends, have lunch on Grey St, call in on the workers at the Cambridge transfer station and even suffer well-intentioned abductions to as far away as Matangi and Te Awamutu.
Director of Waipa Home Maintenance and surrogate mother to exotic birds, Jeanen Lindsey, says it’s time more people understood that exotic birds need to be free, so long as ‘they’re back in time for dinner.’
Lindsey specialises in training ‘free-flyers’, birds that are capable of living freely in populated areas with their human ‘forever home’ companions, but she also rehomes and rehabilitates flightless exotic birds and the odd stray animal the SPCA won’t take.
Charlie and Ben are common cockatoos who make up for their poor aviation prowess with riveting conversations. Lindsey thinks it’s almost time for these two to leave the nest. She thinks she may have found the right place for Charlie, but Ben still has a bit of growing up to do.
“Cambridge is great. The birds learn about risks like cars and dogs, and the community are mostly supportive. We’ve never had a bird stolen,” says Lindsey.
She has rehomed more than 100 exotic birds since she began her non-profit rehoming work over a decade ago.
“It was really hard sometimes, finding the right homes for the birds, dealing with unprepared people, and working with highly neglected cases.”
“Birds are meant to be free,” Lindsey said as Rockey, Charlie and Ben decided to strike up a three-part harmony warning of the dog who wanted pats.
Like her birds, Lindsey has a rebellious ‘free-flyer’ attitude. When asked what legal parameters she works under she said “I don’t care, I’ll keep looking after these birds until I can’t anymore.”
She conceded it would be a different story in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland because they have specific bylaws governing exoctic birds who are free-flying.
Lindsey’s Facebook page, Cockatoo Rescue, was taken down as a result of posting misinformation contrary to Meta’s guidelines. She’s faced the consequences of staying true to her beliefs and has struggled to get her message out since supporting the Parliament Protests of 2022.
She began a GoFundMe campaign to aid with the work, it had little success but Lindsey isn’t deterred from keeping up her role as surrogate mother to exotic birds she believes need her love and care.
“I’ll never stop,” she said.
Lindsey and partner Brendon Knight would like to stop renting and have land of their own soon. Lindsey wants to build a large free-flyer cage so the transition from a caged bird to a trained free-flyer bird is easier.
- Benji Allen is a Wintec journalism student
